Private Language Argument

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

Wittgenstein's argument that a language intelligible only to a single private individual is impossible, because the correct application of words requires public criteria and social practice — undermining Cartesian ideas of purely inner mental states

History and origin

Wittgenstein, 'Philosophical Investigations' §§243–315 (1953); one of the most debated arguments in 20th-century philosophy

Examples

• The private language argument challenges the notion that we can name our inner sensations with words whose meaning is fixed privately.
• Kripke's influential reading of the private language argument introduced the 'rule-following considerations' as the core of the puzzle.

Synonyms: PLA, private language impossibility