ABSTRACT
Ludwig Wittgenstein wrote significantly less on aesthetics than he did on such topics as language, meaning and mind, but what he has to say is no less significant for our understanding of aesthetics than his ideas are for understanding those other topics. Wittgenstein's rejection of theorizing in aesthetics reflects a conception of philosophy which he held throughout his life, that philosophy is not, as traditionally conceived, the discovery or statement of special truths about life and the world. Rather, philosophy is an activity of critical reflection aiming at the clarification of thought. The remark that 'architecture is a gesture' crystallizes Wittgenstein's view that a work of art is something whose significance will be intelligible to, and displayed in the reactions of, only those who are at home in the culture of a period. The notion of gesture here brings out the intimacy of our relationship with works of art, which is akin to our relationship with other people.
