Learning to Speak

Rush Rhees"s Wittgenstein and the Possibility of Discourse
constitutes both an extension and a critique of
Wittgenstein"s later philosophy. The theme of the book is
the question that Rhees argues was central to Wittgenstein
throughout his career: what it means to say something.
While working through this problem, Rhees argues
that the Investigations picture of acquiring language
through training is misleading. To my knowledge, this
discussion has so far received no serious attention from
Wittgenstein scholars. In this paper I shall bring together
Rhees"s various remarks into a coherent critique in an
effort to make clear its importance.