A change in how we talk

 This train of thought about spirituality — which began with a note on Oct. 6 and resumed Oct. 13 — is an example of what Wittgenstein called a “language game.”

Wittgenstein, in Philosophical Investigations, said our use of language reminded him of games. If you ask someone what a game is, it’s not one thing. Some games, like soccer, are physically strenuous, profoundly different from games like poker. We might think that competition against other players is a key feature of games. But the game of solitaire, a card game, is played alone. Occasionally, so is golf.

It’s difficult to find one defining feature of a game. Wittgenstein said that in looking at different games we see family resemblances here and there. But each game has its own rules, its own logic, its own strategy.

The way we talk about “spirituality” is a language game with its own distinctive features and rules. It’s changing rapidly in America and other Western countries because the way we live our lives is changing.

Because the change is dramatic, we tend to think that our talk about “spirituality” is all over the place. Some of talk includes notions of a higher power. Some doesn’t. Some of the talk includes notions spiritual practices that are ancient — Zen meditation and Benedictine prayers, for example. Other practices are so recent they are dismissed as fads.

The rules of the language games about spirituality are evolving.

I’ve suggested three features that seem central to me.

But the important point is that our language is changing in because the way we are living our lives is changing. We Americans are becoming more secular, but we are also identifying ourselves as spiritual, but in different ways.

I think this is significant — for me, beyond interesting: fascinating.