The Bridge from Language to Mind: PI, §§240-256

This article is an examination of a remarkable set of 16 passages that mediate Wittgenstein’s treatment of language in the Philosophical Investigations prior to these remarks and his turn to mind, beginning with his two private language arguments of PI, §258 and PI, §293. The intervening remarks, PI, §§240-246, function to identify six central lessons concerning the nature of language that are essential to mind as well. These six stages are linked by what Wittgenstein considers the two fundamental philosophical problems for language, and now for mind: the Problem of Reference (or Identity) (PI, §239) and the Problem of the Criterion of Identity. The general conclusion is two-fold: Ordinary language is necessary to the human mind; and neither are reducible or eliminable in favor literally inner events.