On the nature of language: Augustine and Wittgenstein

Abstract

Ludwig Wittgenstein always regarded to the Confessions of SaintAugustine as “the most serious work ever written”, nevertheless he criticises ina very subtle way Augustine’s conception of language in PhilosophicalInvestigations, in Philosophical Grammar and in Brown Book. HoweverWittgenstein’s late criticism of Augustine’s “picture language” is also a criticismof Wittgenstein’s own early conception of language as a picture in the Tractatuslogico-philosophicus. On the other hand, the analysis of how signs are takeinto life shows much strong similarities between the teachings of lateWittgenstein and those doctrines held by Augustine in De magistro and DeTrinitate. Indeed, although very different motivations, either Augustine orWittgenstein uphold that linguistils signs by unable to bear any meaning andthat their sense would emerge fortheir turn progressively from the context whichwould come to by used in.