# 
Philosophical Investigations

By [Akutogava](https://paragraph.com/@akutogava) · 2023-05-30

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**_Philosophical Investigations_** ([German](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_language): _Philosophische Untersuchungen_) is a work by the philosopher [Ludwig Wittgenstein](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Wittgenstein), published posthumously in 1953.

_Philosophical Investigations_ is divided into two parts, consisting of what Wittgenstein calls, in the preface, _Bemerkungen_, translated by Anscombe as "remarks".[\[1\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophical_Investigations#cite_note-1)

A survey among American university and college teachers ranked the _Investigations_ as the most important book of [20th-century philosophy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20th-century_philosophy).[\[2\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophical_Investigations#cite_note-2)

In its preface, Wittgenstein says that _Philosophical Investigations_ can be understood "only by contrast with and against the background of my old way of thinking". That "old way of thinking" is to be found in the only book Wittgenstein published in his lifetime, the [_Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tractatus_Logico-Philosophicus). Many of the ideas developed in the _Tractatus_ are criticised in the _Investigations_, while other ideas are further developed.

The [_Blue and Brown Books_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_and_Brown_Books), a set of notes dictated to his class at Cambridge in 1933–1934, contains the seeds of Wittgenstein's later thoughts on language and is widely read as a turning point in his philosophy of language.

[Norman Malcolm](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Malcolm) credits [Piero Sraffa](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piero_Sraffa) with breaking the hold on him of the notion that a proposition must literally be a picture of reality by means of a rude gesture on Sraffa's part, followed by Sraffa's question, "What is the logical form of _that_?"[\[3\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophical_Investigations#cite_note-Malcolm-3) In the Introduction to the book written in 1945 Wittgenstein said Sraffa "for many years unceasingly practiced on my thoughts. I am indebted to this stimulus for the most consequential ideas in this book.[\[4\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophical_Investigations#cite_note-4)

Themes
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### Language-games

Wittgenstein develops this discussion of games into the key notion of a [_language-game_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language-game). For Wittgenstein, his use of the term language-game "is meant to bring into prominence the fact that the speaking of language is part of an activity, or of a life-form."[\[5\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophical_Investigations#cite_note-:1-5) A central feature of language-games is that language is used in context and cannot be understood outside of that context. Wittgenstein lists the following as examples of language-games: “Giving orders, and obeying them”; “\[d\]escribing the appearance of an object, or giving its measurements”; “\[c\]onstructing an object from a description (a drawing)”; “\[r\]eporting an event”; “\[s\]peculating about an event."[\[5\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophical_Investigations#cite_note-:1-5) The famous example is the meaning of the word "game". We speak of various kinds of games: board games, betting games, sports, and "war games". These are all different uses of the word "games". Wittgenstein also gives the example of "Water!", which can be used as an exclamation, an order, a request, or an answer to a question. The meaning of the word depends on the language-game in which it is used. Another way Wittgenstein makes the point is that the word "water" has no meaning apart from its use within a language-game. One might use the word as an order to have someone else bring you a glass of water. But it can also be used to warn someone that the water has been poisoned. One might even use the word as a code by members of a secret society.

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*Originally published on [Akutogava](https://paragraph.com/@akutogava/philosophical-investigations)*