Comparative Study Of Language Thought Between Heidegger And Wittgenstein

Language problem was the main problem of contemporary western philosophy,and this problem has already formed a theme in Heidegger and Wittgenstein’s thoughts, and has made the thorough elaboration.This article will be guided by the philosophical speculative way, by comparing the two philosophers’ language thought,trying to figure out “the same in difference” and “difference in the same”,in order to further understand the essence of contemporary western linguistic philosophy,to sort out logic clue of the linguistic turn of western philosophy.Heidegger gave language the position of ontology through the “ontological difference”. For the sake of avoiding metaphysics, he deemed the essence of language as “Being’s Sagen”. Wittgenstein resolved metaphysics through the analysis of grammar.They contacted language problem and metaphysics to fundamentally re-examine the ontological status of language. Language was no longer considered as symbolism that reflect natural life, but an activity of people. Heidegger and Wittgenstein held that language had liquidity and openness, advocated people to restore the original meaning of language in the course of specific use, Heidegger and Wittgenstein were aware of that traditional metaphysics will only make language objectification and materialization, cause language to be solidified and ossified. Both Heidegger and Wittgenstein believed that language cannot directly tell what the ultimate truth was, the unspoken truth can only be revealed indirectly through what has been said.In this regard,both of them put on the “phenomenological glasses".Even though they were aware of the boundary of language, they still took delight in talking about “the thing that can not be said”.Obviously, their thought were with mystical veils.In addition,the different thinking ways between them were obvious.By using phenomenological method, Heidegger got language, truth and Being combined into a whole to dispel subject- object binary mode of thinking; Wittgenstein asserted that the meaning of language consisted in its usage.He used the theory of “family resemblance”broke the dream that general can be abstracted from an individual.Universal nature of metaphysics was replaced by his philosophical grammar and life style. All of these were down by means of “language game”.Comparative study of language thought between Heidegger and Wittgenstein aimed to derive a deeper level of Chinese and western languagecomparison,Heidegger and Wittgenstein’s thinking way in which surveyed language from ontological perspective provided an opportunity for us to reflect on the Chinese philosophy.Since ancient Greece,western philosophy have shown the tendency of "logocentrism",in the contemporary, language was regarded as the main object of philosophical research, even the first object. Instead, in Chinese philosophy, language have always been in a subordinate position, "Language cannot exhaust all meaning,Meaning beyond words." that sort of mindset have become the genetic gene of Chinese philosophy.Chinese philosophers have intentionally or unintentionally neglected language for a long time,it has become a habit. The entire history of Chinese philosophy was a " language forgetting history ",this was in sharp contrast with the "presence" of western linguistic philosophy and the "absence" of Chinese linguistic philosophy. Only with the whole understanding of the characteristics of Chinese and Western linguistic philosophy, can we find the crux of language problem and seek new development prospects for the dialogue and communication between Chinese and western philosophy.