PHILOSOPHY - Ludwig Wittgenstein

Words cannot describe the excitement I felt when I saw this on my subscribe box. Then again, they really can't.

"He inherited a lot of money" has to be the understatement of the century. He inherited the largest fortune in Austria and of the largest in Europe. He was rich beyond anyone's wildest dreams.

"The limits of my language are the limits of my world"

1:10 people communicate ideas through pictures 4:04 language games 5:22 language as tool for self-understanding

I think this missed Wittgenstein's central point that the meaning of a word is its use in language.  If I say "pick up the red apple," you know what I mean because the language is functional.  If I say "what is the soul?" then we have philosophical problem on our hands.  Wittgenstein believed that such questions were nonsense. Our approach to understanding the physical world consists in asking questions about the nature of phenomenon and we encounter.  A questions like, what is red?, can be answered somewhat satisfactorily by giving an account of radiation, wavelengths, the way our eyes function and so forth.  We seem to be able to give an explanation.  When we apply similar questions to more abstract objects or concepts or to more fundamental phenomenon we find that no good explanation can be given.  We have reached the limits of language.  Yet philosophers try to reach further by creating grand theoretical frameworks aimed at somehow accessing reality as it really is. The misapplication of questions was something Wittgenstein called the theoretical attitude.  When asking such a question we want the answer to give some new insight into the object.  The best we can do is to give an account of how the word is used in the language, an ostensive definition.  We want something deeper but you simply cannot go beneath language. This view either does away with Platonism (the assertion that abstract objects and concepts like numbers and goodness exist independently of the human mind) or shows that language is limited in its ability to describe the platonic realm. Therefore Wittgenstein's philosophy dissolves much of philosophy by declaring the questions nonsense.

Witty G my nigga for life.

This channel feels like a catalouge where you can have some preinformation about philosophers and their interests, so you can pick one and start reading them !

Wittgenstein would have loved today’s memes culture... which basically confirms his thoughts... a meme succinctly expresses what words cannot... he was ahead of his time..a man of the digital age.....

Favorite Wittgenstein Quotations: If a lion could speak, I would not be able to understand him. A dog can expect his master, but he cannot expect him on Tuesday. All problems of philosophy are problems of language. Whereof one cannot speak, thereof must one remain silent.

1:47 - 2:04 I just love how we're given a visual representation of a concept that describes how the very exchange of language and ideas is processed as internal visual imagery of the mind.

Thank you so much for popularizing and democratizing philosophy. Alain, we are a big fan of you in Bangladesh. We sincerely express our gratitude to you for making these type quality materials available to us. As a result of YouTube community, knowledge is no longer a privilege of the wealthy few. Let the wisdom of philosophy be there for all to share....spread even to the poorest hut of Bangladesh. -Love from Khulna, Bangladesh.

I've actually thought about these exact ideas a lot myself without knowing if there was a philosopher I could look to for more. This is really interesting.

Since the video explains some basic threads of his personal life, it really should be mentioned he served for years as an officer in World War I, winning valor awards, being imprisoned - and writing much of Tractatus in the process. It is unlikely that such an experience did not affect his character and ideas at least as much as the other personal details covered.

My continued efforts to build my vocabulary are for this exact reason: I’m always trying to find better ways and words to express myself, so I can show others what I truly mean, in attempts to build deeper and stronger connections.

Don't have the ability to Express my ideas and thoughts properly to others is my biggest problem that can't be solved, and when I thought I'm the only person who have that problem this video came out of nowhere to me. Wittgenstein is my bro👊

It's 2021. I'm a philosopher major and have just read thru many lecture slides, hardly understanding what Wittgenstein meant in his early and then late work. The "about face" he took on his stance in language. Watching this video, helped me understand it. Thank you so much.

You explained Wittgenstein's philosophy very well. Thank you.

This is a phenomenal channel. Spending (not wasting) hours catching up on things learned in the past and learning things I never bothered or was offered to learn. Keep great lessons coming.

This is not a very good summary of the Tractatus. A quote from Wittgenstein's Introduction to the Tractatus (a title which Wittgenstein himself did not like and did not use when later speaking of the work) will give you more information than this video: "The book deals with the problems of philosophy and shows, as I believe, that the method of formulating these problems rests on the misunderstanding of the logic of our language. Its whole meaning could be summed up somewhat as follows: What can be said at all can be said clearly; and whereof one cannot speak thereof one must be silent." He is most definitely not promoting a theory of communication or a theory of any sort. You will not find the word "theory" anywhere in the work except when talking about other philosopher's theories or when he is explicitly stating that philosophy and logic are not theories: "Philosophy is not a theory but an activity." (4.112) "Logic is not a theory but a reflexion of the world." (6.13) Understanding the fact that he is not proposing a theory and is, in fact, chiefly trying to show why proposing a theory does not make sense in philosophy and logic is fundamental to understanding the Tractatus. The book is about understanding the logic of language. He is trying to show that the way that philosophers formulate traditional philosophical problems is confused because they misunderstand the logic of language. He wanted the book to help philosophers come to an understanding of the logic of language. And he believed at the time of the writing of the Tractatus that if one comes to understand the logic of language, all of the major problems of philosophy are dissolved. I appreciate the efforts of those who want to make Wittgenstein accessible to a larger population. And to the extent these efforts lead one to actually pick up a text and study it for oneself it is a worthy project. But I offer this summary of what Wittgenstein said to a group of students in an Introduction to Philosophy Course: "I can't teach you anything that I know without your having to work just as hard as I did to learn it."

I think this is why meme's are becoming a great way of communication. You are amazing at the game of communication. Please keep it up.