Abstract:

It is unanimously acknowledged that Wittgenstein’s philosophy of language is the core of his general philosophy, which has undergone the transition from the theory of “language picture” to the theory of “language game”. The later philosophy of Wittgenstein features the view of antiessence and the view of ordinary language. Considering his opinion of antiessence, the paper holds that there exists no ultimate essence but the partial essence which executes its relevant role at certain systematic level. As to Wittgenstein’s philosophy of ordinary language, from the perspectives of “languageworld” relationship, diversities and openness of language, the paper points out that the language is determined by world, and language analysis is not transcendentally selfreliant and closed, therefore is not capable of solving all philosophical questions. In spite of its limitations, it is pointed out that Wittgenstein’s theory has made great contributions to the development of the philosophy of language.

Key words: languagegame, world；Wittgenstein,  languagepicture, essence