Wittgenstein's method of defining "language games" in terms of family resemblances seems to be useful and interesting at first, but a serious problem appears as soon as one tries to make any real use of the concept.
The root of the problem with defining "language games" in terms of family resemblances is that any activity whatsoever can be made to fit into the concept "language game". All that is required for x to be a language game is for it to share characteristics of some kind with some of the other language games. Let x be "organizing my closet". Organizing my closet resembles the language game of a teacher explaining a conceptual error to a student because they both involve a kind of organization or arrangement of a formerly disordered phenomenon (i.e., the things in my closet or the student's thoughts). Organizing my closet also resembles the language game of giving fashion advice to someone because they both involve clothing. So, it seems that organizing my closet is a language game because it resembles other members of the "family".
To deal with this problem, Wittgenstein cannot simply say that turning on a lamp is not a language game because it does not involve language. If Wittgenstein made this claim, he would be identifying an essential feature of all language games, which would mean that he is no longer using the notion of family resemblances to define "language game".
Yet, it seems that there is a form of essentialism present even in the identification of my actual family. There are many people whom I resemble but whom I do not consider to be part of my family; it would certainly be strange if I walked down the street and invited everyone whose hair looks like mine to come over for Thanksgiving dinner with the rest of my family. Rather, the people who are part of my family are the ones who share a genetic similarity to me, or who are married to people who share a genetic similarity to me. There are many people in my family whom I do not resemble at all, but I still consider them to be part of my family because of our genetic similarity. Thus, the essential criterion for fitting into my concept of "family" is genetic similarity, not just any similarity whatsoever.
It seems that, like my family, Wittgenstein's family of language games needs to have an essential feature that unites them so that he can avoid producing a concept that can include any activity whatsoever. The best definition for a language game would be "an activity that is driven by or composed of language use". This definition includes everything that Wittgenstein calls a language game, and it excludes things like organizing my closet or turning on a lamp. The other ways in which the language games "resemble" each other are unimportant as long as they all share this essential feature.
The root of the problem with defining "language games" in terms of family resemblances is that any activity whatsoever can be made to fit into the concept "language game". All that is required for x to be a language game is for it to share characteristics of some kind with some of the other language games. Let x be "organizing my closet". Organizing my closet resembles the language game of a teacher explaining a conceptual error to a student because they both involve a kind of organization or arrangement of a formerly disordered phenomenon (i.e., the things in my closet or the student's thoughts). Organizing my closet also resembles the language game of giving fashion advice to someone because they both involve clothing. So, it seems that organizing my closet is a language game because it resembles other members of the "family".
To deal with this problem, Wittgenstein cannot simply say that turning on a lamp is not a language game because it does not involve language. If Wittgenstein made this claim, he would be identifying an essential feature of all language games, which would mean that he is no longer using the notion of family resemblances to define "language game".
Yet, it seems that there is a form of essentialism present even in the identification of my actual family. There are many people whom I resemble but whom I do not consider to be part of my family; it would certainly be strange if I walked down the street and invited everyone whose hair looks like mine to come over for Thanksgiving dinner with the rest of my family. Rather, the people who are part of my family are the ones who share a genetic similarity to me, or who are married to people who share a genetic similarity to me. There are many people in my family whom I do not resemble at all, but I still consider them to be part of my family because of our genetic similarity. Thus, the essential criterion for fitting into my concept of "family" is genetic similarity, not just any similarity whatsoever.
It seems that, like my family, Wittgenstein's family of language games needs to have an essential feature that unites them so that he can avoid producing a concept that can include any activity whatsoever. The best definition for a language game would be "an activity that is driven by or composed of language use". This definition includes everything that Wittgenstein calls a language game, and it excludes things like organizing my closet or turning on a lamp. The other ways in which the language games "resemble" each other are unimportant as long as they all share this essential feature.
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