A Naturalistic Method for Therapy not for Science

Abstract

Wittgenstein’s interest in the connection of language games and forms of life as
has often been rightly interpreted as "anthropologism". However, this
characterization doesn’t help us understand the goal of his philosophical
analysis. On the contrary, it seems to make such an understanding harder, for we
expect his philosophical work to bring forth anthropological statements. But, as
is well known, this is not the case. Wittgenstein rejects all confusion of
philosophy with empirical or philosophical anthropology. What then is
anthropologism for? I would like to show that Wittgenstein's anthropologism can
be put in the proper perspective if it is seen as an attempt to deal with the
complex phenomenon of language from a naturalistic viewpoint. For Wittgenstein,
our ways of classifying things or languages have
“become [second] nature to us” (BPP II
678) so that the method which makes it possible for us to represent
or describe them will itself be naturalistic.