Ludwig Wittgenstein - The Blue and Brown Books
Family Resemblance - The Brown Book, pp.132-141
● Why, when we use the same word for different things, do we like to say they the different
uses have something in common, or some similarity?
○ do we have ‘feelings’ of similarity?
■ sometimes, maybe, but we don’t always get such a
feeling when we “notice similarity”
■ sometimes it is simply visual experience and
comparison, rather than any real feeling
■ even where assessing similarity consists in mental
processes of cross-referencing, it is not clear that this is a feeling
○ we often simply assume similarity, e.g. in the case of colours - ‘the
experience of similarity should surely consist in noticing the similarity which there is
between them’
■ but is a bluish green really similar to a yellowish green?
● in some contexts we may see similarity,
and in others they may seem radically different
■ why might we think that such colours are similar?
● maybe just because we use/are taught
the same label (‘green’) for the two colours
● OR maybe because we see them as
closely related in a colour spectrum
■ it is very difficult to justify such assumed similarity -
when challenged - ‘Why do you call this ‘blue’ also?’ we can often think of
nothing better to say than ‘Because this is blue, too’
● We could easily imagine circumstances in which colours that are currently seen as having
nothing in common - say red and green - could be unified by a single word, as dark blue and light
blue are currently
○ imagine two castes, patrician and plebeian. The patricians always wear
red and green garments, and the plebeians blue and yellow garments. Hence we could
imagine the two ‘different’ colours as unified in this way
○ we could also imagine a language without the word blue, and with two
different words for light blue and dark blue. In this language, someone asked what the
two colours had in common would likely say ‘Nothing.’
● There are cases of closer similarity in concepts where we could imagine a single word
used - when asked to sing a note after it is struck on the piano, may people often sing the fifth of
that note. Hence we could imagine a language with one word for both notes
○ yet it would be meaningless, when asked what the two notes had in
common, to reply simply that ‘they have a certain affinity’
■ what is the grammar of (i.e. how do we use) ‘a certain’?
when is there ‘a certain affinity’?
● when we use the same word?
● when we can carry out an order
satisfactorily?
● when we imagine ‘a patch of pure blue’
(universal) when shown different samples of blue
Family Resemblance - The Brown Book, pp.132-141
● Why, when we use the same word for different things, do we like to say they the different
uses have something in common, or some similarity?
○ do we have ‘feelings’ of similarity?
■ sometimes, maybe, but we don’t always get such a
feeling when we “notice similarity”
■ sometimes it is simply visual experience and
comparison, rather than any real feeling
■ even where assessing similarity consists in mental
processes of cross-referencing, it is not clear that this is a feeling
○ we often simply assume similarity, e.g. in the case of colours - ‘the
experience of similarity should surely consist in noticing the similarity which there is
between them’
■ but is a bluish green really similar to a yellowish green?
● in some contexts we may see similarity,
and in others they may seem radically different
■ why might we think that such colours are similar?
● maybe just because we use/are taught
the same label (‘green’) for the two colours
● OR maybe because we see them as
closely related in a colour spectrum
■ it is very difficult to justify such assumed similarity -
when challenged - ‘Why do you call this ‘blue’ also?’ we can often think of
nothing better to say than ‘Because this is blue, too’
● We could easily imagine circumstances in which colours that are currently seen as having
nothing in common - say red and green - could be unified by a single word, as dark blue and light
blue are currently
○ imagine two castes, patrician and plebeian. The patricians always wear
red and green garments, and the plebeians blue and yellow garments. Hence we could
imagine the two ‘different’ colours as unified in this way
○ we could also imagine a language without the word blue, and with two
different words for light blue and dark blue. In this language, someone asked what the
two colours had in common would likely say ‘Nothing.’
● There are cases of closer similarity in concepts where we could imagine a single word
used - when asked to sing a note after it is struck on the piano, may people often sing the fifth of
that note. Hence we could imagine a language with one word for both notes
○ yet it would be meaningless, when asked what the two notes had in
common, to reply simply that ‘they have a certain affinity’
■ what is the grammar of (i.e. how do we use) ‘a certain’?
when is there ‘a certain affinity’?
● when we use the same word?
● when we can carry out an order
satisfactorily?
● when we imagine ‘a patch of pure blue’
(universal) when shown different samples of blue
