Reading guide
1 reading
← Reading guides
Language and meaning
Reading guide · 1 reading
A word can name a tool, request it or help report where it is. This guide follows one change in Wittgenstein’s philosophical attention, from representation toward the variety of uses.
Read together
Understanding an exchange
Read the early and later passages through the workshop case. The surrounding module offers other ways of examining meaning and experience.
Guided course · Module 11 · Lesson 63
Does language always work like a picture?
Wittgenstein’s early account treats a sentence as a picture of a situation; his later work looks at words in use, where requests, reports and corrections do different jobs. The lesson connects meaning with use without concluding that words can mean anything.