Situating language: Language, practice, and meaning in the thought of Ludwig Wittgenstein and Martin Heidegger

In this dissertation, I develop an alternative account of the works of Ludwig Wittgenstein and Martin Heidegger and the relationships between them. I expand on the insights of philosophical inheritors of these thinkers whose work focuses on social practices and the normative nature of speech. I also build on the work of commentators who see affinity in Wittgenstein's and Heidegger's responses to skepticism and Modernity. Ultimately, I argue that Wittgenstein and Heidegger have been wrongly enlisted in the ranks of proponents of the Linguistic Turn and that they offer compelling and complementary approaches to language and meaning. Whereas Western Rationalism has privileged theoretical approaches that objectify language and meaning, Wittgenstein and Heidegger emphasize our everyday practical understandings of language and its roles in our various social worlds and practical contexts.;KEYWORDS: Ludwig Wittgenstein, Martin Heidegger, Language, Meaning, Social Practices...