Part 2: Wittgenstein's research and the way people with developmental characteristics see the world
Following on from our post on June 25, 2025, we bring you "Free Talk by Researchers: The Genius and Developmental Characteristics of the Philosopher Wittgenstein." Please enjoy this relaxed talk by some slightly nerdy researchers.
The second episode will focus on the relationship between Wittgenstein's work and the way people with developmental disabilities see the world.Here).
The thought of early Wittgenstein
(Position) Wittgenstein's philosophy can be broadly divided into early and late periods, and he developed different positions in each period. The central question in the early period was "Why do words have meaning?" He began with engineering, then moved on to mathematics and logic, and then to philosophy. In the midst of this, he became very interested in the question of why words such as "tree" and "desk" refer to what they are. For example, the Japanese kanji character "木" resembles an actual tree, but there is no such correspondence with the English word "tree". Nevertheless, we understand "tree = tree". He believed that words have meaning because they correspond one-to-one with "objects in the outside world". In contrast to "tree" and "desk", abstract concepts such as "number" and "1", or "good and evil" and "existence" have an ambiguous correspondence. He believed that these are concepts that do not have corresponding objects, and that traditional questions in philosophy that deal with such concepts are meaningless. In this way, the early Wittgenstein tried to organize the framework of philosophy in a somewhat radical way.
After working as a teacher and architect, he returned to philosophy in the second half of his life and developed his later thought. The theme here is also "What is the meaning of words?", but the focus is very different. This time, he focuses on "how words are used." The concept of "language games" is important here. Language games are the idea that the meaning of words is determined within context and social practices. Rather than emphasizing the static correspondence between words and objects as in his earlier period, he focuses on how the meaning of words changes and is formed within human behavior, emotions, and cultural contexts.
(Yoshimura) Hearing about this earlier thought reminded me of the concept of "joint attention." In the process of learning the meaning of words, experiences such as a parent pointing to a dog and saying "Woof woof," and the child following the finger to recognize the dog, are repeated. It is believed that this forms a correspondence between word and object, leading to language acquisition. Typically developing children show joint attention from around 10 months of age, but children with ASD do not show this even after the age of one and a half, which can affect their language development. It is possible that Wittgenstein did not go through this "typical language acquisition process." This is why he was so interested in the meaning of words themselves.
(Position) You are right. Wittgenstein may have had a characteristic that made it difficult for him to pay attention to non-verbal information.
(Yoshimura) For example, the word "apple" contains various elements such as "red" and "sweet," but I don't think he saw these elements as being connected to make up an "apple." Rather, I feel he was trying to understand which of these elements is essential, by matching them one-to-one.
(Position) This is an interesting perspective. In his early period, he showed no interest in the expansion of meanings, and focused on the structural question of "what must exist for words to have meaning?" How an object is cut - for example, whether a tree is divided into "leaves," "trunk," and "roots" - depends on the culture and purpose, but for him, the way of cutting it up was not an issue. His position was that it was enough if the word corresponded to "something in the outside world."
Considering the transition to later thought from a developmental perspective
(Position) However, in his later years, his thinking changed. The meaning of words is formed in everyday conversations such as "Apples are sweet, aren't they?" or "This is an expensive apple." In other words, he moved to the position that the meaning of words is determined by how they are used. The meaning of words is cultivated in practice, such as when referring to a dog and saying "It's woof woof" or "It's scary." This is what Wittgenstein calls "language games" in his later years.
(Yoshimura) So that's what language games are. They're practical activities in which people create meaning through use.
(Position) That's right. The meaning of words is created through use. The context and the action are what's important.
(Yoshimura) This may be a bit of a rough way of putting it, but it seems like the later Wittgenstein rediscovered the "language acquisition process" that typically developing people naturally acquire. That's the impression I got, but is that correct?
(Position) I agree. The idea that language is a means of communication and a tool for achieving goals only emerged later in his life. I think that this "acquired knowledge" was very important. Philosophers were surprised by his work because he reinterpreted the structure of language use, which had been considered "quite natural," from a completely different perspective.
(Kimura) Reexamining something from a completely new perspective is truly innovation.
(Continued in Part 3)
