Our Language Games

Abstract

In the previous two chapters we discussed the kind of rules that can be expected to underlie our linguistic practices and the kind of normativity that is inherent to them. The upshot of these considerations was that certain rules are capable of constituting ‘inner spaces’ providing for new spectra of actions, and especially that the rules of language constitute the space of meaningfulness aka the space of reasons. This constitution requires a conspiracy of a plurality of rules: an inner space comes into being only when all the voussoirs interlock appropriately to form a solid vault — when the rules interact with one another in a specific, fruitful way.