ANALYTIC APPROACH TO THE NORMATIVENESS OF MEANING RULES AND SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS
ANALYTIC APPROACH TO THE NORMATIVENESS OF MEANING RULES AND SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS

Summary/Abstract: The performative character of linguistic norms and social institutions is considered in this paper through comparison of selected theses of the “late” Ludwig Wittgenstein and Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz (a Polish analytic philosopher of renown), especially theses of the latter’s conception of language in the thirties of the 20th century. The philosophical ideas of both of them are interpreted as paradigmatic patterns of the so-called „directive theories of meaning”. The directive theories of meaning stipulate that linguistic meanings are constructed on the basis of definite normative rules. Such rules in the natural languages can be defined as conventions upheld by a respective linguistic community. Its collective decision supports the normative force of these rules. An impossibility of communication defines the sanction. The functioning of a respective linguistic community as a normative authority defines the performative character of the language-rules. The problem of the genesis of public meanings is the bottom-line problem of the directive theories of meaning. How could one overcome antirealism at this level? The arbitrary nature of signs and their accidental correlation with objects are arguments favouring conventionalism and antirealism. Personal meanings are determined by rules applied by a linguistic community and by accepted meanings of words and sentences. A natural language is closely intertwined with varied human activities; a linguistic community’s traditions are determined by a complex totality of objective and subjective factors.

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