Let us [C|c]onsiderfor a moment , e.g., the processes that which we call “games”,. for instance. I mean

board-games
games played on a board

, card games, ball games, ˇathletic contests in the ring prize fighting, etc.. What is ˇin common to all these? – Don't say, : “there must be something ˇin common to themˇ all,

or
otherwise

they would_ n[o|'] be called ‘games’”; – but look and see whether something is in common to all of them. –

For
Because

if you look at them, though you

won't
will not

see something ˇanything that's common to all of them, but you will see similatities, connections, – a

whole lot
long string

of them. As I sa[y|id]: don't think, but look. – Look

e.g.
for instance

at the ˇboard games played on a board, with and their various connections ˇsimilarities between them. Now pass to card games; here you ˇwill find many points of

analogy similarity
correspondence

to ˇbetween this group and the first class[,| ;] but many

common
characteristic

features disappear, and new ones appear. If you now pass to ball games, much that

there was in
is

common remains, but a

great deal
lot

is lost. – Are they all [“|‘]amusing[”|’] ‘entertaining’? Compare chess with Noughts & Crosses. Or is there

always
in every case

such a thing as winning and losing or

a competition
rivalry

between the players? Think of the games of patience[.|s]. In ball games there is wi[ll|nn]ing and losing, but

when
if

a child ˇis throw[s|i]ng bouncing the a ball against the a wall and catch[es|ing] it, again

there is no winning and losing
this feature has disappeared

. See what Look at the part ˇwhich skill and luck play. And what a difference there is between skill (inch a game of) chess and skill in (a game of) tennis. ˇNow [T|t]ink now of round ˇsinging & dancing games: here

we have
there is

the element of

entertainment
amusement

, but how many othe of theo other characteristic features have disappeared! And soch ˇin this way we may go through the many, many other groups of games[.| –] Watching seeing similarities

appear
show themselves

and disappear.
And now the result of these

observations
considerations

is: [W|w]e see a complicated netˇwork o[d|f] similarities which overlapping and crossing one each another. Similarities in ˇthe large respects and in ˇthe small.

(2015–) Wittgenstein Source Bergen Nachlass Edition (WS-BNE). Edited by the Wittgenstein Archives at the University of Bergen under the direction of Alois Pichler. In: Wittgenstein Source, curated by Alois Pichler (2009–) and Joseph Wang-Kathrein (2020–). (N) Bergen: WAB.