The Form of Our Life With Language

The aim of this conference is to bring the connection into focus which obtains, according to Wittgenstein, between language and our human form of life. It is peculiar that Wittgenstein uses the expressions “language” and “form of life” in a distinctively first personal way. It is even more peculiar that he conceives of the notions of a language and our form of life as interdependent: He states that “to imagine a language is to imagine a form of life” (PI §19) and characterizes language as a “complicated form of life” (PI II, i). That language is a form of life implies that it is not merely a part of our form of life, but that which gives all of our activities – even those which do not consist in speaking – a distinctive unity.

Contributions to the conference will explore this and related topics from a Wittgensteinian viewpoint. In the second part of the conference this perspective is broadened by contributions which draw connections to German Idealism as well as to Ordinary Language Philosophy.

The Conference is hosted and sponsored by the Carl Friedrich von Siemens Foundation with additional support provided by the LMU Junior Researcher Fund and the Chair for Theoretical Philosophy at LMU Munich.

Participation in the conference is free of charge but space is limited. To register please write to [email protected].