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  • Chapter 10 - What Is Meaning? A Wittgensteinian Answer to an Un-Wittgensteinian Question

  • Edited by James Conant, University of Chicago, Sebastian Sunday, University of Oxford
  • Book:
    Wittgenstein on Philosophy, Objectivity, and Meaning
    Published online:
    15 August 2019
    Print publication:
    15 August 2019, pp 185-210

  • Summary

    Wittgenstein has often been ascribed a ‘use-theory of meaning’. However, he explicitly renounced theory construction. Furthermore, his slogan ‘Don’t ask for the meaning, ask for the use!’ invites circumventing the question ‘What is meaning?’ altogether. This chapter argues that, Wittgenstein’s ambivalence notwithstanding, there is no merit in avoiding the title question (‘What is meaning?’). Moreover, it is argued that, while Wittgenstein’s reflections are incompatible with a formal theory of meaning, they do lay the foundations of a viable account of the concept of linguistic meaning, namely by elucidating its connections with other concepts like those of rule, explanation, and understanding. The chapter makes a case for a use-theory thus understood.