Instead of disappointment with language’s sense-making capacities, Balaska argues that Wittgenstein and Lacan can help us find in this revelation of meaning’s groundlessness an opportunity to acknowledge our own involvement in meaning, to creatively participate in it and thereby to enrich our forms of life with language.
Maria Balaska is Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Hertfordshire, UK.
1. Introduction.- 2. The Expression of Astonishment.- 3. Groundlessness in the Tractatus.- 4. The Groundlessness of Meaning in Lacan's Work.- 5. From Deflection to Reflection: A Creative Involvement with Language.- 6. From Groundlessness to Creativity: The Merits of Astonishment for Wittgenstein.- 7. From Groundlessness to Creativity: The Merits of Astonishment for Lacan.