On Similarities And Differences Between Berkeley's Anti-abstractive Theory And Wittgenstein's Anti-essentialism

As two important figures in the history of Western philosophy, Berkeley and Wittgenstein have led philosophical thinking of their respective eras to a new level. Berkeley limits people's knowledge in experience, his anti-abstractive theory runs through his philosophical thought. On the basis of experience, he has carefully examined the root of philosophical disputes, and constructed the'perception -existence theory','A thing is the collection of ideas'and other viewpoints. Wittgenstein sets up two kinds of original thinking system in his life:'the theory of image'and'the theory of language game', he has led logical positivism and linguistic analysis school and made the significant contribution to the philosophical development in 20th century.However, Berkeley's anti-abstractive theory and Wittgenstein's anti-essentialism relate not only with the disputes between nominalism and realism, but also with language problems. In this paper the author attempts to the compare the latter with the former and reveals similarities and differences between them, which will play a certain promoting role in our understanding of their respective philosophies.This paper is divided into four parts.In the first part the author introduces the disputes between nominalism and realism in the history of western philosophy in order to show the fact that both Berkeley's anti-abstractive theory and Wittgenstein's anti-essentialism inherited nominalist tradition.In the second part the author discusses Berkeley's anti-abstractive theory and its applications, which includes (1)Berkeley's anti-abstractive theory ;(2)Berkeley establishing'perception-existence theory'by his anti-abstractive theory ;(3)Berkeley using the anti-abstractive theory to criticize the material substance.In the third part the author deals with Wittgenstein's anti-essentialism. At first the author introduces the essentialist viewpoint of language in the early period of Wittgenstein that appears as'the theory of image', and analyses the plight of the linguistic viewpoint . Secondly, the author mainly treats'the theory of language game'in his later period: The linguistic game is an action that has no essence and is various and changeful. It is the action that abides rules but we do so under circumstance of being ignorant of rules.In the forth part Berkeley's anti-abstractive theory is compared with Wittgenstein's anti-essentialism. The Similarities of the two theories are mainly manifested as ,(1) Both oppose universality and adhere to individuality ;(2) Both use the empirical methods of psychological analysis and demonstration ;(3) Both solve philosophical problems by the critique of language. Their differences appear as :(1) Although Berkeley's anti-abstractive theory attaches importance to language, his stand is empiricism; however, Wittgenstein changes philosophical problems into the study of linguistics itself and attempts to solve all philosophical problems by studying linguistics. (2) The two views generated from different backgrounds, and different philosophical problems have solved by them.