Final answer:
The inquiry focuses on Ludwig Wittgenstein's concept that language is fundamentally a public activity and critiques the possibility of a private language. Wittgenstein's later philosophy suggests that language's meaning is validated within a communal context, and this idea is echoed in 20th-century linguistic and post-structuralist theories, affecting various disciplines including art and cognition.
Step-by-step explanation:
The question pertains to Ludwig Wittgenstein's philosophy on language and its public nature. Wittgenstein, in his later works such as 'Philosophical Investigations', refuted the idea that language can have internal continuity and stipulated that its meaning is verifiable only within a specific context. This represents a shift from an understanding of language as a window to a pre-existing reality, to a view where language forms our experiences and realities instead. In particular, Wittgenstein critiqued the notion of a 'private language', suggesting that language is inherently a public activity because the process of verification requires external criteria that are only available within a community of speakers.
This ties into broader philosophical discussions during the 20th century, including the linguistic turn and post-structuralism, which emphasized that language and its use within social groups shape our understanding of reality. For instance, the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis suggests that the structure of a language affects its speakers' cognition and perception of the world. Structuralism further explores how linguistic patterns correspond with thought and cultural expressions, whereas post-structuralism challenges the idea of a fixed relationship between signifier and signified, leading to the understanding that multiple valid interpretations of reality can exist.
These philosophical explorations resonate in various fields, including the arts, where language-based works by artists like Bruce Nauman invoke Wittgenstein's ideas to question the nature of art and reality. Overall, the discussion of private versus public language examines the communal foundations of meaning and the performative role of language in shaping our lived experiences.