Wittgenstein and Idionomy

Wittgenstein wrote two major Philosophical works in his career. In the earlier, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, he develops a Theory of Language based on the pre-eminence of Language functioning as a mirror of the logical structure of reality. Because this canonical concept of Language makes an important contribution to the efforts of Russell, notably, to Logicize not merely Mathematics, but Philosophy, in general, Wittgenstein was embraced as a star of this Analytic Philosophy. However, after decades of silence, Wittgenstein returned with the culmination of his interim research, Philosophical Investigations, which stunningly repudiates the main thesis of the Tractatus, and, hence, of Analytic Philosophy, in general. Language is now no longer defined in terms of a Logical ideal, but is rather conceived as a function of how it is used in differing existential contexts, only one of which is Logical activity, and none of which has privileged status. His term 'Language Games' describes the various types of modes of functioning of Language, making it easy to classify this later Wittgenstein as a 'Pragmatist', to which some Analytic Philosophers have not taken too kindly. Evolvementalism sees in the arc of Wittgenstein's career a turn from Theory to Practice that parallels Kant's epochal transition. In particular, one of Wittgenstein's central themes in the Investigations, 'following a rule', helps clarify the Kantian notion of Autonomy, i. e. acting on a self-imposed Principle. But Wittgenstein goes further--the rules, the following of which he analyzes, are not merely self-subsistent, as is Kant's 'Principle of Pure Practical Reason'. Rather, those rules, notably the Laws of Logic and of Mathematics, are constructed by Logicians and Mathematicians, and the respect for them is based on their continued efficacy and fruitfulness. This following of a rule that one has constructed for oneself is what in Evolvementalism is called 'Idionomy', an Evolvemental advance in Human Freedom.