Text

MS 146

C2

 

General note on C1-8

The so-called C-series of notebooks comprises 8 notebooks. The only reasons why these notebooks were grouped together (not by Wittgenstein himself, but by the trustees of his papers) seem to be the following: they are the same size, they contain the same number of pages (96), and they date back to the same period of Wittgenstein’s work (1933-36). The order (1 to 8) is more or less in accord with the chronological order in which they were written.

            Even though it is tempting to associate “C” with Cambridge, no real reason for this name is known. The association with Cambridge is particularly tempting in view of the fact that several of these notebooks contain material written in preparation of Wittgenstein’s classes or dictations. But there is no evidence whatsoever that the name “C” was used by Wittgenstein himself.

 

C2 was used while working on MS 115i, that is to say, the continuation of the revision of the Big Typescript (= TS 213 plus handwritten modifications and supplementary material) begun in MS 114ii. The first page of our notebook is dated 12 December 1933 (the first page of MS 115 bears the date 14 December 1933). The majority of remarks transferred into Band XI (MS 115i) can be found on pp. 30v-46r (cf. MS 115i, p. 6-33).

            The remaining remarks are on a variety of topics, e.g. types of pictures, recognition, the idea of a system, feelings of familiarity, the concept of negation, etc. The discussion of this last concept (negation) is continued in C3. Again, some of these remaining remarks (which were not transferred to MS 115i) were later collected in Vermischte Bemerkungen / Culture and Value.