Untersuchungen von Bedeutung

The questions of what is essential to language, what philosophy should be, and what it means to follow a rule are currently being examined separately. Ludwig Wittgenstein's later investigations of these questions, on the other hand, are closely intertwined. Roland Krause undertakes an ambitious attempt, both historically and systematically, to understand this entanglement and to show that it corresponds to the factual context. Taken together, Wittgenstein's investigations of rules, language and philosophy withstand even the strongest factual objections yet raised against them, and they open up decisive insights for current research. Linguistic reference is based on the ways in which we use expressions. This practical intentionality, in turn, cannot be analysed in a behaviourist or functionalist manner, but can only be understood as the exercise of an original ability of living beings as entities. Philosophical investigations aim to make us aware of our use of expressions linguistically – and thus of the perspectives on reality inherent in our ways of life.