Rewriting language: Heidegger and Wittgenstein on the metaphysics of meaning

Since the beginning of the twentieth century, the discipline of philosophy has become increasingly concerned with language and the role it plays in human experience. Wittgenstein and Heidegger are two of the first to dedicate large portions of their writing to the exploration of this topic. But, though they were both concerned with the metaphysics of language, their approaches to language were very different and have often been interpreted as diametrically opposed, even incompatible, by subsequent thinkers. The analysis Wittgenstein proposes in his later writings is pragmatic and practical, while Heidegger's late writings on language are highly theoretical, one might even say excessively metaphysical. This essay will attempt to show that Wittgenstein's concern with the pragmatic and Heidegger's concern with the metaphysical are not incompatible ways of approaching language. Rather, they are complimentary: only when we combine the concerns of both philosophers do we get a complete picture of the metaphysics of language.