Excerpts from Books and Wikipedia
"According to Wittgenstein, philosophical problems arise when language is forced from its proper home into a metaphysical environment, where all the familiar and necessary landmarks and contextual clues are removed. He describes this metaphysical environment as like being on frictionless ice: where the conditions are apparently perfect for a philosophically and logically perfect language, all philosophical problems can be solved without the muddying effects of everyday contexts; but where, precisely because of the lack of friction, language can in fact do no work at all. Wittgenstein argues that philosophers must leave the frictionless ice and return to the "rough ground" of ordinary language in use. Much of the Investigations [Philosophical Investigations was published in 1953.] consists of examples of how the first false steps can be avoided, so that philosophical problems are dissolved, rather than solved: 'the clarity we are aiming at is indeed complete clarity. But this simply means that the philosophical problems should completely disappear.'" [Wikipedia]