Philosophical analysis – Modern concept of philosophy

The Conception of Meaning (Ludwig Wittgenstein):

In his first book Tractatus Logico Philosophicus, Wittgenstein developed his conception of meaning through the logical analysis of language and experience.

According to Wittgenstein philosophy is nothing but, analysis and discussion of language. The language is nothing but a symbolic expression of the facts of experience. The language is comprised of two types of expressions or statements: the simple and compound.

The entire fabric of language is analyzable in compound statements which, in turn, are analyzable in simple statements. Thus, language is nothing but, “the totality of propositions.

“A simple or atomic proposition is a mirror or reflection of the reality. According simple or atomic proposition is a mirror or reflection of the reality. According to Wittgenstein, “A proposition is a picture of reality.

“Since, language represents the facts of experience, the relationship between facts and the linguistic expressions thereof must indeed be very close. It is the fact which makes a proposition true or false. If the proposition is correspondent to the facts it is true otherwise false. Wittgenstein is here reviving the correspondence theory of truth, according to which a proposition is true if and only, if it asserts what the facts indeed are.

For example, if we say that a ripe Dusseri mango is sweet, what we are asserting is according to the nature of Dusseri that is our statement of Dusseri mango corresponds to the fact. On the contrary, if we say “King of Nepal is a Moslem” our statement is untrue because King of Nepal happens to be a Hindu.

Thus, we learn that a compound proposition can be so translated or analyzed as to give us simple proposition and that each simple proposition is a symbolic expression for a single fact. Since, a simple proposition stands for some simple fact; the truth of the proposition can be determined by comparing the two.

A momentous and crucial fact which follows from this analysis is that each linguistic expression is, directly or indirectly, overtly or covertly, connected with some or the other fact of experience

Therefore, if there is any linguistic expression which masquerades as a proposition but, on analysis fails to show any connection with any fact of experience then, that linguistic expression is not a proposition but, a pseudo- proposition.

A pseudo proposition is not merely not connected with any fact but, it is impossible to think that it can be so connected. This is the basic difference between pseudo-propositions and false propositions.

This difference can be best explained by examples. Let us have two following propositions: (1) “Aspirin causes headache” arid (2) “God exists”. Now (1) is false because, aspirin is a pain remover but, aspirin and headache are facts whereas, (2) is neither true nor false or meaningless because, there is and cannot be a fact which will answer to or correspond with our idea of god. Thus, a pseudo proposition is neither true nor false because the criterion of truth has no relevance to it.

The precise and scientific explanation of Wittgenstein’s conception of the meaning is in the following words. “The sense of a proposition is the method of its verification.

That is, a proposition is a proposition if and only if some empirical facts are to be found which may confirm or disconfirm the proposition in question. Those propositions which can neither be confirmed nor disconfirmed by the empirical evidence are meaningless. It is a mistake to call these propositions.