Wittgenstein: Language and Silence and the Silence of Language

The international symposium

Wittgenstein: Language and Silence and the Silence of Language

The international symposium Wittgenstein: Language and Silence and the Silence of Language, organized by the Slovenian Philosophical Society, invites contributions addressing the philosophical development and enduring significance of Ludwig Wittgenstein's thought. The event aims to bring together international scholars to reflect on Wittgenstein's intellectual trajectory and to explore dimensions of his philosophy that have often received comparatively less attention in mainstream interpretations.

Few philosophers of the twentieth century have shaped the philosophy of language as profoundly as Wittgenstein. His early work, most notably the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, sought to determine the logical limits of language and the structure of meaningful propositions. Yet the work famously concludes with the suggestion that what lies beyond these limits — ethics, aesthetics, and the mystical — cannot be meaningfully articulated but must instead be shown. Wittgenstein's later philosophy, developed in works such as the Philosophical Investigations, reoriented this project by examining language as a form of human activity embedded in practices and "forms of life," thereby shifting the focus from logical structure to linguistic use.

This symposium seeks to examine the tension between language and its limits in Wittgenstein's philosophy, with particular attention to the role of silence, ineffability, and the relationship between expression and what resists articulation. We especially welcome papers engaging with underexplored aspects of Wittgenstein's thought, including the relation between language and mysticism, the ethical implications of the unsayable, and broader reflections on the philosophical meaning of silence.