Wittgenstein: Correspondence and Philosophical Papers

2.1 Project Goals The goal of this project is to introduce historico-cultural commentary in electronic form into Ludwig Wittgenstein`s philosophical papers according to the techniques developed in projects P11220-HIS and P13352-SOZ for commentary upon Wittgenstein`s correspondence. 2.2 Framing the Problemhe State of Research Recent developments in technology have created an entirely new situation with respect to our access to the work of a philosophical author. Here "access" bears upon the philosophical papers as they relate to their cultural context as reflected in the author`s personal papers. The planned link between the philosophical papers and the correspondence should be considered as innovative inasmuch as it will enable scholars systematically to examine the immanent historico-cultural context of the whole oeuvre of a philosopher which will be systematically established empirically. 2.3 Realization The method to be employed in the proposed project is multi-dimensional inasmuch as it is determined by the three levels at which the project must proceed: the technical, the philological and that of cultural history. Technically the idea is to produce a separate file for the commentary, which, along with the indices already contained in the Complete Letter Edition (Wittgenstein chronology, biographical index, the list of books read by Wittgenstein) should contain elucidating reference notes or essays (so-called Flächenkommentar) that are linked both to the correspondence and to the philosophical papers. Philologically these "Flächenkommentare" have to be understood as a kind of text-analysis on the basis of the specific text forms that we find in his papers as a whole (letters, philosophical texts, notebooks, individual aphorisms etc.). With respect to cultural history this approach aims at both elucidating the immanent cultural and historical context in selected texts and also at offering us previously inaccessible modes of reading Wittgenstein on the basis of the historical and cultural perspective that emerges from the commentary. Timetable: Year 1: Completion of the existing indices (Wittgenstein chronology, index of biographies, Wittgenstein`s reading list) on the basis of data from the philosophical papers. Years 2 & 3: Writing "Flächenkommentare" on the papers in the already described sense. Cooperation: The project will be carried out in conjunction with Prof. Brian McGuinness, the Wittgenstein Archives at the University of Bergen, and the electronic publisher InteLex. 2.4 Research Location The Brenner Archives research Institute is placing its infrastructure at the disposal of the project. Both from the point of view of its technical competence and its substantive holdings as well as its organizational structure the Brenner Archives offers the optimal housing for such an ambitious project.

The original goal of the project was a link between the correspondence and the philosophical papers of Wittgenstein in electronic form. This goal was given up since after a visit on the Wittgenstein Archives in Bergen in May/June 2002 it became clear that there were great technical problems regarding the link between the correspondence and the Bergen edition. Instead of the planned link two other project goals were formulated in the report 2002: The correspondence should be finished as a separate edition and a monograph which was started within the FWF-project "Literature and Science" should be finished. These two project goals have been realized: At the end of March 2003 the database with the correspondence was given to Anton Unterkircher from the Brenner Archives. (At that time the last corrections were nearly finished.) At the end of 2003 the monograph with the title "Literatur - Naturwissenschaft - Philosophie. Ludwig Wittgensteins und Robert Musils `Zwischenwelten`" was finished. The construction of the database with the correspondence and the various forms of commentary have already been described several times. (Compare Monika Seekircher and Anton Unterkircher: "Wittgensteins Gesamtbriefwechsel und einige editorische Überlegungen". In: Mitteilungen aus dem Brenner-Archiv. Nr. 19/2000, S. 60-71; and Monika Seekircher: "Der Wittgenstein-Gesamtbriefwechsel in maschinenlesbarer Form". In: "Ich an Dich". Edition, Rezeption und Kommentierung von Briefen. Hrsg. v. Werner M. Bauer, Johannes John und Wolfgang Wiesmüller. Innsbruck: Institut für deutsche Sprache, Literatur und Literaturkritik 2001, S. 189-204) (Auto)biographical research which was practised for writing commentaries on the letters was also an important method for the investigation of Wittgenstein`s relation to science and technology. The letters themselves were not that important for this investigation, although there were also some important hints. However the method which was practised for writing commentaries was also the basis for the reconstruction of Wittgenstein`s technical and scientific interests and activities. The monograph also contains an investigation of Musil`s relation to science and technology similar to the one of Wittgenstein. But in the case of Musil there was no background knowledge basing on editorial work. However there was also used the method of (auto)biographical research although in a more superficial way since there was not this deeply founded knowledge gained by editorial work for several years. But also in the case of Musil there could be shown some new aspects although there were not elaborated new biographical details and connections as in the case of Wittgenstein. The monograph also contains a more general evaluation of Wittgenstein. This evaluation transcends his relation to science and technology and represents a critical judgement on Wittgenstein`s personality.