Wittgenstein and Absolute Truth
(61%) 6th July 1993 ON CERTAINTY Is anything of significance lost in giving up the idea of absolute truth?Throughout 'On Certainty', Wittgenstein's aim is to remove thefalse pictures created by traditional philosophers, by uncoveringthe true way that our language functions in our lives, andshowing the irreconcilable difference between this and the waythat philosophers use language in different situations. WhileWittgenstein criticises the theories of traditional philosophers,he himself does not come up with an alternative theory, as it isthe theorising of philosophers that he sees as creating much ofAt the base of all of Wittgenstein's writing in 'On Certainty'is the notion of language games. According to Wittgenstein, allthat we say only gets any meaning when seen in context. That is,looking just at what we actually say will tell you nothing, butyou must look at the way that what you say fits in with thelanguage game employed. Wittgenstein uses the term 'languagegame' to describe the way that we use our language in aparticular circumstance for a certain purpose. For instance, the
We can therefore see that what we hold to be true only holdssubjective and not absolute truth, as it is only true within thelanguage game that we employ in our culture at that particulartime. While we may not in abandoning absolute truthbe able to look to the beliefs that are common to all of us tounite us, it is evident that what we do have in common is ourhumanness. He now asks us toimagine the case of a king who has been brought up in the beliefthat the world was created at his birth. The error in our usual concept of love is theexclusivity that we give it. If I spend much of a seminar discussing myown concerns or ideas, then that is at the expense of othermembers of the group, and could be seen in the same way to beshowing that I find my own (subjective) viewpoint to be morevalid than the concerns of the rest of the group. For the error bred in the bone of eachwoman and each man craves what it cannot have, not universal lovebut to be loved alone. , 1959)Marx, Karl & Engels,Friedrich The Communist Manifesto (London: 1847)Auden, W. So far then, giving up the notion of absolute truth does notnecessarily lose anything of significance. Moore, Philosophical Papers Page 33). However, oneimportant part of Wittgenstein's work, connected with therejection of absolute truth, is the removal of a 'guide toaction', which stems from his lack of theory. While you hold thatabsolute truths exist, you can clearly have a moral guide onwhich to base your action.
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