An Enquiry into Plato's and Wittgenstein's Conception of Language

Abstract

This thesis explores the similarities and differences between Plato's and Wittgenstein's conception of language and more particularly the notion of linguistic correctness, as derived from two important remarks in Saint Augustine's De Magistro. These two remarks provided a twofold notion of linguistic correctness:

1. The correct use of words and the working of such correct use; 2. The correctness of language in comparison to reality and the possibility of acquiring knowledge of things through (the study of) words.

The thesis gives a survey of both Plato's and Wittgenstein's view concerning the central subject and argues that their views are more similar than they are usually thought to be. Plato subscribes, it is argued, to a form of linguistic conventionalism in the Cratylus and this form of linguistic conventionalism is rather like Wittgenstein's conception of language and of linguistic correctness as such.