Pris, I. E. «Meaning as Use»

Abstract: Emphasis on theory in Wittgenstein’s philosophy in terms of natural practices (language-games and life forms) places it in close relations with Heidegger’s normative pragmatism. In particular, Heidegger focuses on the term «use», too. However, a French philosopher Jocelyn Benoist disputes that the analogy between Wittgenstein’s and Heidegger’s definitions of «use» has such a close nature. The author of the present article comes back to the question about this analogy and tries to clarify whether theorization of Wittgenstein’s term «use» is actually possible. The research was carried out based on the synthesis of hermeneutic and analytical methods in analyzing Heidegger’s and Wittengstein’s texts from the point of view of modern analytical philosophy and, in particular, analytical pragmatism. The author of the article tries to outline a closer relation between Wittengstein’s and Heidegger’s philosophies within the framework of normative pragmatism and naturalism. The author also offers analytical interpretation of certain Wittengstein’s terms such as rules, use, family resemblance, aspect and others). The author of the article establishes that Wittengstein’s philosophy contains implicit metaphysics that is turned into explicit metaphysics by Heidegger.

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