Leggere e comprendere il mondo come prassi: Ludwig Wittgenstein e il Dizionario per le scuole elementari

Ludwig Wittgenstein is known to have worked as a primary school teacher in three villages in Lower Austria from 1920 to 1926. His time as a teacher profoundly influenced what is commonly referred to as the “second phase” of his philosophical thinking. This period is characterized by a self-critique of the “serious errors” in his earlier work, the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1921), and a shift toward focusing on everyday language rather than pursuing an idealized language. Notably, the incipit of his later work, the Philosophical Investigations (1953), delves into the genetic problem of learning, the concrete conditions of language use, and the forms of life that define a language. These themes were undoubtedly influenced by Wittgenstein’s experiences as a teacher and remained central to his philosophical development. Wittgenstein’s Wörterbuch für Volksschulen, published in 1926, was initially aimed at improving the spelling skills of his students. However, it also served as a sort of “philosophical crucible” in which key concepts of his later philosophy began to take shape. The Wörterbuch für Volksschulen adopts a pragmatic approach, emphasizing the social and historical context over purely syntactic or semantic concerns. It incorporates elements such as the importance of anchoring teaching in the children’s real-world experiences considering their linguistic and cultural backgrounds, and recognizing the role of language in specific domains of experience. These foundational ideas laid the groundwork for Wittgenstein’s later concept of language games, as he observed that «language games are the forms of language with which a child begins to make use of words» (Wittgenstein, trad. it. 1983: 17).