Declaration Of Independence (D.O.I): Part 1

One of the most difficult problems for a historical analysis is to avoid taking two words or ideas that exist during two different eras and assume that the words or ideas are synonyms.  As we saw in the last post ordinary language philosophers, such as Ludwig Wittgenstein, created a philosophy that examined the usage of the words to avoid ambiguity between a word in different contexts.  For Wittgenstein, the use of language is called a language-game (Philosophical Investigations, pg 10).  Wittgenstein uses the term 'description' and how that term refers to "description of a body's position by means of its co-ordinates; description of a facial expression; description of a sensation of touch; of a mood".  Hence, the ambiguity comes from the inability to know what the term is referring to.