Meaning is use: Wittgenstein on the limits of language - Philosophy for change

In his first book postulated the ‘picture theory’ of language: reality (‘the world’) as a vast collection of facts that we can picture in language, assuming we poses the language. 

He then changed his mind, from seeing language as a fixed structure imposed upon the world to seeing it as a fluid structure that is intimately bound up with our everyday practices. It ain’t what you say, it’s the way that you say it, and the context in which you say it. Words are how you use them.

"If a lion could talk, we should not be able to understand him", Wittgenstein argued.

Because the language games of lions are too different from our own to permit understanding. 

Wittgenstein’s teachings on language has practical value:

• Why waste time arguing over issues that will never be resolved when the whole thing could be deflated with a simple question: ‘Are we even talking about the same thing?’
• Think about the audience when you write anything & craft your words accordingly.

The contemporary debate between atheists and believers is premised on the idea that the word ‘God’ either represents something in the real world, or it does not.

Wittgensteinian approach to the debate begins by pointing out ‘God’ is a word that has different meanings in the context of different communities:

• ‘God’ used to articulate different facets of experience (‘It’s in God’s hands now’ or ‘When the sun rose, I felt the presence of God’).
• ‘God’ as a move in a social game, that expresses fidelity to a way of life