The google, it does nothing!

January 8, 2011 10:08 AM

I can't locate a Wittgenstein quote, something like: words have the meaning that we give them, and give them meaning with explanations, not definitions.

Googling hasn't helped at all; somewhere out there must know where I read this recently. I want to cite it in a paper. Thanks in advance.

posted by creasy boy to Religion & Philosophy (3 answers total)

Wittgenstein is known for having said "Meaning is use" which is sort of like what you're talking about but his actual quote is "For a large class of cases — though not for all — in which we employ the word ‘meaning’ it can be defined thus: the meaning of a word is its use in the language." I'm not sure if that's close enough for what you're looking for [i.e. if you know a lot about Wittgenstein and need the specific quote you're outlining or if you need him talking about the general idea]. More about that in this Stanford site about him. The quote is from Philosophical Investigations.
posted by jessamyn at 10:12 AM on January 8, 2011 [1 favorite]

"The meaning of a word is what is explained by the explanation of the meaning." (also from Philosophical Investigations)
posted by apple scruff at 10:17 AM on January 8, 2011

Response by poster: Thank you but no, I know something about Wittgenstein and am looking for a very specific quote. Either I hallucinated it or it exists in roughly the form I wrote above. I guess I should have said that. The point relates more to semantic openness and not just to meaning-as-use. applescruff is closer but also not quite on the button.
posted by creasy boy at 12:41 PM on January 8, 2011