From The Ladder To The Ground

Over the last century or so the philosophy of language has become the pivotal area of philosophy, which is known as "linguistic turn", the Copernicus revolution. The linguistic turn forms the general characteristics of contemporary philosophy, with meaning as one of its core concepts. In the history of philosophy of language, Wittgenstein was a unique thinker, producing two highly original systems of thought and giving philosophy two directions. As far as meaning is concerned, he dramatically shifted from his early picture theory of meaning to the later use theory of meaning. However, as introduction about philosophy of language sprung up until last decade in China, even few scholars have given thoroughly contrastive studies on Wittgenstein's theory of meaning.Confining to Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus and Philosophical Investigations, the present study first reviews and then contrasts Wittgenstein's early and later theory of meaning. It addresses the following three major aspects:(1) Based on the Tractatus, it briefly examines his early theory of meaning, the picture theory, and the related distinction between what can be said and what can't be said. The exploration of the source of thought underlying this period is also included.(2) In his mature work, the Philosophical Investigations, his later theory of meaning is reviewed. Most of what is central to the theory is canvassed, such as language games, family resemblance, forms of life, private language and etc. The transitional period is sketched out in advance.(3) It's clear that his view experienced much more alteration, so this dissertation tries to detect the changes, especially from logically ideal language to ordinary language, from private language to public language and the difference in the place of man in his theory of meaning by the contrastive analysis of the early and later periods. It proves that Wittgenstein's theory of meaning traveled a long way and eventually came back to the rough ground, to the form of life.