If you are intending to make a serious reading of Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations without a teacher, and want a guide to help you get started, you might prefer a free side by side commentary on the first 88 passages of this book.  You can reach this commentary by clicking here.

If you want a more introductory and entertaining overview of Wittgenstein's philosophy, you might consider purchasing the DVD, When Wittgenstein and Lyotard Talked with Jack and Jill available at Amazon or by calling 1-800-431-1579.  It is also available through most bookstores with an ISBN number of 978-0-9773838-1-8.

Wittgenstein is a key thinker in postmodern therapy theory today.  He was the profound influence behind the writings of:  Harry Goolishian and Harlene Anderson, Kenneth Gergen, John Shotter, Fred Newman, Lois Holtzman, Steve de Shazer, and many others, including my own writing. 

This page is meant to give you a first acquaintance with the work that all the above theorists believe is his most important work for therapists: 

The original text of this work was in German, and what we are reading is an English translation by G. E. M. Anscombe, a student of Wittgenstein's.  Traditionally, the text has been published in English with the German version facing the English version on each page.  Today there are paperback versions of the text in English without the simultaneous presentation in German.  There has been, of course, much more recent publication dates than the one I referencing above, but I am using this text to create the present page. 

The Philosophical Investigations is typically referred to by students of Wittgenstein simply as "the Investigations."  You should know that this was Wittgenstein's second major work.  His first major work was called "The Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus" which is itself typically referred to simply as "the Tractatus."   For the most part, you can think of "early Wittgenstein" as being reflected in the Tractatus while "later Wittgenstein" is reflected in the Investigations.  There are, however, many recent Wittgenstein texts made available through compilations of Wittgenstein's notes being published posthumously.  These can generally be thought of as "later Wittgenstein." 

The Investigations was based on a criticism of certain aspects of the Tractatus.  Although some people claim that the two works are not very different, I feel that claim fails to recognize the enormity of the difference.  Although there is a significant thread of connection between the reasoning in Tractatus and that in the Investigations, in my opinion at least, the two texts have enormously different implications for the therapy.  Early Wittgenstein would take us into a tedious examination of the truth-value of word maps created in language.  Later Wittgenstein takes us into a much more pragmatic and action-oriented view of language than does early Wittgenstein - but he does not forget this map because it is living, breathing, part of all of our lives.  Still, later Wittgenstein has a new concern and appreciation for the inherent rhetoric of language that we do not get in the Tractatus.  Later Wittgenstein gives us tools for understanding the way our conversations construct our psychological reality, capture our imagination, confuse us and dispel our confusions. 

The Investigations, itself, consists of two books, with the first book being much longer than the second.  The text in each book consists of numbered aphorisms, that is,  short numbered passages.  These aphorisms are often cross-referenced and they will be referred to as numbers within parenthesis.  On this page, this references are linked. 

The text below is the first three aphorisms in the Investigations  plus my commentary.

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This concept of meaning, Wittgensein says, has its place in helping us understand primitive language, language more primitive than English, German, French, etc.  It is also the case, Wittgenstein explains, that there are regions of our developed language in which language works just as Augustine portrays it.

We will often refer to this as language game (2), using the number of the aphorism to index the number of the language game.    I picture a work supervisor at the front of a site with a worker responding to the supervisor's commands.  There are piles of pillars, slabs and beams.  The supervisor calls out "Slab!" and the worker brings a slab and sets it at the supervisor's feet.  Pretty simple. 

Wittgnstein puts forth language-game (2) in order to try to envision a language in which Augustine's picture of language works. 

Does Augustine's picture of language work here?  How did the worker learn this language by teachers pointing and naming the slabs and beams as Augustine suggested?  An exercise like Augustine suggests might explain how the worker knew which object to fetch, but how did learn to fetch?  As opposed, say, to taking them behind the fence?  Crushing them? Or tapping them with a stone?

It is as if someone were to say: "A game consists in moving objects about on a surface according to certain rules..." --and we replied: You seem to be thinking of board games, but there are others.  You can make your definition correct by expressly restricting it to those games. 

As Wittgenstein says in (1), we tend to sweep under the rug all the uses of language that do not fit the Augustinian picture that seems to capture our imagination. 

Although language-game (2) restricts the vocabulary to words that seem to refer to objects, the Augustinian picture cannot explain everything that happens. 
 

And it is this Augustinian picture of language that has us mesmerized.  He will try to show us how this picture works to distract us from the working of language that is before our eyes. 

He will also give us some hint as to how to manage and reduce our confusion.  He says