Text

 

 

MS 106

 

General note on MSS 105-122 (Bände I to XVIII)

Between 1929 and 1940 Wittgenstein produced 18 large manuscript volumes. He himself numbered them as Bände I to XVIII and gave most of them general titles like “Philosophical Remarks” or “Philosophical Grammar”. This indicates that he himself perceived these volumes as belonging to a series. Some of them evidently contain new material spontaneously written down and not drafted in other notebooks. Parts of several of these volumes, however, are based on earlier remarks recorded in pocket notebooks, for example, while other parts contain revisions of earlier manuscript volumes or typescripts. The best-known case of this last kind are MSS 114ii and 115i (Bände X and XI), which contain a revision (erste Umarbeitung) of parts of TS 213 (The Big Typescript). The same typescript forms the basis of the first section of volume XII (MS 116), but the process of selecting remarks from the TS and transferring them into Band XII is such that most people would not feel inclined to speak of a process of revision. At any rate, there are clear breaks between the earlier portion of MS 114 and the subsequent revision of TS 213 contained in the same ledger as well as between the first half (winter 1933-34) of volume XI and its second half, which was written in the late summer and the autumn of 1936 (containing the German revision of the Brown Book, entitled “Philosophische Untersuchungen”).

 

General note on MSS 105-114 (Bände I to X)

There are good reasons for treating the series of volumes from I to X (or, more exactly, up to MS 114i) as forming a separate, or separable, part of Wittgenstein’s oeuvre. However, as has been pointed out above, even these volumes were not produced according to one uniform pattern. Some of the remarks were written spontaneously, as it were, that is to say without a basis in earlier drafts. Other remarks contained in these volumes were copied, or transferred in revised form, from earlier writings. Most of these volumes are punctuated by personal remarks of a private or confessional nature as well as by reflections on music, literature, religion and a few other kinds of topic. Sometimes, but by no means always, these reflections are separated from the more straightforwardly philosophical material by certain marks (e.g. “||…||”) or by being written in Wittgenstein’s usual code. But in spite of these and other qualifications that might come to mind it is helpful and surely not misleading to view volumes I to X as the central record of Wittgenstein’s strikingly  original and continuous production between his return to Cambridge in January 1929 and a new stage in the process of articulating and arranging his ideas. But even if we are agreed that these ten manuscript volumes are to be regarded as the core record of his thought during the early middle period of his philosophical development, it will be useful to divide this material into three parts, corresponding to interruptions of the writing process motivated by an urge to have his handwritten remarks typed up. Once in possession of a typed version, Wittgenstein was prepared to think about the order of his individual remarks, about possible arrangements and re-arrangements. Moreover, he could now proceed to actually carrying out such arrangements and re-arrangements by way of cutting typescript or carbon copy into fragments that were subsequently put together in a new order and, in some cases, supplemented by handwritten changes or explanations or exemplifications giving the older material a new twist. — There are three interruptions of the kind alluded to in the previous paragraph:

(1)     24 March 1930: Easter vacation, in Vienna Wittgenstein dictates selected remarks from vol.s I to IV. The result is TS 208, which is soon cut into fragments that are subsequently re-arranged so as to form TS 209 (Philosophical Remarks).

(2)     The material written down in the remainder of volume IV (MS 108) between 25 April and 9 August 1930 is dictated and typed sometime in the summer of this year (TS 210).

(3)     The contents of MSS 109-114i are sifted and dictated to a typist while on vacation in Austria. The resulting typescript (TS 211) comprises ca. 800 pages and may have been dictated in the course of two or more series of sessions. But most of the work of producing this typescript was surely done after 5 June 1932 (the last date to be found in MS 114i).

It is likely that TS 211 was completed in the summer or autumn 1932. So we may assume that in the course of less than four years (1929-32) Wittgenstein managed to fill ca. 3000 pages of manuscript volumes and dictated almost 1100 pages of this material to a typist. The story of this material is continued in other parts of this account (see especially MSS 114-15, 140, TSS 208-13), but at this point readers should allow the message to sink in: if we remember that much of this material was absolutely new and the result of reflections that stood in contrast, or were diametrically opposed, to the author’s earlier convictions, we find that we are dealing with a unique document witnessing to Wittgenstein’s stunning creative powers.

 

Notes on MS 106 (Band II)

As has been pointed out under the heading “MS 105”, MS 106 is the immediate continuation of the first half of MS 105 and is, in its turn, continued by the second half of MS 105 (Band I). Volume II is the only one among the first ten manuscript volumes which bears no title. In view of the fact that it is engulfed, as it were, by the two parts of volume I, one may feel inclined to use the title of MS 105 (Philosophische Bemerkungen) for MS 106 as well.

            The first pages in MS 106 are continuous. On p. 4 there are a few journal entries (written in code) where Wittgenstein wonders whether he is the right person for the work he intends to do and observes that he finds it relieving to write down in code those observations that he does not wish to set down in readable form. — On p. 149/296 of the manuscript volume Wittgenstein notes “Fortsetzung auf den Verso-Seiten vorne!”, thus advising the reader to return to the beginning of the manuscript volume, where, on p. 6, he will find the note “Anschluß an die letzte Rectoseite!”, thus pointing out where the reader can find the continuation of what he has been studying so far. Only after the reader has gone through ca. 150 verso pages (ending in 295, 297, 298 = 150) is he supposed to return to MS 105, where he will (on p. 6 = 133) find the note “Fortsetzung der philosophischen Betrachtungen des II. Bandes”, indicating that the next ca. 65 verso pages continue the text of volume II.

            Like the recto pages of 105, much that is written on the early pages of MS 106 will strike most readers as rather tentative. After another 100 or 200 pages the author sounds much more confident. Questions discussed include generality, time, syntax, colours, intuitionism, infinity, internal relations, and various other ideas. There are illustrations and remarks strongly reminiscent of Wittgenstein’s paper “Some Remarks on Logical Form”. He does, for example, mention the idea of representing the distribution of colour patches by reference to a system of co-ordinates as well as ways of projecting geometrical figures from one plane onto another plane.

            Besides the names of authors alluded to in MS 105, there are references to Nicod, Brouwer and Weyl, for example.

            Many of the remarks contained in this manuscript volume can be found in Philosophische Bemerkungen (Philosophical Remarks).