Relativism in Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations

Some areas of Philosophical Investigation lay prey to relativistic interpretations. Some of the most important are language games and Kripke’s reading of the concept of rule following. In addition, contemporary philosophers discuss the possibility of dialogue and comparison between forms of life and their independency. Some of these philosophers concentrate on differences of forms of life and deny the possibility of comparison and understanding of each other, stressing on special paragraphs of philosophical Investigations. On the other hand, another group emphasizes other parts of philosophical Investigations and invokes Wittgenstein’s approach to various forms of life. They don’t accept relativistic readings of philosophical Investigation. They argue that when forms of life are completely different and independent, people living in one form of life cannot recognize any other forms of life and therefore cannot even speak about them or name them as a “form of life”. Similarly, Interpreters have adverse views concerning Kripke’s reading of Wittgenstein. On the one hand, a group believes in an objective criterion for determination of the sense. On the other, a group thinks that following a rule according to what language users do, is the only criterion we have.