What is called language? In the history of Western philosophy, we have different answers to this question. However, according to Wittgenstein and Gadamer, these different answers are basically similar, and both criticize this basic approach. Gadamer refers to the history of Western philosophy as the history of forgetfulness of language. But he regards Augustine as an exception in this history; for Gadamer, Augustine has appreciated the central status of language and the vital relation between language and thought through his idea of the inner word. However, Wittgenstein introduces Augustine as the main agent of the basic approach of Western philosophy to language, raising his criticisms of this basic approach by objecting to Augustine's claims. In this article, I review these two different interpretations and think about the possibility of making an affinity and compromise between Gadamer's narration of Augustine's idea of the inner word and Wittgenstein's philosophy of language.
Augustine St (2004). Confessions. Massachusetts: Hendrickson Pub. [Link]
Baker GP, Hacker PMS (2005). Wittgenstein, understanding and meaning; an analytical commentary on the Philosophical Investigations essays (Volume 1, Part 1). 2nd Edition. New Jersey: Wiley-Blackwell. [Link] [DOI:10.1002/9780470752807]
Figal G (2002). The doing of the thing itself: Gadamer's hermeneutic ontology of language. In: Dostal RJ, editors. The Cambridge Companion to Gadamer. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 102-125. [Link] [DOI:10.1017/CCOL0521801931.006]
Gadamer HG (2013). Truth and Method. In: Weinsheimer J, Marshall DG, translator. New York: Bloomsbury. [Link]
Grondin J (2003). The philosophy of Gadamer. In: Plant K, translator. Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press. [Link] [DOI:10.1515/9780773582217]
Kirwan C (2006). Augustine's philosophy of language. In: The Cambridge Companion to Augustine (Cambridge Companions to Philosophy) Cambridge Companions Online. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 186-204. [Link] [DOI:10.1017/CCOL0521650186.015]
Lawn C (2006). Wittgenstein and Gadamer: Towards a Post-analytic philosophy of language (Continuum studies in British philosophy). London: Continuum. [Link]
Lawn C, Keane N (2011). The Gadamer Dictionary (Continuum Philosophy Dictionaries Book 5). London: Continuum. [Link]
Mickevičius A (2022). Hans-Georg Gadamer verbum interius importance for hermeneutics. Tomsk State University Journal of Philosophy, Sociology and Political Science. 65:100-110. [Link] [DOI:10.17223/1998863X/65/10]
Morris M (2007). An introduction to the philosophy of language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [Link]
Richter D (2014) Historical dictionary of Wittgenstein's philosophy (Historical dictionaries of religions, philosophies, and movements). 2nd Edition. Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. [Link]
Shanker S (2003). The conflict between Wittgenstein and Quine on the nature of language and cognition and its implications for contraint theory. In: Arrington RL, Glock HJ, editors. Wittgenstein and, Quine. London: Routledge. [Link]
Vessey D (2023). The medieval roots of Gadamer's claim for hermeneutic universality. Available from: https://www.academia.edu/2903502/The_Medieval_Roots_of_Hermeneutic_Universality [Link]
Philosophical Thought