Wittgensteinian method, analytic philosophy, philosophy of language, philosophy of ordinary language, Ludwig Wittgenstein

A good worker must know how to use his or her tools effectively. Amazingly, most people don't know what their best tool is.
What is mankind's most important tool?

Here are five hints:
1. It is a very old tool, but we are still improving it.
2. It is not shelter or clothing. We use it to make shelter and clothing. It is not the brain or the hand. It was created by humans.
3. It was developed by people world-wide; and there are about six thousand named varieties.
4. It is our greatest tool by far. Over the centuries, it's use has enabled us to build allmost everything from buildings to computers.
5. You use at least one most of the time. Sometimes people even use one in their sleep!

This was not true long ago; however, this is what makes Humans special today. Language makes us way smarter because 99.9% of the difficult things that we understand are other people's discoveries that we were told or read about. The representation of ideas with language boosts communication and education from a few ideas to an innumerable multitude. In fact, no idea can be thought that cannot be put into language. This expressive power of language makes possible the kind of thought that is distinctly human.

It is far easier to study and to evaluate complicated ideas when they are in print, but without language it is impossible. For example, without language it is nearly impossible to focus on subjects that are even a little abstract or complex. If you doubt what I am saying, consider that all of the ideas expressed in these sentences could not have been thought without language. A thought is complex in this way. A thought is a reaction: a recognition or a judgment. “That's a cow.” “I think that I should start cooking.” So images and feelings can't represent a complete thought because they still require some reaction. Only a sentence in a language does this. The linguistic representation of a thought gives us a way to focus on any specific judgment!
    
And this is the bottom line. Precise words and complete sentences put our thoughts into focus. Clear expression facilitates effective thinking because clearly expressed ideas are easier to understand, to communicate, to criticize, and to improve! So follow the advice of Thomas Jefferson, “Ideas must be distinct before reason can act upon them.” When you want to think carefully, use precise words to express your thoughts accurately. This is no overstatement: Your focus is your light. When you want to think carefully carefully, use precise words to express your thoughts accurately. This is no overstatement: Your focus is your light. It will reveal unconscious assumptions.

“The art of writing is the art of discovering what you believe.”
    ~ Gustave Flaubert ~

“Ideas which might seem lucid and complete in your head come to seem muddled and fragmentary once you think of actually putting them down on paper. The process of expressing your thoughts assists the thoughts themselves, and acts as a kind of filter or governor for them.”
    ~ John Wilson ~

“Examine your words well, and you will find that even when you have no motive to be false, it is a very hard thing to say the exact truth.”
    ~ George Eliot ~

“It is ... easy to be certain. One has only to be sufficiently vague.”
    ~ C.S. Peirce ~

“A philosophical work consists essentially of elucidations.”
“Philosophy is not a body of doctrine but an activity.”
    ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein ~

(this website is dedacated to)
Ludwig Wittgenstein
“the Philosopher of Understanding”
“The common behavior [≈ "shared judgments"] of mankind is the system of reference by means of which we interpret an unknown language.”
~ Wittgenstein ~

Ludwig Wittgenstein said that his life's work was clarification.
This seems particulary fitting because Wittgenstein was a teacher. He taught that you could show absolutely everything about the meaning of any human word or linguistic expression by carefully describing how someone learns to understand and use the word or expression.

A good worker must know how to use his or her tools effectively. Amazingly, most people don't know what their best tool is.

What is mankind's most important tool?

Here are five hints:
1. It is a very old tool, but we are still improving it.
2. It is not shelter or clothing. We use it to make shelter and clothing. It is not the brain or the hand. It was created by humans.
3. It was developed by people world-wide; and there are about six thousand named varieties.
4. It is our greatest tool by far. Over the centuries, it's use has enabled us to build allmost everything from buildings to computers.
5. You use at least one most of the time. Sometimes people even use one in their sleep!