Throwing away the 'bedrock'

If one is impressed with Wittgenstein's philosophizing, then it is a deep mistake to think that the terms that he made famous - philosophical terms like 'form of life', 'language-game', 'everyday', 'bedrock' - are the key to his philosophy. On the contrary, they are in the end an obstacle to be overcome. The last temptation of the Wittgensteinian philosopher is to treat these terms as providing a kind of ersatz foundation. They are rather a ladder that takes one . . . to where one already is, only now undeluded. Provided, that is, that one throws them away, at the first sign that one feels oneself to be securely grounded by - or holding onto - them.