My theme in these reflections is the intersections between language, action, and human embodiment in the thought of the later Ludwig Wittgenstein, J.L. Austin, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and Michael Polanyi. Each of these thinkers stresses the idea that linguistic activity is primarily a behavioral phenomenon, something that human beings do in relation to each other with and by means of their bodies. Although a great deal of attention has been given to such notions as Wittgenstein’s “language-games,” Austin’s “speech acts,” Merleau-Ponty’s “embodiment,” and Polanyi’s “tacit knowing,” very little attention has been paid to social and behavioral aspects of these notions. Moreover, little if any attention has been paid to the interconnections among these thinkers’ key notions.
It is my purpose in these explorations to focus on the social, behavioral, and physical dimensions of these key ideas and to show how they interconnect with one another. Although they arose and worked in quite different philosophical contexts, each of these thinkers sought to overcome the traditional bias of philosophy toward the content and logical format of linguistic activity. Each in his own way tried to call attention to the behavioral and social dynamics involved in all human communication. Wittgenstein’s emphasis on “getting jobs done” with language, Austin’s stress on the “performative” dimension of speech, Merleau-Ponty’s focus on the role of the body in human communication and Polanyi’s stress on tacit knowing all converge on the relationship between and among “words, deeds, and embodiment.”