Moira De Iaco | Philosophy and philology of the digital edition of Wittgenstein’s Nachlass

Moira De Iaco's talk “New philosophical aspects and some philological questions emerging by exploring the digital edition of Wittgenstein’s Nachlass”, 7 October 2022.

This presentation was a part of the 7th Symposium of the International Ludwig Wittgenstein Society, "70 Years of Editing Wittgenstein. History, Challenges and Possibilities", co-organised by the Ludwig Wittgenstein Project, hosted by the University of Milan, 7–8 October 2022.

Abstract:

As well known, Wittgenstein’s writings are affected by some critical issues. Excluding the Tractatus, in their original state, they are not thought for publication and, therefore, they are not ready for it. The works of Wittgenstein published posthumously by his trustees are the product of sometimes-opaque choices and of a selection of parts of writings that often does not consider the entire and later developments of Wittgenstein’s thought. In the Nachlass we find several versions of the same ‘project of work’ or the same thought. These versions can present little linguistic variations or important conceptual modifications. So, editing Wittgenstein’s writings for publishing a work can mean considering an incomplete part of the development of his thought on a topic or only an intermediate phase of his looking through a phenomenon.

The opportunity of exploring Wittgenstein’s thought directly through the digital edition of the Nachlass and the web resources such as those provided by the Bergen Wittgenstein Archives (WiTTFind, Interactive Transcriptions Platform e Wittgenstein Ontology Explorer), permits, for instance, to keep some concepts of Wittgenstein’s philosophy from new perspectives by observing their development and changes emerging through Wittgenstein’s writing. Nevertheless, this opportunity shows some philological questions related to the interpretation of the different uses of a concept by Wittgenstein and the problems of translating its nuances.

Starting from the advantages of the philosophical opportunity of exploring Wittgenstein’s Nachlass which have been personally experienced thanks to the editing of two discovered letters from Wittgenstein to Sraffa and taking into account the partial results of a project for a Wittgenstein’s dictionary created from the Nachlass, this contribution intends to highlight some philological questions that the edition of Wittgenstein’s works and Wittgenstein’s scholars need to consider.

Видео Moira De Iaco | Philosophy and philology of the digital edition of Wittgenstein’s Nachlass канала The Ludwig Wittgenstein Project