A Tentative Comparison Between Heidegger And Wittgenstein’s Thinking Of World

The "World" is one of the major subjects of Heidegger and Wittgenstein’s philosophical career, occupying a prominent position in their early masterpieces of Being and Time and Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. This article tries to conduct a tentative comparison between Heidegger and Wittgenstein’s thinking of "World" in an attempt to reveal the inclination of "taking different paths" and "reaching the same destination" in their dealing with the problem of the "World".The "Introduction" offers a brief analysis on the necessity, basic train of thoughts and framework of the article.Chapter One carries out a preliminary planning of the concept of World, outlining a "character portrayal" of the main ideas of the World in the history of Western philosophy in an effort to provide a background for the comparison between Heidegger and Wittgenstein’ thinking of World; in addition, it takes the fragments of Parmenides as an example to seek the source relations between Heidegger and Wittgenstein’s philosophy at the very origin of early Greek philosophy so as to set up a bridge for possible dialogue on the question of World between the two philosophers.Chapter Two focuses on the leading line for comparing Heidegger and Wittgenstein’s Worldview, i.e., the relationship between Dasein (Subject) and the World, and gives a detailed analysis on Heidegger’s "In-der-Welt-sein" and Wittgenstein’s subject which lies outside the world as its limit.Chapter Three provides a direct description of Heidegger and Wittgenstein’s thinking of world respectively.Chapter Four takes the "ostensive definition" of Wittgenstein as an example to elucidate the inclination how their thinking of world "reaches the same destination". By giving a Heideggerian-style phenomenological description to Wittgenstein’s ostensive definition, this chapter tries to reveal the interconnection between Wittgenstein’s "Form of Life" and "Language Game" and Heidegger’s "In-der-Welt-sein".