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Single Idea 4147

[filed under theme 19. Language / F. Communication / 4. Private Language ]

Full Idea

If someone says he only knows what pain is from his own case, suppose everyone had a box with something in it (a 'beetle'). We can't see into other boxes, so we say what a beetle is by looking in our own box. The contents of each box could be different.

Gist of Idea

If we only named pain by our own case, it would be like naming beetles by looking in a private box

Source

Ludwig Wittgenstein (Philosophical Investigations [1952], §293)

Book Ref

Wittgenstein,Ludwig: 'Philosophical Investigations', ed/tr. Anscombe,E. [Blackwell 1972], p.100

A Reaction

But pain is private. Children must guess the meaning of parts of the language that refer to inner experience, like 'sad' or 'hopeful'. Body language brings our private concepts together, but error seems possible.

The 21 ideas with the same theme [possibility of a solitary person having language]:

15991 Since words are just conventional, we can represent our own ideas with any words we please [Locke]
19585 Every person has his own language [Novalis]
8478 Dewey argued long before Wittgenstein that there could not seriously be a private language [Dewey, by Orenstein]
6093 The names in a logically perfect language would be private, and could not be shared [Russell]
4136 To imagine a language means to imagine a form of life [Wittgenstein]
6166 Was Wittgenstein's problem between individual and community, or between occasions for an individual? [Rowlands on Wittgenstein]
7875 If a brilliant child invented a name for a private sensation, it couldn't communicate it [Wittgenstein]
4146 We cannot doublecheck mental images for correctness (or confirm news with many copies of the paper) [Wittgenstein]
4147 If we only named pain by our own case, it would be like naming beetles by looking in a private box [Wittgenstein]
5659 If the reference is private, that is incompatible with the sense being public [Wittgenstein, by Scruton]
4152 Getting from perceptions to words cannot be a private matter; the rules need an institution of use [Wittgenstein]
23497 Solipsism is correct, but can only be shown, not said, by the limits of my personal language [Wittgenstein]
5817 Language is more like a cooperative steamship than an individual hammer [Putnam]
6279 A private language could work with reference and beliefs, and wouldn't need meaning [Putnam]
3970 Thought is only fully developed if we communicate with others [Davidson]
8870 Content of thought is established through communication, so knowledge needs other minds [Davidson]
11075 The sceptical rule-following paradox is the basis of the private language argument [Kripke, by Hanna]
8254 Forming concepts by abstraction from the Given is private definition, which the Private Lang. Arg. attacks [McDowell]
2484 The theory of the content of thought as 'Mentalese' explains why the Private Language Argument doesn't work [Fodor]
3516 The Private Language argument only means people may misjudge their experiences [Papineau]
3882 Wittgenstein makes it impossible to build foundations from something that is totally private [Scruton]