Sushobhona Pal

This paper attempts to analyse Ludwig Wittgenstein’s concept of thought or Gedanke. Wittgenstein represented a watershed phase in the history of analytic philosophy. By virtue of his insight into the philosopphy of language, he offered an analysis that records the transition from hidden psychologism to an exclusively non-psychological interpretation of thought. The early Wittgensteinian thought is shown in relation to two realms, language and facts, with an underlying psychologism as mentioned in the famous letter to Russell. This evolves to show that there is nothing psychological in thought which is related to everyday human activities. This goes against the general notion of thoughts as abstract entities inhabiting minds and may be regarded as the swim against the tide. Wittgenstein’s early position concerning thought appears to be ambivalent. This is clearly defined by Wittgenstein in his later works. The final analysis shows the ambivalent psychologism which was portrayed with subtlety in the early period is completely lost in the later one. Wittgenstein ultimately offers an exclusively non-psychological interpretation of thought which is all pervasive with nothing hidden and clearly shows what thought is not.