Wittgenstein’s Private Language Argument

14 July 201426 January 2022 ~ 1000wordphilosophy ~ 3 Comments

Author: Ian Tully Category: Philosophy of Mind and Language Word Count: 1000 From roughly §243 to §315 in his Philosophical Investigations, the Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein lays out what later commentators have dubbed ‘the private language argument.’1 Wittgenstein imagines a case roughly like the following. Suppose a person is stranded on a deserted island and … Continue reading Wittgenstein’s Private Language Argument

Moral Error Theory

John Mackie's (1977) "Ethics: Inventing Right and Wrong"

14 April 201426 January 2022 ~ 1000wordphilosophy ~ 4 Comments

Author: Ian Tully Category: Ethics Word Count: 1000 Though we often disagree about which actions are morally wrong, most of us would agree that at least some actions are actually wrong. An obvious example is abusing children for fun. Yet according to the meta-ethical theory known as error theory, it is false that abusing children for fun is … Continue reading Moral Error Theory