Henrique Mendes Gonçalves

This study examines two analogies that are employed by Ludwig Wittgenstein in order to describe language throughout his work. Namely: the conception of language as an autonomous calculus with fixed rules, held by the philosopher during the intermediate period of his philosophical development, and the notion of language games, extensively used in the Philosophical Investigations. Furthermore, I try to show what were the reasons that made the author characterize, retrospectively, also his logico-syntactical account in the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus as part of the conception of language as a calculus. Finally, I show how the elucidation of what lies behind each one of these two models may help in understanding the transformations that took place throughout the intermediate period.