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Private Language Argument
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Skepticism Towards Private Language
The argument invites skepticism towards the concept of a private language by emphasizing the unstable foundation of personal experiences as the basis for linguistic meaning.
Communal Language and Meaning
The argument implies that language inherently requires a community for meanings to be established, challenged by the idea of individual semantic authority.
Private Language Argument Origin
The argument was formulated by Ludwig Wittgenstein, asserting that a language understandable by only a single individual is incoherent due to the problems of self-reference.
Rule-Following Consideration
The argument suggests that following rules in a private language is conceptually flawed as there is no distinction between right and wrong uses without public criteria.
Concept of Pain in Private Language
An individual's expression of pain cannot form the basis of a private language, since pain-behavior has meaning due to its occurrence within a public context.
Externalism vs. Internalism
The Private Language Argument leans towards externalism, wherein meaning and mental content are dependent on external factors, and challenges internalism, where meaning is determined within the mind.
Criterion of Correctness
Wittgenstein argues that a private language lacks an external criterion of correctness, making it impossible to distinguish between true communication and mere noises.
Public Checkability
A genuine language requires that statements can be publicly checked for correctness, thereby invalidating the possibility of a truly private language.
Memory and Private Language
Wittgenstein proposed that memory alone cannot serve as a verification mechanism for a private language, as there is no independent criterion for its correctness.
Private Language and Sensations
Philosophical challenge is that private language is based on private sensations, but naming them is not possible without public referents, undermining its coherence.
Private Language and Other Minds
The argument also highlights the problem of other minds, suggesting that a private language cannot be understood even in principle by others, undermining its communicability.
Grammar and Private Language
Grammar, which is vital for language, is established publicly, creating norms. Personal grammar without such communal norms would be incomprehensible and lead to no shared understanding.
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