How to Write Better Essays

artist struggling for self-expression. Yet, in effect, it leaves the artist

cowering from the real world, sheltered within the safe, though

barren confines of solipsism. If we believe that all we can ever really

know is our inner personal states, then the outside world can only

ever be a product of our own consciousness. But this is incom-

patible with a language to express it, whether in music, painting

or literature.

In effect it can only be expressed through a private language, the

terms of which are defined by reference to our private sensations

and whose meaning, therefore, can only be known to us. But, as

Wittgenstein points out in Philosophical Investigations, such a lan-

guage is not logically possible, because a language is designed to

communicate with others, and this requires commonly accepted

rules. In a private language, where whatever seems right can only be

decided by referring to the exclusive personal states of the user, there

can be no such rules.

Despite its internal coherence any art built upon exclusively per-

sonal experience is in danger of having no anchor in a common

shared reality, its flotilla of symbols adrift with no charts. The modern

liberal artist is left with the problem of trying to communicate what

being alive is like without the assurance of a common social frame

of reference. Without an identity etched in the complex interactions

of social relations of family, friends and acquaintances, he is left with

just his abstract humanity known only to himself.

Words

The same problems that make sentences difficult reappear in our use

of words. We believe that as we advance to higher levels of learning

we will need to use more complex, even abstruse, language. And it’s

true that as we graduate from one level to another we will be expected

to use and explore more complex ideas and concepts, and these will

demand a more subtle use of language and a more careful and delib-

erate choice of words and phrases. Clearly, words like ‘nice’, ‘good’ and

‘bad’ are inadequate vehicles for conveying subtle distinctions and for

all but the crudest of meanings. But this doesn’t mean that we’re driven

to using a plethora of multi-syllabled words or the most convoluted

sentences that conceal more than they reveal.

This can give rise to all sorts of problems, not least the use of

jargon and other words that are empty of real meaning. The following

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