Wittgenstein on Private Language, Sensation and Perception

By Michael Hymers

Wittgenstein's critique of private language in the Philosophical Investigations does not attempt to refute the possibility of a private sensation-language, let alone in any one argument, as has often been thought. Nor does it aim to establish that language is intrinsically social. Instead, PI 243-315 presents a series of arguments, suggestions, questions, examples and thought-experiments whose purpose is to undermine the temptation to think of sensations and perceptual experiences as private objects occupying a private phenomenal space. These themes are clear developments of Wittgenstein's earlier critique of sense-datum theories (1929-1936) and his insight that naming is more complex than he had assumed in the Tractatus.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1108931170
• ISBN13: 9781108931175
• Release Date: October 2025
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Length: 86 Pages
• Weight: 0.28 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 6.0" x 9.0"