Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Philosophische Bemerkungen

Wittgenstein completed the Tractatus in August of 1918. From then until February of 1929, Wittgenstein produced no philosophical writing (aside from a few letters to Russell and Ogden explaining parts of the Tractatus). In January of 1929 he returned to Cambridge to work with Frank Ramsey, and shortly thereafter, began to record his philosophical thoughts in notebooks. The first of these notebooks was titled "Philosophische Bemerkungen" (MS 105 in von Wright's catalogue).

With this blog, I plan to translate MS 105 at the slow but steady pace of one page a week. I will also comment on or ask questions about the translated passages. My reason for doing this is twofold: (1) to work on my German (so corrections are welcome), and (2) to better understand Wittgenstein's philosophical concerns in 1929.