Vagueness and Family Resemblance

In his later writings, Wittgenstein developed, defended, and used alternative modes of explanation, similar to those Meno and other interlocutors of Socrates provide in the Platonic dialogues. The legitimacy of the pre-Socratic form of concept explanation in philosophy is demonstrated by the use Wittgenstein himself makes of it while introducing new terms in the course of his investigations. Wittgenstein's neologisms are among the philosophical terms introduced during the twentieth century that have had the widest use, in philosophy as well as in other disciplines. Wittgenstein's treatment of vagueness, although illuminating in several respects, might disappoint some contemporary philosophers interested in the subject. A family-resemblance concept has to be explained by means of examples or instances. Some instances of a family-resemblance concept might be more typical, in some sense of typicality, than others, but so might be instances of other kinds of concept.