Abstract

The paper deals with later Wittgenstein's criticism of his own early conception of ostensive definitions as well as with his criticism of general presuppositions, on which his early position was based. It was inadequate, he said, because it presupposed that language has only one function, namely, to state facts. Later Wittgenstein emphasized that there are many different uses of what we call "words" or "sentences". Words are like "tools in a tool-box" and functions of words are as diverse as the functions of these objects. "Look at the sentence as an instrument", he said "and at its sense as its employment."