The Private Language Argument

Abstract

<p>An exposition of Wittgenstein's arguments against the possibility of a private language is given with the hope of making the arguments clearer. It is shown that because of the impossibility of a private language and because of the impossibility of words having private references in a public language, the notion of a private experience is unintelligible. The last chapter shows that a positive account of what sensations are is given in the Philosophical Investigations, which manages to avoid the impossibility of a private act of naming and also avoids the untenability of behaviorism.</p>