The Later Wittgenstein on Expressive Moral Judgements.

This article examines Ludwig Wittgenstein’s later philosophy on the meaning of expressive moral judgements, arguing that their full significance involves a complex grammatical investigation within specific language-games. It identifies three interwoven components essential to understanding these judgements: (1) the ethical reactions expressed by moral words and any additional purposes they serve; (2) the features of actions that are constitutively bound up with moral evaluations; and (3) the forms of life—cultural and social practices—in which these moral language-games are embedded. The paper contends that Wittgenstein’s approach resists global semantic theories like moral expressivism, emphasizing instead the variety and contextuality of moral language use, where meaning arises from the interplay of expressive content, descriptive features of actions, and the communal life that shapes moral understanding.