Abstract

CHICA-PEREZ, Victor Hugo. Understanding the Beginning of the Blue Book: the Abandonment of a Philosophical Concept of "Meaning" to Speak About Language in Philosophy. discus.filos [online]. 2018, vol.19, n.33, pp.71-86. ISSN 0124-6127.  https://doi.org/10.17151/difil.2018.19.33.6.

This article aims to clarify the disconcerting beginning of the Blue Book where Wittgenstein states that the question "what is the meaning of a word?" is a problem that must be attacked, a beginning that is not even explained in the Blue Book itself. It will be argued that an appropriate way to understand that beginning is by resorting to the Philosophical Grammar, a text from the same time as the dictation of the Blue Book. It suggests to abandon the use of a special concept of "meaning" since such a concept is product of both mythological comments on the essence of language and a primitive philosophy of language. It will be argued that the beginning of the Blue Book evidences Wittgenstein's commitment to the strategy of eliminating the apparent need to construct a special theory of meaning in order to think philosophically about language.

Keywords : Blue book; philosophical grammar; meaning; explanation of the meaning.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )