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What is this article about? the lead does not define the term, it merely categorizes it. If the article defines the term, it doesn't do so in a concrete manner that I can even come close to understanding. - Verdatum ( talk) 20:05, 25 March 2008 (UTC)
I tend to agree. This is a fairly central notion in LW's later philosophy (see how he introduces it in the PI), and yet there is very little here to either explain it or tie in into his later philosophy as a whole; or, indeed, to explain how it has become significant in modern philosophy. I will try to do an extensive expansion of the article but would welcome as much input as I can get. A 44 will get you 99 ( talk) 23:59, 12 April 2008 (UTC)
Have done a little bit, needs a lot more. A 44 will get you 99 ( talk) 01:59, 13 April 2008 (UTC)
A 44 will get you 99 ( talk) 12:54, 24 May 2008 (UTC)
I have made extensive changes to the introduction which I will explain here.
Changed "philosophical conception" to "philosophical idea" because it is a simpler way of saying the same thing. Also removed the explanation of family resemblance (FR) and left this until later in the intro to put in a changed version (see below).
a) is hopefully an uncontroversial statement of fact about the name followed by (b) a more controversial explanation of the focus on language. I've written the bit about the name because it's not a normal name for a philosophical idea and could be misleading if not explained (it has nothing to do with families in the normal sense for example). Re (b) see next explanation.
I have changed this and the ending of the previous sentence completely to put the focus back onto language. FR is not about games. Games are an analogy for something LW is trying to say about language. "I will try to explain this" is the last line of PI65 where LW's focus is exclusively on language and before PI66 where the games analogy is introduced. That many commentators have simply talked about games and chairs and other "family resemblance concepts" should not mean we need to adopt their reading wholesale. Other commentators has been far more concerned with how this analogy relates back to language so hopefully my brief focus back onto language and then fairly straight statement of the central theme of FR will sit between these readings and allow both to follow in the later sections about philosophical interpretation (which will need to be added).
Hopefully uncontroversial statement.
I have made changes to this and added the stuff about the questions about propositions and language. This is because just before LW introduces his new answer he says, "Here we come to the great question the lies behind all these considerations", the "great question" being the one about "the general form of propositions and of language" PI65 (as opposed to the one about games PI66 which is an analogy intended to help explain his non-answer to the question raised in PI65).
Again, "Here we come to the great question the lies behind all these considerations" seems to indicate this so hopefully that will be OK and it leads nicely to the next line.
This relates to a new section that will have to be written. There are countless interpretations of FR, see for example, Hacker (Insight and Illusion), Kripke (Naming and Necessity), Cavell (in The New Wittgenstein), Bouwsma (in Fann LW: The Man and His Philosophy) and countless others, Rhees, Malcolm, Searle, McGinn, Fodor, Pears, Lugg etc. etc. who all say something slightly/vastly different on FR. These will need to be grouped and briefly discussed at some point but for the intro I think only the fact of this divergence needs to be mentioned.
See above
I don't know about this but have left it in for the time being to illustrate the wider impact.
A 44 will get you 99 ( talk) 14:26, 24 May 2008 (UTC)
Two main reasons: style and lack of perspective.
About style: imho it is really odd to explain Wittgenstein in terms he disputed and sought to eliminate ('idea', 'essence' etc);the word idea is used 3 times in 10 lines. The opening sentence suggests that somehow Wttg posthumously proposed an idea... Next absatz is as clumsy as possible; "..seems to indicate that Wttg felt.." is unencyclopedical and unphilosophical; note also the repetitions (theme, later..) or 'the idea takes its name..'
About perspective: FR is a pet conception of Wttg appearing in his writings after 1929. PI are his the latest work, only it was published first: it might be a good place to anchor the exposition but it does not provide the ultimate explanation. Now FR can be traced back and not just in his work but also in other areas. Needham's paper is available online and please take a glance at the :
As one of the authors of a previous, and inadequate, version of this page, I would like to congratulate the present authors. This is an excellent article. Banno ( talk) 20:41, 15 October 2008 (UTC)
I'm puzzled by the assertion "Item_1 and item_5 have nothing in common" when manifestly each item has commonality in being letters of the Latin alphabet, in the same typeface and size and weight and colour, all are capital letters, there being four in each, presented in alphabetical order, and being four consecutive letters of the conventional alphabetic ordering. The source document may have been handwritten and all manner of variations could have been selected amongst. NickyMcLean ( talk) 23:42, 10 December 2008 (UTC)
I took the liberty and removed the image showing a familiy reunion of some family. As far as I understand, it has nothing to do with the article. Feel free to put it back if I am mistaken. Bleistiftspitzer ( talk) 09:10, 10 February 2012 (UTC)
In the leading section, a footnote reading,
has been replaced with,
This amendment is both factually incorrect, and extremely misleading. The facts are these: (1) In his works, Wittgenstein consistently uses the German Familienähnlichkeit. (2) This word/expression is not unique to Wittgenstein. (3) Depending upon your personal preference, ähnlichkeit can be translated as "similarity" (the most normal translation) or "resemblance" or "likeness". (4) Wittgenstein did not write English versions of his works; the "English" works are translations (by another) of his German texts. (5) The point is NOT that some translators have rendered his Familienähnlichkeit as "family resemblance" and others rendered it as "family likeness"; it is, in English, you will find the "to English readers obviously different expressions" of "family resemblance" and "family likeness" without any footnotes or any other assistance to the English reader to inform them that these two, very obviously different terms are in fact being used, within the body of the same book, to denote precisely the same referent.
To express my own view — and, in particular, as a consequence of Wittgenstein's own freely given admission that the origins of his thoughts on Familienähnlichkeit was his viewing of sets of composite photographs made by Francis Galton of the prototypical "face" of particular families — I feel that the only correct way to transmit the meaning intended by Wittgenstein is to create an entirely new term, "familylike-ness", because it is the similarity or dis-simarity to the supposed "familyness" that is being spoken of.
I have altered the footnote accordingly. Lindsay658 ( talk) 00:15, 1 October 2010 (UTC)
I just wanted to congratulate all of the contributors to the Family Resemblance page. It is one of the best I have read in Wikipedia (and I have read a lot of them). It not only captures Wittgenstein's ideas succinctly, but also, occasionally, his very rare and dry sense of humor. (Yes, I know, many people believe those words should not be used in the same sentence.) Odyssoma ( talk) 15:45, 23 July 2013 (UTC)
The lead states that retrospectively the idea can be found earlier, so moved here the following, as it is not really to the point:
John Stuart Mill described family resemblances in Chapter 8 of Book 1 in "A System of Logic" published in 1843.
"But where the resemblances and differences on which our classifications are founded are not of this palpable and easily determinable kind; especially where they consist not in any one quality but in a number of qualities, the effects of which, being blended together, are not very easily discriminated, and referred each to its true source; it often happens that names are applied to nameable objects, with no distinct connotation present to the minds of those who apply them. They are only influenced by a general resemblance between the new object and all or some of the old familiar objects which they have been accustomed to call by that name. This, as we have seen, is the law which even the mind of the philosopher must follow, in giving names to the simple elementary feelings of our nature: but, where the things to be named are complex wholes, a philosopher is not content with noticing a general resemblance; he examines what the resemblance consists in: and he only gives the same name to things which resemble one another in the same definite particulars. The philosopher, therefore, habitually employs his general names with a definite connotation. But language was not made, and can only in some small degree be mended, by philosophers. In the minds of the real arbiters of language, general names, especially where the classes they denote cannot be brought before the tribunal of the outward senses to be identified and discriminated, connote little more than a vague gross resemblance to the things which they were earliest, or have been most, accustomed to call by those names. When, for instance, ordinary persons predicate the words just or unjust of any action, fnoble or meanf of any sentiment, expression, or demeanour, statesman or charlatan of any personage figuring in politics, do they mean to affirm of those various subjects any determinate attributes, of whatever kind? No: they merely recognise, as they think, some likeness, more or less vague and loose, between gtheseg and some other things which they have been accustomed to denominate or to hear denominated by those appellations." 91.92.179.172 ( talk) 20:54, 17 September 2014 (UTC)
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What is this article about? the lead does not define the term, it merely categorizes it. If the article defines the term, it doesn't do so in a concrete manner that I can even come close to understanding. - Verdatum ( talk) 20:05, 25 March 2008 (UTC)
I tend to agree. This is a fairly central notion in LW's later philosophy (see how he introduces it in the PI), and yet there is very little here to either explain it or tie in into his later philosophy as a whole; or, indeed, to explain how it has become significant in modern philosophy. I will try to do an extensive expansion of the article but would welcome as much input as I can get. A 44 will get you 99 ( talk) 23:59, 12 April 2008 (UTC)
Have done a little bit, needs a lot more. A 44 will get you 99 ( talk) 01:59, 13 April 2008 (UTC)
A 44 will get you 99 ( talk) 12:54, 24 May 2008 (UTC)
I have made extensive changes to the introduction which I will explain here.
Changed "philosophical conception" to "philosophical idea" because it is a simpler way of saying the same thing. Also removed the explanation of family resemblance (FR) and left this until later in the intro to put in a changed version (see below).
a) is hopefully an uncontroversial statement of fact about the name followed by (b) a more controversial explanation of the focus on language. I've written the bit about the name because it's not a normal name for a philosophical idea and could be misleading if not explained (it has nothing to do with families in the normal sense for example). Re (b) see next explanation.
I have changed this and the ending of the previous sentence completely to put the focus back onto language. FR is not about games. Games are an analogy for something LW is trying to say about language. "I will try to explain this" is the last line of PI65 where LW's focus is exclusively on language and before PI66 where the games analogy is introduced. That many commentators have simply talked about games and chairs and other "family resemblance concepts" should not mean we need to adopt their reading wholesale. Other commentators has been far more concerned with how this analogy relates back to language so hopefully my brief focus back onto language and then fairly straight statement of the central theme of FR will sit between these readings and allow both to follow in the later sections about philosophical interpretation (which will need to be added).
Hopefully uncontroversial statement.
I have made changes to this and added the stuff about the questions about propositions and language. This is because just before LW introduces his new answer he says, "Here we come to the great question the lies behind all these considerations", the "great question" being the one about "the general form of propositions and of language" PI65 (as opposed to the one about games PI66 which is an analogy intended to help explain his non-answer to the question raised in PI65).
Again, "Here we come to the great question the lies behind all these considerations" seems to indicate this so hopefully that will be OK and it leads nicely to the next line.
This relates to a new section that will have to be written. There are countless interpretations of FR, see for example, Hacker (Insight and Illusion), Kripke (Naming and Necessity), Cavell (in The New Wittgenstein), Bouwsma (in Fann LW: The Man and His Philosophy) and countless others, Rhees, Malcolm, Searle, McGinn, Fodor, Pears, Lugg etc. etc. who all say something slightly/vastly different on FR. These will need to be grouped and briefly discussed at some point but for the intro I think only the fact of this divergence needs to be mentioned.
See above
I don't know about this but have left it in for the time being to illustrate the wider impact.
A 44 will get you 99 ( talk) 14:26, 24 May 2008 (UTC)
Two main reasons: style and lack of perspective.
About style: imho it is really odd to explain Wittgenstein in terms he disputed and sought to eliminate ('idea', 'essence' etc);the word idea is used 3 times in 10 lines. The opening sentence suggests that somehow Wttg posthumously proposed an idea... Next absatz is as clumsy as possible; "..seems to indicate that Wttg felt.." is unencyclopedical and unphilosophical; note also the repetitions (theme, later..) or 'the idea takes its name..'
About perspective: FR is a pet conception of Wttg appearing in his writings after 1929. PI are his the latest work, only it was published first: it might be a good place to anchor the exposition but it does not provide the ultimate explanation. Now FR can be traced back and not just in his work but also in other areas. Needham's paper is available online and please take a glance at the :
As one of the authors of a previous, and inadequate, version of this page, I would like to congratulate the present authors. This is an excellent article. Banno ( talk) 20:41, 15 October 2008 (UTC)
I'm puzzled by the assertion "Item_1 and item_5 have nothing in common" when manifestly each item has commonality in being letters of the Latin alphabet, in the same typeface and size and weight and colour, all are capital letters, there being four in each, presented in alphabetical order, and being four consecutive letters of the conventional alphabetic ordering. The source document may have been handwritten and all manner of variations could have been selected amongst. NickyMcLean ( talk) 23:42, 10 December 2008 (UTC)
I took the liberty and removed the image showing a familiy reunion of some family. As far as I understand, it has nothing to do with the article. Feel free to put it back if I am mistaken. Bleistiftspitzer ( talk) 09:10, 10 February 2012 (UTC)
In the leading section, a footnote reading,
has been replaced with,
This amendment is both factually incorrect, and extremely misleading. The facts are these: (1) In his works, Wittgenstein consistently uses the German Familienähnlichkeit. (2) This word/expression is not unique to Wittgenstein. (3) Depending upon your personal preference, ähnlichkeit can be translated as "similarity" (the most normal translation) or "resemblance" or "likeness". (4) Wittgenstein did not write English versions of his works; the "English" works are translations (by another) of his German texts. (5) The point is NOT that some translators have rendered his Familienähnlichkeit as "family resemblance" and others rendered it as "family likeness"; it is, in English, you will find the "to English readers obviously different expressions" of "family resemblance" and "family likeness" without any footnotes or any other assistance to the English reader to inform them that these two, very obviously different terms are in fact being used, within the body of the same book, to denote precisely the same referent.
To express my own view — and, in particular, as a consequence of Wittgenstein's own freely given admission that the origins of his thoughts on Familienähnlichkeit was his viewing of sets of composite photographs made by Francis Galton of the prototypical "face" of particular families — I feel that the only correct way to transmit the meaning intended by Wittgenstein is to create an entirely new term, "familylike-ness", because it is the similarity or dis-simarity to the supposed "familyness" that is being spoken of.
I have altered the footnote accordingly. Lindsay658 ( talk) 00:15, 1 October 2010 (UTC)
I just wanted to congratulate all of the contributors to the Family Resemblance page. It is one of the best I have read in Wikipedia (and I have read a lot of them). It not only captures Wittgenstein's ideas succinctly, but also, occasionally, his very rare and dry sense of humor. (Yes, I know, many people believe those words should not be used in the same sentence.) Odyssoma ( talk) 15:45, 23 July 2013 (UTC)
The lead states that retrospectively the idea can be found earlier, so moved here the following, as it is not really to the point:
John Stuart Mill described family resemblances in Chapter 8 of Book 1 in "A System of Logic" published in 1843.
"But where the resemblances and differences on which our classifications are founded are not of this palpable and easily determinable kind; especially where they consist not in any one quality but in a number of qualities, the effects of which, being blended together, are not very easily discriminated, and referred each to its true source; it often happens that names are applied to nameable objects, with no distinct connotation present to the minds of those who apply them. They are only influenced by a general resemblance between the new object and all or some of the old familiar objects which they have been accustomed to call by that name. This, as we have seen, is the law which even the mind of the philosopher must follow, in giving names to the simple elementary feelings of our nature: but, where the things to be named are complex wholes, a philosopher is not content with noticing a general resemblance; he examines what the resemblance consists in: and he only gives the same name to things which resemble one another in the same definite particulars. The philosopher, therefore, habitually employs his general names with a definite connotation. But language was not made, and can only in some small degree be mended, by philosophers. In the minds of the real arbiters of language, general names, especially where the classes they denote cannot be brought before the tribunal of the outward senses to be identified and discriminated, connote little more than a vague gross resemblance to the things which they were earliest, or have been most, accustomed to call by those names. When, for instance, ordinary persons predicate the words just or unjust of any action, fnoble or meanf of any sentiment, expression, or demeanour, statesman or charlatan of any personage figuring in politics, do they mean to affirm of those various subjects any determinate attributes, of whatever kind? No: they merely recognise, as they think, some likeness, more or less vague and loose, between gtheseg and some other things which they have been accustomed to denominate or to hear denominated by those appellations." 91.92.179.172 ( talk) 20:54, 17 September 2014 (UTC)
Hello fellow Wikipedians,
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