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Family resemblance (German Familienähnlichkeit ^[1]) is a philosophical idea proposed by Ludwig Wittgenstein, with the most well known exposition being given in the posthumously published book Philosophical Investigations (1953) ^[2]. The idea itself takes its name from Wittgenstein's metaphorical description of a type of relationship he argued was exhibited by language.^[3] Wittgenstein's point was that things which may 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 to explain the notion, have become the paradigmatic example of a group that is related by family resemblances.

Family resemblance features widely in Wittgenstein's later work, and the notion itself is introduced in the Investigations 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.

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 none is found in all of them. The whole argument has become famous under the heading 'language games'.

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