ABSTRACT
Throughout his later philosophy Wittgenstein claims to be teaching a method of grammatical investigation. Grammatical investigation describes the use of our words for the purpose of philosophical clarification. As a method it is both philosophical and pedagogical. Wittgenstein once remarked to the effect that it did not matter whether his results were true or not, what mattered was that a method had been found, and he describes the Investigations as a textbook: ‘a textbook, however, not in that it provides knowledge (Wissen), but rather in that it stimulates thinking (Denken)’.1 Although generally acknowledged within the secondary literature, Wittgenstein’s methodological claims have not altered our use of (or response to) his texts.2 As he anticipated, ‘the terms of our analysis have changed, but the form of our philosophical investigation has not’ (AWL 32). His own words continue to best describe the situation:
If I had to say what is the main mistake made by philosophers of this present generation… I would say that it is when language is looked at what is looked at is a form of words and not the use made of the form of words.
