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CONTENTS | CONTENTS | ||
BIO | |||
Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein (Vienna, 26 April 1889 - Cambridge, 29 April 1951) was an Austrian philosopher who mostly worked and taught at the University of Cambridge. He’s widely considered one of the greatest philosophers of the 20<sup>th</sup> century. | Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein (Vienna, 26 April 1889 - Cambridge, 29 April 1951) was an Austrian philosopher who mostly worked and taught at the University of Cambridge. He’s widely considered one of the greatest philosophers of the 20<sup>th</sup> century. | ||
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During World War II, he served in a civil hospital. He spent the period between 1947 and 1950 between England, Ireland, and the USA, where in the summer of 1949 he sketched out his ''On Certainty.'' But his best known and most memorable, albeit unfinished work from this period remains the ''Philosophical Investigations'', which summarized the thinking of the “second” Wittgenstein and, ever since publication in 1953, it has opened flourishing perspectives for contemporary philosophy. | During World War II, he served in a civil hospital. He spent the period between 1947 and 1950 between England, Ireland, and the USA, where in the summer of 1949 he sketched out his ''On Certainty.'' But his best known and most memorable, albeit unfinished work from this period remains the ''Philosophical Investigations'', which summarized the thinking of the “second” Wittgenstein and, ever since publication in 1953, it has opened flourishing perspectives for contemporary philosophy. | ||
In his last years, he deepened his | In his last years, he deepened his acquaintance with Georg von Wright (1916-2003), Rush Rhees (1905-1989) and Elizabeth Anscombe (1919-2001), who later became the executors of his posthumous work. He died in 1951 at the age of 62. | ||
His most famous words: “Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent” (''Tractatus logico-philosophicus'', 7). His last words: “Tell them I’ve had a wonderful life". | His most famous words: “Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent” (''Tractatus logico-philosophicus'', 7). His last words: “Tell them I’ve had a wonderful life". | ||
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It has often been emphasized – even by Wittgenstein himself, in some passages – the discontinuity between his youthful thought and his mature reflections, especially in relation to the connotation of the nature of language – formally structured in the "first" Wittgenstein, linked to the variable forms of culture in the "second" Wittgenstein. However, lines of continuity can be discerned, especially in the conception of philosophy as a "critique of language" and the "ethical point" of philosophical work, which is not intended to operate a foundation or give rise to a theory, but contains a transformative force of the human being. | It has often been emphasized – even by Wittgenstein himself, in some passages – the discontinuity between his youthful thought and his mature reflections, especially in relation to the connotation of the nature of language – formally structured in the "first" Wittgenstein, linked to the variable forms of culture in the "second" Wittgenstein. However, lines of continuity can be discerned, especially in the conception of philosophy as a "critique of language" and the "ethical point" of philosophical work, which is not intended to operate a foundation or give rise to a theory, but contains a transformative force of the human being. | ||
ABOUT WITTGENSTEIN'S WORKS AND THE LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN PROJECT'S POLICY | |||
Wittgenstein wrote a lot but published little: a very short, and hilarious, review of Peter Coffey’s ''The Science of Logic''; the ''Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus''; a dictionary, or rather a spelling book, for German-speaking schoolchildren; an academic article by the title ''Some Remarks on Logical Form''; a letter to the editor of Mind. Almost everything we now have in volume format was published posthumously. After Wittgenstein died in 1951, his appointed literary executors, E. Anscombe, R. Rhees and G. von Wright, were left with the task of sorting and grouping his handwritten notes and typescripts in order to publish them. | |||
Now, the ''Nachlass'' itself – the collection of Wittgenstein’s manuscript material, the “raw” Wittgenstein – has been available online since the 2010s, almost in its entirety, both in a fac-simile edition and in an XML/HTML transcription. This was made possible by the generosity of the copyright holders of the originals, [https://www.trin.cam.ac.uk/library/wren-digital-library/modern-manuscripts/wittgenstein/ The Master and Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge], and the work of the [http://wab.uib.no/ Wittgenstein Archives Bergen]. Much of the digitalized content has been released under the [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial license]. | |||
Some parts of the ''Nachlass'' were carefully prepared for publication by Wittgenstein himself, and it is fair to assume that he would have had them printed had he lived longer. The ''Philosophical Investigations'', for which he even wrote a preface in 1945, are the best example of a text thoroughly crafted by Wittgenstein and ready for the press by the time he passed away. In other cases, however, his notes were only published as books after undergoing extensive editing: this is the case, for example, with the lectures he held in Cambridge and the private conversations, that we have received through notes taken by his students and interlocutors. There are as well midway cases, and it is with them, of course, that problems regarding publication arise. What Wittgenstein’s editors did in order to prepare the publication of such texts as ''On Certainty'', ''Remarks on Colours'', ''Zettel'', ''Philosophical Grammar'', ''Culture and Value'', and others, was a combination of selecting, grouping, and sorting, although the rendering of individual sentences has always been word-by-word, except for trivial corrections of spelling and punctuation. | |||
The aim of The Ludwig Wittgenstein Project is to make as much of the ''Nachlass'' as possible freely accessible; however, the distribution of creative works online is regulated by [[Project:About|current copyright laws]]. Copyright protects the output of all intellectual activity that has a creative nature (e.g. a translation, a selection, personal notes of a speech, and so on) as opposed to the result of mere sweat-of-the-brow work (e.g. a ''verbatim'' transcription or a reproduction). Of course, case law varies country by country, but there is a general, worldwide convergence toward the concept that a “threshold of originality” must be met for a work to be copyrighted. | |||
Based on our expertise in the field of copyright, we at the Ludwig Wittgenstein Project decided to only publish those texts for which we had strong reasons to determine that the editor’s work can not be considered creative. The list of available texts meeting these criteria is constantly being updated. | |||
One final note: the fact that an original-language text is missing from this website does not entail that it is still copyrighted. It could mean that, so far, we are not sure enough that it is safe to consider it out of copyright; but it could also mean that, so far, we didn’t have the resources to digitize it and put it online. The work goes on. | |||
* [single published works in as many collapsibles] | * [single published works in as many collapsibles] | ||