Language Games and Forms of Life

“Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations §43: 'For a large class of cases, though not for all, in which we employ the word "meaning" it can be defined thus: the meaning of a word is its use in the language.' [...] §23: 'But how many kinds of sentence are there? Say assertion, question, and command? There are countless kinds... Review the multiplicity of ==language-game==s in the following examples, and in others: giving orders, describing, reporting an event, speculating, making up a story, play-acting, singing, guessing riddles, making a joke, translating, asking, thanking, cursing, greeting, praying.' [...] §109: 'It was true to say that our considerations could not be scientific ones... We may not advance any kind of theory. There must not be anything hypothetical in our considerations. All explanation must disappear, and description alone must take its place.' [...] §116: 'When philosophers use a word... one must always ask oneself: is the word ever actually used in this way in the language in which it is at home? What we do is to bring words back from their metaphysical to their everyday use.' — Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations (1953); SEP 'Ludwig Wittgenstein'”