If you and I were to ever meet, we could have an enjoyable conversation talking about dragons. We could spend hours talking about the different types of dragon and their various fiery habits. But the thing is that, at least for now, dragons don't exist. They don't pick out any object in the universe. But I know what dragons are, and you know what dragons are. And so, we can talk about dragons because we are talking about our shared understanding. According to the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, all of our language works this way. We are not talking about a world out there that is real. We are talking about our shared understanding of things. Wittgenstein has an example to illustrate the point. Suppose that I have a box and you have a box, and inside is something that we both call a 'beetle.' But I can't look inside your box, and you can't look inside mine. And so, it might be that you have something different inside your box, and it might be that I have nothing at all in my box. But the point is that we can both meaningfully talk about something we both call a 'beetle.' And so, when we talk, we are talking about a shared understanding. And our heads act like the box. When we talk about pain, or anger, or love, we are not talking about a mental state or a feeling. We are actually talking about a shared collective understanding. And so, if I say, 'I love you,' I am joining in a very narrow language game, and it's a game with rules and shared expectations about what that love actually means. — TikTok @philosophyminis