Abstract

Language, said Locke, “is the great instrument and common tie of society.” “Language,” said Dewey, is “the tool of tools.” According to Wittgenstein, “Language is an instrument.” The instrumental characterization of language has had a long and respectable history, which is a curious fact, considering that as often as not philosophers and others who have affirmed it have evidenced less than full satisfaction with it. It is perhaps such dissatisfaction that urged Locke to add the qualification of “common tie” and that moved Wittgenstein to throw in the suggestion that language is “a form of life”