ABSTRACT
One of the most interesting aspects of writing this chapter has been my uneasy awareness that neither Wittgenstein nor Kelly would particularly approve the undertaking. Although themselves voluminous writers and generous, serious teachers, who actively sought criticism and response to their ideas, the prospect of yet more words on paper might seem equally redundant to them both. The bond between them that I hope to illustrate here is their specific interest in words in action, in use, as our form of life. Kelly created a psychological model of an inventive, inquiring human being whose perceptions and use of language are uniquely personal. Wittgenstein offers a philosophical approach to language as our form of life, where use, not dictionary definition, gives meaning. Our language defines and modulates us, how we describe our
situation may imprison or free us; Kelly and Wittgenstein are concerned with the everyday human enterprise, what we do with words, rather than solemn academic reformulations of their theories.
