Abstract

This chapter aims to show how far the discussion of pain unifies some apparently different topics in Wittgenstein’s _Philosophical Investigations_. Wittgenstein’s discussion of pain and its expression is important for the private language argument (among other things), but the topic also bears on his enduring concern with St. Augustine’s _Confessions_, and is related to his experiences in World War II, when he served as an army medic and had to develop sophisticated ways of distinguishing expressions of pain from their simulations. It is argued that the contrast between Augustine’s account of language learning and the actual learning of pain expression strongly motivates Wittgenstein’s use of language games and the rejection of the former _Bild_ theory. The chapter also explores the question of how the Stoic model of language influenced the Augustinian views that open the _Investigations_.