THIS IS A DRAFT VERSION – PLEASE DON’T QUOTE OR CIRCULATE WITHOUT PERMISSION Wittgenstein reads Heidegger, Heidegger reads Wittgenstein: Thinking Language Bounding World

This is a tale of two readings, and of a non-encounter, the missed encounter between two philosophers whose legacy, as has been noted, might jointly define the scope of problems and questions left open, in the wake of the twentieth century, for philosophy today. In particular, I will discuss today two remarks, one by Wittgenstein on Heidegger, and the other by Heidegger on Wittgenstein; as far as I know, the first is the only recorded remark by Wittgenstein about Heidegger, and the second is one of only two by Heidegger about Wittgenstein. 1 As readings, both remarks that I shall discuss are, at best, partial, elliptical, and glancing. Interestingly, as I shall argue, each is actually a suggestive misreading of the one philosopher by the other. By considering these two misreadings, I shall argue, we can understand better the relationship between the two great twentieth century investigators of the obscure linkages among being, language and truth. And we can gain some insight into some of the many questions still left open by the many failed encounters of twentieth century philosophy, up to and including what might be considered the most definitive encounter that is still routinely missed, miscarried, or misunderstood, the encounter between the “traditions” of “analytic” and “continental” philosophy, which are still widely supposed to be disjoint.