Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-m8qmq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T00:32:15.326Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Wittgenstein's Heirs and Editors

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 September 2020

Christian Erbacher
Affiliation:
Universität Siegen, Germany

Summary

Ludwig Wittgenstein is one of the most widely read philosophers of the twentieth century. But the books in which his philosophy was published – with the exception of his early work Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus – were posthumously edited from the writings he left to posterity. How did his 20,000 pages of philosophical writing become published volumes? Using extensive archival material, this Element reconstructs and examines the way in which Wittgenstein's writings were edited over more than fifty years, and shows how the published volumes tell a thrilling story of philosophical inheritance. The discussion ranges over the conflicts between the editors, their deviations from Wittgenstein's manuscripts, other scholarly issues which arose, and also the shared philosophical tradition of the editors, which animated their desire to be faithful to Wittgenstein and to make his writings both available and accessible. The Element can thus be read as a companion to all of Wittgenstein's published works of philosophy.
Get access
Type
Element
Information
Online ISBN: 9781108878111
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication: 10 December 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Bibliography

Primary Sources

Secondary Sources

Anscombe, G. E. M., ‘Aristotle’ in Anscombe, G. E. M. and Geach, P, Three Philosophers (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1961), pp. 163.Google Scholar
Anscombe, G. E. M., The Collected Philosophical Papers of G.E.M. Anscombe. Vol. II. Metaphysics and the Philosophy of Mind (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1981).Google Scholar
Anscombe, G. E. M., An Introduction to Wittgenstein’s Tractatus (London: Hutchinson, 1959).Google Scholar
Anscombe, G. E. M., From Plato to Wittgenstein, edited by Geach, M and Gormally, L (St Andrews: St Andrews Studies in Philosophy and Public Affairs, 2011).Google Scholar
Anscombe, G. E. M., ‘Letter to the Editor’, Der Monat, 43 (1952), 97–8.Google Scholar
Anscombe, G. E. M., ‘The Reality of the Past’ in Black, M (ed.), Philosophical Analysis: A Collection of Essays (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1950), 3859.Google Scholar
Anscombe, G. E. M., Rhees, R. and von Wright, G. H., ‘Note’, Mind, 60 (1951), 584.Google Scholar
Bartley, W. W., Wittgenstein (London: Quartet Books, 1973).Google Scholar
Baum, W., Wittgenstein im ersten Weltkrieg (Vienna: Kitab-Verlag, 2014).Google Scholar
Broad, C. D., ‘Hr. von Wright on the Logic of Induction (I–III)’, Mind, 53 (1944), 124, 97119, 193214.Google Scholar
Broad, C. D., ‘Review of Norman Malcolm. Ludwig Wittgenstein: A Memoir’, Universities Quarterly (= Higher Education Quarterly), 13 (1959), 304–06.Google Scholar
Cranston, M., ‘Bildnis eines Philosophen’, Der Monat, 41 (1952), 495–7. Reprinted in: Ludwig Wittgenstein: Schriften: Beiheft (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1960), pp. 16–20.Google Scholar
Erbacher, C., ‘“Among the omitted stuff, there are many good remarks of a general nature” – On the Making of von Wright and Wittgenstein’s Culture and Value’, Northern European Journal of Philosophy, SATS, 18(2) (2017), 79113.Google Scholar
Erbacher, C., ‘Brief aus Norwegen’, Deutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie, 65(3) (2017), 574–88.Google Scholar
Erbacher, C., ‘Das Drama von Tübingen. Eine Humanities and Technology Story’, Working Paper Series Media of Cooperation, 13 (2019), 142.Google Scholar
Erbacher, C., ‘Editorial Approaches to Wittgenstein’s Nachlass: Towards a Historical Appreciation’, Philosophical Investigations, 38 (2015), 165–98.Google Scholar
Erbacher, C., ‘“Good” Philosophical Reasons for “Bad” Editorial Philology? On Rhees and Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Grammar’, Philosophical Investigations, 42(2) (2019), 111145.Google Scholar
Erbacher, C., ‘The Letters which Rush Rhees, Elizabeth Anscombe, and Georg Henrik von Wright Sent to Each Other’, in Wallgren, T (ed.), The Creation of Wittgenstein (London: Bloomsbury, forthcoming).Google Scholar
Erbacher, C., ‘Unser Denken bleibt gefragt: Web 3.0 und Wittgensteins Nachlass’, in Windholz, S and Feigl, W (eds.), Wissenschaftstheorie, Sprachkritik und Wittgenstein (Heusenstamm: Ontos, 2011), 135146.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Erbacher, C., ‘Wittgenstein and his Literary Executors – Rush Rhees, Georg Henrik von Wright and Elizabeth Anscombe as Students, Colleagues and Friends of Ludwig Wittgenstein’, The Journal for the History of Analytical Philosophy, 4(3) (2016), 139.Google Scholar
Erbacher, C., dos Santos Reis, A. and Jung, J., ‘“Ludwig Wittgenstein” – A BBC Radio Talk by Elizabeth Anscombe in May 1953’, Nordic Wittgenstein Review 8(1–2) (2019), 225–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Erbacher, C., Jung, J. and Seibel, A., ‘The Logbook of Editing Wittgenstein’s Philosophische Bemerkungen’, Nordic Wittgenstein Review 6(1) (2017), 105–47.Google Scholar
Erbacher, C. and Krebs, S. V., ‘The First Nine Months of Editing Wittgenstein: Letters from G. E. M. Anscombe and R. Rhees to G. H. v. Wright’, Nordic Wittgenstein Review, 4 (2015), 195231.Google Scholar
Erbacher, C. and Schirmer, T., ‘On Continuity: Rush Rhees on Outer and Inner Surfaces of Bodies’, Philosophical Investigations, 39 (2016), 330.Google Scholar
Ferrater Mora, J., ‘Wittgenstein oder die Destruktion’, Der Monat, 41 (1952), 489–95. Reprinted in: Ludwig Wittgenstein: Schriften: Beiheft (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1960), pp. 21–9.Google Scholar
Gasking, D. A. T. and Jackson, A. C., ‘Ludwig Wittgenstein’, Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 29 (1953), 7380.Google Scholar
Groddeck, W., Martens, G., Reuß, and Straengle, P.Gespräch über die Bände 7 & 8 der Frankfurt Hölderlin-AusgabeText. Kritische Beiträge 8 (2003), 155.Google Scholar
Ground, I. and Flowers, III, F., Portraits of Wittgenstein (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2015).Google Scholar
Hacker, P. and Baker, G., Volume 1–4 of an Analytical Commentary in Philosophical Investigations (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 1980–1996).Google Scholar
Harrè, R., ‘Gilbert Ryle and the Tractatus’, Linacre Journal, 3 (1999), 3953. www.linacre.ox.ac.uk/facilities/library/gilbert-ryle-collectionGoogle Scholar
Hayek, F. A. v., Friedrich August von Hayek’s Draft Biography of Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Text and Its History (Paderborn: Mentis, 2019).Google Scholar
Hintikka, J., ‘An Impatient Man and His Papers’, Synthese, 87(2) (1991), 183201.Google Scholar
Hintikka, J., ‘On Wittgenstein’s ‘Solipsism”, Mind, 67(265) (1958), 8891.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hölderlin, F., Sämtliche Werke. Historisch-kritische Ausgabe in 20 Bänden und 3 Supplementen, edited by Sattler, D. E. (Frankfurt am Main, Basel: Stroemfeld/Roter Stern, 1975–2008).Google Scholar
Huitfeldt, C., ‘Multi-Dimensional Texts in a One-Dimensional Medium’, Computers and the Humanities, 28 (1995), 235–41.Google Scholar
Huitfeldt, C.Toward a Machine Readable Version of Wittgenstein’s Nachlaß. Some Editorial Problems’, in Senger, H. G. (ed.), Editio, 6, Philosophische Editionen (Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1994), pp. 3743.Google Scholar
Huitfeldt, C. and Rossvær, V., The Norwegian Wittgenstein Project Report 1988 (Bergen: University of Bergen, 1988).Google Scholar
Janik, A., ‘Remembering Kirchberg 1977’, in Kanzian, C, Munz, V and Windholz, S (eds.), Wir hofften jedes Jahr noch ein weiteres Symposium machen zu können. Zum 30. Internationalen Wittgenstein Symposium in Kirchberg am Wechsel (Heusenstamm: Ontos, 2007), pp. 94–5.Google Scholar
Janik, A., Wittgenstein’s Vienna Revisited (New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 2001).Google Scholar
Kenny, A., ‘A Brief History of Wittgenstein Editing’, in Pichler, A and Säätelä, S (eds.), Wittgenstein: The Philosopher and His Works (Heusenstamm: Ontos, 2005), 341–55.Google Scholar
Kenny, A., ‘From the Big Typescript to the Philosophical Grammar’, in Hintikka, J (ed.), Essays on Wittgenstein in Honour of G. H. Von Wright, Acta Philosophica Fennica, 28 (Helsinki: University of Helsinki, 1976),pp. 4153.Google Scholar
Kenny, A., A Life in Oxford (London: John Murray, 1997).Google Scholar
Klagge, J., Wittgenstein in Exile (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2011).Google Scholar
Klagge, J., ‘The Wittgenstein Lectures, Revisited’, Nordic Wittgenstein Review, 8(1+2) (2019), 1182.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kreisel, G., ‘Wittgenstein’s Remarks on the Foundations of Mathematics’, British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 9(34) (1958), 135–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Malcolm, N., ‘Wittgenstein, Ludwig Josef Johann’, in Edwards, P (ed.), The Encyclopedia of Philosophy (London: Macmillan Company and The Free Press, 1967), 327–40.Google Scholar
Maury, A., ‘Sources of the Remarks in Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations’, Synthese, 98 (1994), 349–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maury, A., ‘Sources of the Remarks in Wittgenstein’s Zettel’, Philosophical Investigations, 4 (1981), 5774.Google Scholar
McGuinness, B. F., Approaches to Wittgenstein: Collected Papers (London: Routledge, 2002).Google Scholar
McGuinness, B. F., Wittgenstein: A Life. Young Ludwig, 1889–1921 (London: Duckworth, 1988).Google Scholar
McGuinness, B. F., Wittgenstein und Schlick (Berlin: Parerga Verlag, 2010).Google Scholar
McGuinness, B. F. (ed.), Moritz Schlick (Heidelberg: Springer, 1985).Google Scholar
McGuinness, B. F. and Edwards-McKie, S., ‘A Tapestry: Susan Edwards-McKie Interviews Professor Dr. B. F. McGuinness on the Occasion of His 90th Birthday’, Nordic Wittgenstein Review, 6(2) (2017), 8590.Google Scholar
Monk, R., Ludwig Wittgenstein – The Duty of Genius (London: Vintage, 1991).Google Scholar
Moyal-Sharrock, D. (ed.), The Third Wittgenstein. The Post-Investigations Works (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004).Google Scholar
Mühlhölzer, F., Braucht die Mathematik eine Grundlegung? Ein Kommentar des Teils III von Wittgensteins Bemerkungen über die ‘Grundlagen der Mathematik’ (Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann, 2010).Google Scholar
Nedo, M., Einführung in die Wiener Ausgabe (Vienna: Springer, 1993).Google Scholar
New York Times, ‘Radicalism of Rochester President’s Son Causes Professor to Bar Youth from Class’, 28 February 1924, 1.Google Scholar
Österman, B., ‘“He is a Perfect Nature-Being – and a Perfect Viennese!”: Von Wright and Wittgenstein in Cambridge 1939’, in Siegetsleitner, A, Oberprantacher, A, and Frick, M-L (eds.), Crisis and Critique: Philosophical Analysis and Current Events: 42nd International Wittgenstein Symposium. Kirchberg am Wechsel 4.-10. August 2019, Vol. 42 (Kirchberg am Wechsel, 2019), pp. 181–83.Google Scholar
Österman, B., ‘Healing the Rift: How G. H. v. Wright made Philosophy Relevant to his Life’, Journal for the History of Analytical Philosophy, 7(8) (2019), 118.Google Scholar
Paul, D., Wittgenstein’s Progress 1929–1951 (Bergen: Wittgenstein Archives, 2007).Google Scholar
Penrose, L. S. and Penrose, R., ‘Impossible Objects: A Special Type of Visual Illusion’, British Journal of Psychology, 49(1) (1958), 31–3.Google Scholar
Phillips, D. Z., ‘Rush Rhees: A Biographical Sketch’, in Phillips, D. Z. (ed.), Wittgenstein and the Possibility of Discourse, 2nd edition (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2006), pp. 266–75.Google Scholar
Pichler, A., Untersuchungen zu Wittgensteins Nachlaß (Bergen: Wittgenstein Archives, 1994).Google Scholar
Pichler, A., Biggs, M. A. R. and Szeltner, S. A., ‘Bibliographie der deutsch- und englischsprachigen Wittgenstein-Ausgaben’, Wittgenstein-Studien, 2 (2011), 249–86. www.ilwg.eu/files/Wittgenstein_Bibliographie.pdf. Accessed 27 August 2019.Google Scholar
Pichler, A. and Bruvik, T. M., ‘Digital Critical Editing: Separating Encoding from Presentation’, in Apollon, D, Belisle, C and Regnier, P (eds.), Digital Critical Editions (Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2014), pp. 179–99.Google Scholar
Pilch, M., ‘Frontverläufe in Wittgenstein Prototractatus’, Wittgenstein-Studien, 9(1) (2018), 101–54.Google Scholar
Potter, M., Wittgenstein’s Notes on Logic (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011).Google Scholar
Ranchetti, M., Lezioni e conversazioni sull’etica, l’estetica, la psicologia e la credenza religiosa, edited by Ranchetti, M (Milan: Adelphi 1967).Google Scholar
Redpath, T., Ludwig Wittgenstein: A Student’s Memoir (London: Duckworth, 1990).Google Scholar
Rhees, R., ‘The Tractatus: Seeds of Some Misunderstandings’, Philosophical Review, 72(2) (1963), 213–20.Google Scholar
Rhees, R., ‘Wittgenstein’, The Human World, 14 (1974), 6678.Google Scholar
Rhees, R., Wittgenstein’s On Certainty. There – Like Our Lifes, edited by Phillips, D. Z. (Malden: Blackwell, 2003).Google Scholar
Rhees, R. (ed.), Recollections of Wittgenstein (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984).Google Scholar
Rinofner-Kreidl, S. and Wiltsche, H. A. (eds.), Analytic and Continental Philosophy – Methods and Perspectives. Proceedings of the 37th International Wittgenstein Symposium (Berlin: DeGruyter, 2016).Google Scholar
Rothhaupt, J., ‘Wittgensteins “General Remarks”’, Wittgenstein-Studien, 8 (2017), 103–36.Google Scholar
Schulte, J., ‘Memories of Georg Henrik von Wright’, in G. Meggle and R. Vilkko (eds.), ‘Georg Henrik von Wright’s book of friends’, Acta Philosophica Fennica, 92 (2016), 187202.Google Scholar
Schulte, J., ‘Die Revision der englischen Übersetzung von Wittgensteins Philosophischen Untersuchungen. Ein Erfahrungsbericht’, in Kroß, M and Ramharter, E (eds.), Wittgenstein übersetzen (Berlin: Parerga Verlag, 2012), pp. 173–94.Google Scholar
Schulte, J., ‘Der Waismann-Nachlass’, Zeitschrift für Philosophische Forschung, 33 (1976), 108–40.Google Scholar
Schulte, J., ‘What Is a Work by Wittgenstein?’, in Pichler, A and Säätelä, S (eds.), Wittgenstein: The Philosopher and His Works (Heusenstamm: Ontos, 2005), pp. 397404.Google Scholar
Schulte, J., ‘Wittgenstein’s Last Writings’, in Rinofner-Kreidl, S and Wiltsche, H. A. (eds.), Analytic and Continental Philosophy Methods and Perspectives. Proceedings of the 37th International Wittgenstein Symposium (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2016), pp. 6378.Google Scholar
Somavilla, I., ‘Wittgenstein’s Coded Remarks in the Context of His Philosophizing’, in Venturinha, N (ed.), Wittgenstein After His Nachlass (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), pp. 3059.Google Scholar
Stadler, F., Studien zum Wiener Kreis. Ursprung, Entwicklung and Wirkung des Logischen Empirismus im Kontext (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1997).Google Scholar
Stern, D., ‘The Availability of Wittgenstein’s Philosophy’, in Sluga, H and Stern, D (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to Wittgenstein (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), pp. 442–76.Google Scholar
Stern, D. G., ‘How Many Wittgensteins?’, in Pichler, A and Säätelä, S (eds.), Wittgenstein: The Philosopher and His Works (Heusenstamm: Ontos, 2005), pp. 164–88.Google Scholar
Teichmann, J. (2001). (Gertrude) Elizabeth Margaret Anscombe (1919–2001). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. www.oxforddnb.com/. Accessed 10 December 2013.Google Scholar
Teichmann, R., The Philosophy of Elizabeth Anscombe (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008).Google Scholar
Toulmin, S. and Janik, A., Wittgenstein’s Vienna (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1973).Google Scholar
Uffelmann, S., ‘Vom System zum Gebrauch. Eine genetischphilosophische Untersuchung des Grammatikbegriffs bei Wittgenstein’, in Conant, J, Kienzler, W, Majetschak, S, Munz, V, Rothaupt, J, Stern, D, and Vossenkuhl, W (eds.), Über Wittgenstein, 3 vols. (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2018), vol. 3.Google Scholar
Urmson, J. O., Philosophical Analysis: Its Development Between the Two World Wars (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1956).Google Scholar
Westergaard, P., ‘On the “Ketner and Eigsti Edition” of Wittgenstein’s Remarks on Frazer’s The Golden Bough, Nordic Wittgenstein Review 4(2) (2015), 117–42.Google Scholar
Wisdom, J., ‘Philosophical Perplexity’, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 37 (1937), 7188.Google Scholar
The Wittgenstein Archives at the University of Bergen, ‘The Wittgenstein Archive at the University of Bergen: Annual Report 1995’, Working Papers from the Wittgenstein Archives at the University of Bergen, No 12 (1996).Google Scholar
The Wittgenstein Archives at the University of Bergen, ‘The Wittgenstein Archive at the University of Bergen: Project Report 1990–1993 and Critical Evaluation’, Working Papers from the Wittgenstein Archives at the University of Bergen, No 9 (1995).Google Scholar
The Wittgenstein Archives at the University of Bergen, ‘The Wittgenstein Archive at the University of Bergen: Background, Project Plan, and Annual Report 1990’, Working Papers from the Wittgenstein Archives at the University of Bergen, No 2 (1991).Google Scholar
Wittgenstein, L., Rhees, R. and Citron, G. (eds.), ‘Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Conversations with Rush Rhees (1939–50): From the Notes of Rush RheesMind, 142 (2015), 171.Google Scholar
Wright, G. H. v., ‘Intellectual Autobiography’ in Schilpp, P. A. and Hahn, L. E. (eds.), The Philosophy of Georg Henrik von Wright, Volume 19 (La Salle, IL: Open Court, 1989), pp. 358.Google Scholar
Wright, G. H. v., ‘Logistik filosofi’, Nya Argus, 13 (1938), 175–7.Google Scholar
Wright, G. H. v., ‘Ludwig Wittgenstein: A Biographical Sketch’, Philosophical Review, 64 (1955), 527–45.Google Scholar
Wright, G. H. v., Mitt Liv som jeg minns det (Helsingfors: Söderström, 2001).Google Scholar
Wright, G. H. v., The Origin and Composition of Wittgenstein’s Investigations, in Luckhardt, C. G. (ed.), Wittgenstein: Sources and Perspectives (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1979), pp. 138–60.Google Scholar
Wright, G. H. v., ‘Special Supplement: The Wittgenstein Papers’, Philosophical Review, 78(4) (1969), 483503. Updates of the catalogue have been published in J. Klagge and A. Nordmann, Ludwig Wittgenstein. Philosophical Occasions 1912–1951 (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1993), pp. 480–510.Google Scholar
Wright, G. H. v., ‘The Troubled History of Part II of the Investigations’, Grazer Philosophische Studien, 42 (1992), 181–92.Google Scholar
Wright, G. H. v., ‘Über Wahrscheinlichkeit. Eine logische und philosophische Untersuchung’, Acta Societatis Scientiarum Fennicae Nova Series A, 3(11) (1945).Google Scholar
Wright, G. H. v., Wittgenstein (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1982).Google Scholar

Save element to Kindle

To save this element to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Wittgenstein's Heirs and Editors
Available formats
×

Save element to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Wittgenstein's Heirs and Editors
Available formats
×

Save element to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Wittgenstein's Heirs and Editors
Available formats
×