The picture theory of language, also known as the picture theory of meaning, is a theory of linguistic reference and meaning articulated by Ludwig Wittgenstein in the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. Wittgenstein suggested that a meaningful proposition pictured a state of affairs or atomic fact.[1][2] Wittgenstein compared the concept of logical pictures (German: Bilder) with spatial pictures.[3] The picture theory of language is considered a correspondence theory of truth.[4]
Wittgenstein claims there is an unbridgeable gap between what can be expressed in language and what can only be expressed in non-verbal ways. The picture theory of meaning states that statements are meaningful if, and only if, they can be defined or pictured in the real world.
Wittgenstein's later investigations laid out in the First Part of Philosophical Investigations refuted and replaced his earlier picture-based theory with a use theory of meaning. However, the second psychology-focused Part of Philosophical Investigations employs the concept as a metaphor for human psychology.[5]
^Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889—1951) (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
^Keyt, D. (1964). "Wittgenstein's Picture Theory of Language". The Philosophical Review. 73 (4): 493. doi:10.2307/2183303. JSTOR 2183303.
^V. Hope (April 1969). "The Picture Theory of Meaning in the Tractatus as a Development of Moore's and Russell's Theories of Judgment". Philosophy. 44 (168): 140–148. doi:10.1017/s0031819100024335. JSTOR 3750136.
^Edna Daitz (April 1953). "The Picture Theory of Meaning". Mind. 62 (246): 184–201. doi:10.1093/mind/lxii.246.184. JSTOR 2251383.
^Wittgenstein, Ludwig (1968). Philosophical Investigations. Translated by G.E.M. Anscombe (Third ed.). New York: Basil Blackwell & Mott, Ltd. p. 178. The human body is the best picture of the human soul.
and 25 Related for: Picture theory of language information
The picturetheoryoflanguage, also known as the picturetheoryof meaning, is a theoryof linguistic reference and meaning articulated by Ludwig Wittgenstein...
rich body of modern work, spearheaded by philosophers like Alfred Tarski and Donald Davidson. (See also Wittgenstein's picturetheoryoflanguage.) The use...
most important characteristic of which is the focusing of philosophy primarily on the relations between language, language users, and the world. Very different...
language name objects—sentences are combinations of such names. In this pictureoflanguage, we find the roots of the following idea: Every word has a meaning...
Rules and Private Language is a 1982 book by philosopher oflanguage Saul Kripke in which he contends that the central argument of Ludwig Wittgenstein's...
to debates about the nature of language. One compelling theory about language is that language maps words to ideas, concepts or representations in each...
A creole language, or simply creole, is a stable natural language that develops from the process of different languages simplifying and mixing into a new...
Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards (also known as Oscars) presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS)...
course of human evolution. Some theories consider language mostly as an innate faculty—largely genetically encoded. Other theories regard language as a...
Wittgenstein wrote "The main point is the theoryof what can be expressed (gesagt) by prop[osition]s – i.e. by language – (and, which comes to the same thing...
attention to the language games involved, Wittgenstein considers Goethe's propositions in the Theoryof Colours, and the observations of Philipp Otto Runge...
many nineteenth century philologists, when discussing language families. The first occurrence of the term family resemblance is found in Arthur Schopenhauer...
reasoning. In this respect, they are a little like pictures in the picturetheoryoflanguage described by philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein in 1922. Philip Johnson-Laird...
mathematical and modal logic, philosophy oflanguage and mathematics, metaphysics, epistemology, and recursion theory. Kripke made influential and original...
development oftheoryof mind primarily came from studies done with animals and infants. Factors including drug and alcohol consumption, language development...
above argument is reminiscent of the theme in neopragmatism against the picturetheoryoflanguage, the idea that the goal of inquiry is to represent reality...
called a movie (American English), motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick – is a work of visual art that simulates experiences...
Wittgenstein inspired by Hertz's work, extended his picturetheory into a picturetheoryoflanguage in his 1921 Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus which influenced...
involves eschewing philosophical "theories" in favor of close attention to the details of the use of everyday "ordinary" language. Its earliest forms are associated...
An early conception of what would later become known as language-games is present in the text, which represents the first period of Wittgenstein's thought...
argument made by G. E. Moore and examines the role of knowledge claims in human language, particularly of "certain ('gewisser') empirical propositions", what...
Professor of English Literature at Lancaster University. Eagleton has published over forty books, but remains best known for Literary Theory: An Introduction...
joke being that according to the picturetheoryoflanguage Wittgenstein developed in the Tractatus, the concept of "truth" does not exist. The last line...