The Insurmountable Privacy of Thought

Abstract: In several remarks by the later Ludwig Wittgenstein, we can find a conception of private language that suggests an interesting sense in which private language exists. This paper offers an interpretation of these remarks, before outlining some practical implications. The analysis makes reference to Plato’s Phaedrus , including the dialogue’s paradoxical argument according to which writing cannot achieve its purpose. The paper argues that Plato, Socrates, and Wittgenstein all thought about the same problem, namely the privacy of thought that arises from the complexity of the objects of thought.