French Literature Reviews - 2026

Wittgenstein and the Bewitchment of Language
Philosophy, Anthropology and Ideas

Essays III, Wittgenstein & the Bewitchment of Language, Jacques Bouveresse

For Wittgenstein, the significance of philosophy is that of language itself, its role in our lives, and its grip on our ways of thinking and acting. As he once wrote, "language is everything," and it is from their intimate connection with language that philosophical problems derive their distinctiveness, depth, and difficulty. Behind these
problems, there is generally nothing more than confusion and linguistic fog. Yet one must still be willing to do what is necessary to dispel them. Dismissing most of what philosophers say as "nonsense" obviously
solves no problem. The philosophical journey consists in moving from hidden nonsense to patent nonsense, overcoming a special kind of resistance in order to achieve this. What Wittgenstein says about how a philosophical problem can be framed and resolved is not an invitation to
(anti-)philosophical laziness, but rather a call to work of a particular difficulty whose outcome is by no means guaranteed.

For over thirty years, Jacques Bouveresse has been exploring Wittgenstein's ideas and making them accessible to non-specialists. Serving as an introduction to this body of thought as a whole, this volume outlines his conception of philosophical problems and applies the "Wittgensteinian method" to several classic examples: science and belief, language and image, action and its motives, as well as time.

This volume belongs to a long-standing tradition of twentieth-century commentary that examines the profound implications of the linguistic turn for contemporary philosophy. The study of language as a central medium through which human thought operates has occupied many prominent thinkers across various intellectual movements, particularly within analytical philosophy and the philosophy of language. By focusing on the ways in which linguistic structures can obscure or distort understanding, scholars have consistently sought to clarify the boundaries of meaningful discourse and to address the persistent conceptual difficulties that arise when language is misunderstood or misused.

Readers interested in philosophy, Wittgensteinian studies, and the philosophy of language may find it relevant. Jacques Bouveresse has spent over thirty years exploring Wittgenstein's ideas and making them accessible to non-specialists. Serving as an introduction to this body of thought as a whole, this volume outlines his conception of philosophical problems and applies the method to several classic examples, including science and belief, language and image, action and its motives, as well as time.