Bringing Back the Picture: A Revision of the Pictorial Understanding of Language in Light of Wittgenstein

Abstract

This paper argues that it is possible to recuperate the pictorial understanding of language by way of reconsidering Wittgenstein’s objections to it in two passages of the Philosophical Investigations. Working through Wittgenstein’s objections in both passages, I argue for a different conceptualization of the picture by claiming that the relationship between the picture and language need not be mere correspondence, and that pictures are ultimately pragmatic constructs motivated by particular uses of language. Pictures might be thought of as temporal applications rather than static objects, which in turn amends and recuperates representationalist accounts of language.