Language as Environment: an Ecological Approach to Wittgenstein’s Form of Life

Abstract

This paper works out a new way of seeing at the concept of Lebensform to show how
it functions in establishing a new semantic approach in Wittgenstein. I show how
the beginning of the PU could be read as a trial for the conversion to a new way
of seeing the language-world connection. Wittgenstein eliminates the need for
this link showing the ecology of the linguistic environment. The rhetoric of
conversion is based upon two points: (i) the passage from language as an event
to language as a process contained in the distinction in PI § 16 between Sprache
and Wortsprache; (ii) the reflection on training in language and its
foundational role. As suggested by the anthropologist Ingold training is a
matter of dwelling the world, or of building it. Taking hints from the
ecological literature and the philosophy of practical holism I give a positive
account of the Lebensform.