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Family resemblance ((ドイツ語:Familienähnlichkeit)) is a philosophical idea made popular by Ludwig Wittgenstein, with the best known exposition given in his posthumously published book ''Philosophical Investigations'' (1953).〔 〕 It argues that things which could be thought to be connected by one essential common feature may in fact be connected by a series of overlapping similarities, where no one feature is common to all. Games, which Wittgenstein used as an example to explain the notion, have become the paradigmatic example of a group that is related by family resemblances. It has been suggested that Wittgenstein picked up the idea and the term from Nietzsche, who had been using it, as did many nineteenth century philologists, when discoursing about language families.〔Sluga H., ''Family Resemlance'', Grazer Philosophische Studien 71 (2006) 1; see also ''A Wittgenstein Dictionary'', ed. H.-J. Glock, London:Blackwell 1996 〕 The first occurrence of the term "Family resemblance" is found in a note from 1930, commenting on Spengler's ideas.〔Wittgenstein L.,(1998) Culture and Value, London:Blackwell, p 14. Spengler's influence in this and other forms has been considered in papers published after this collection of notes became available, see e.g. DeAngelis W., "Wittgenstein and Spengler," Dialogue 33 (1994):41–61〕 The notion itself features widely in Wittgenstein's later work, and in the ''Investigations'' it is introduced in response to questions about the general form of propositions and the essence of language – questions which were central to Wittgenstein throughout his philosophical career. This suggests that family resemblance was of prime importance for Wittgenstein's later philosophy; however, like many of his ideas, it is hard to find precise agreement within the secondary literature on either its place within Wittgenstein's later thought or on its wider philosophical significance. Since the publication of the ''Investigations,'' the notion of family resemblance has been discussed extensively not only in the philosophical literature, but also, for example, in works dealing with classification where the approach is described as 'polythetic', distinguishing it from the traditional approach known now as 'monothetic'. Prototype theory is a recent development in cognitive science where this idea has also been explored. As the idea gains popularity, earlier instances of its occurrence are rediscovered e.g. in 18th century taxonomy,〔Winsor M., 2003, ''Non-essentialist methods in pre-Darwinian taxonomy'', Biology and Philosophy 18 (2003) 387–400〕 in the writings of Vygotsky〔 or Tatarkiewicz.〔Tatarkiewicz W.,'' Postawa estetyczna, literacka i poetycka'' (1933) where it is called 'domino resemblance'.〕 ==Philosophical context== The local context where the topic of family resemblances appears is Wittgenstein's critique of language. In ''Philosophical Investigations'' §65-71 the plurality of language uses is compared to the plurality of games. Next it is asserted that games have common features but no one feature is found in all of them. The whole argument has become famous under the heading 'language games'. The larger context in which Wittgenstein's philosophy is seen to develop considers his uncompromising opposition to essences, mental entities and other forms of idealism which were accepted as a matter of fact in continental philosophy at the turn of the preceding century. In his view, the main cause for such errors is language and its uncritical use. In the received view, concepts, categories or classes are taken to rely on necessary features common to all items covered by them. Abstraction is the procedure which acknowledges this necessity and derives essences, but in the absence of a single common feature, it is bound to fail. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「family resemblance」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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