British Wittgenstein Society

The aim of this conference is to bring the connection into focus which obtains, according to Wittgenstein, between language and our human form of life. It is peculiar that Wittgenstein uses the expressions “language” and “form of life” in a distinctively first personal way. It is even more peculiar that he conceives of the notions of a language and our form of life as interdependent: He states that “to imagine a language is to imagine a form of life” (PI §19) and characterizes language as a “complicated form of life” (PI II, i). That language IS a form of life implies that it is not MERELY A PART of our form of life, but that which gives all of our activities – even those which do not consist in speaking – a distinctive unity. Contributions to the conference will explore this and related topics from a Wittgensteinian viewpoint. In the second part of the

In the second part of the conference this perspective is broadened by contributions which draw connections to German Idealism as well as to Ordinary Language Philosophy.

Speakers:

Avner Baz,

Jocelyn Benoist,

James Conant,

Juliet Floyd,

Martin Gustafsson,

Matthias Haase,

Axel Hutter,

Andrea Kern,

Thomas Khurana,

Sandra Laugier,

Christian Martin,

Felix Mühlhölzer,

Charles Travis,

David Zapero

Participation in the conference is free, but places are limited. To register, please write