Back to the Rough Ground: Wittgenstein and Ordinary Language

Abstract

Abstract This essay is a contribution to the work of Wittgenstein exegesis, a task Peter Hacker has so insightfully pursued. My topic is ordinary language. While it goes without saying that the later Wittgenstein ‘s remarks are often directed at our day-to-day speech, several points of his relation to it need clarification. Thus my aim: to discuss a number of aspects of the connection between Wittgenstein ‘s later philosophy and the talk of Everyman. I begin with a nod toward some comments by Russell concerning philosophical elucidation. He wondered why he was being asked to care about niceties of ordinary usage. One can sympathize. Indeed, philosophical appeals to the speech habits of hoi polloi might well arouse disinterest if not distaste. There are weighty issues to be settled, and to concern ourselves with what ordinary people say in ordinary situations seems quite beside the point. I remember my own feeling as a graduate student during the heyday of ordinary language philosophy, that surely there must be more to this enterprise than wondering about our mundane employment of words.