Can there be a Private Language?

The Anomalous Foundations of Dream Telling: Objective Solipsism and the Problem of Meaning

“…This hypothesis does, however, fly in the face of a number of sociological principles concerning social constraint, namely that constraint is ritually imposed by people on one another, never something imposed by one person upon that very same person as both target and original source of the constraint. Likened to measuring one's height by putting one's hand on top of one's head, such imagined solipsisms have figured into secondary analysis of Ludwig Wittgenstein's ''private language'' controversy (Ayer 1954;Rhees 1954) and to the above referenced study (Hilbert 1984) concerning why chronic pain patients are unable to describe pain, even to their own satisfaction, in the absence of social confirmation or feedback. The principle is also demonstrably present, as stated earlier, in Garfinkel's (1967) breaching experiments.…”

Hermione’s Sophism: Ordinariness and Theatricality in The Winter’s Tale

“…(1.2.45-55) Here, it becomes clear that Hermione regards conversation precisely as a game in which success depends on "mastering techniques and skills," and in which, ultimately, nothing new is or can be said, because the game cannot be said to be "about" anything but itself. 9 By thus denying the subjective and contingent aspect of the exchange, Hermione shuts out any possibility of understanding Polixenes's appeal to external exigencies, and (even more so) the claim these exigencies have on their game, and thus on her. While her speech succeeds in its aim, it also implies, ominously, that this success is only achieved by the game's usurpation of reality, and by the possible coercion, rather than willing participation, of its players.…”

“…Consequently, learning to converse is precisely unlike "mastering [the] techniques and skills" of a game. 4 Engaging in genuine conversation requires consideration of the relational and practical contexts that bear on the present situation; it demands that one allow oneself to be implicated in one's words, to realize that they imply commitments (both past and future) that extend beyond the present context.…”

A natureza intersubjetiva do significado em Bakhtin e Wittgenstein

“…Embora escrito numa prosa sem muitos torneios, o texto é hermético, porque muito alusivo e elíptico. Uma maneira de entender o que está em jogo aqui, que hoje seria provavelmente considerada uma leitura kripkiana (KRIPKE, 1982), mas que se inscreve numa linhagem mais longa que tem provavelmente início na interpretação de Rush Rhees (1954), aluno e amigo de Wittgenstein, seria dizer que o pano de fundo não explicitado dessa discussão é justamente a tese que nos interessa investigar, sobre a natureza necessariamente social da linguagem. A observação 243 abre com um tipo de resistência a essa tese.…”