Wittgenstein Archives Research Articles

Complex Philosophical Oeuvre and Its Complex User Community: Reflections on the Past, Present, and Future Digitisation of Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Writings


 
 
 This paper reports the results of a user survey conducted by the Wittgenstein Archives at the University of Bergen (WAB) concerning some of the digital research tools and resources it has developed over the past three decades. The authors’ analysis of the survey results is embedded within a broader discussion of the nature and history of the digitisation of Wittgenstein’s philosophical writings. It is argued that the special nature of both Wittgenstein’s philosophy—especially the later Wittgenstein’s conceptions of meaning, concepts, and philosophy itself—and its primary material sources (Wittgenstein’s “Nachlass”) inherently call for a variety of advanced digital tools and resources; for instance, a digital interactive edition of his works, such as WAB’s Wittgenstein IDP: The Nachlass in Interactive Dynamic Presentation, to complement static ones such as traditional print editions and other, non-interactive digital editions. For similar reasons, the authors argue, WAB’s ongoing and future development of digital tools and resources for the study of Wittgenstein’s philosophy must be closely coordinated with the evolving needs of WAB’s large and diverse user community.
 
 

Interactive Dynamic Presentation (IDP) and Semantic Faceted Search and Browsing (SFB) of the Wittgenstein Nachlass

Abstract In 2000 the Wittgenstein Archives at the University of Bergen (WAB) published the CD-ROM edition of Wittgenstein’s Nachlass: The Bergen Electronic Edition (BEE). Moreover, since then WAB has worked towards complementing the static CD-ROM edition with an interactive web platform that additionally allows more user-specific and more user-tailored utilizations of WAB’s Nachlass resources. The paper describes two specific web service tools of this platform: Interactive Dynamic Presentation (IDP) of the Wittgenstein Nachlass and Semantic Faceted Search and Browsing (SFB) of Wittgenstein domain metadata. The paper argues that it is only when these two tools are fully implemented and functional that WAB can adequately serve the scholarly needs of the Wittgenstein Nachlass user community. The paper discusses some selected features and functionalities of the two tools in detail. An earlier version of this paper was published as „Complementing Static Scholarly Editions with Dynamic Research Platforms: Interactive Dynamic Presentation (IDP) and Semantic Faceted Search and Browsing (SFB) for the Wittgenstein Nachlass“ in Selected Papers from the CLARIN Annual Conference 2020, ed. by C. Navarretta & M. Eskevich (Utrecht: CLARIN ERIC). In writing this paper I have benefitted from comments by K. De Smedt, N. Gangopadhyay, Ø. Gjesdal, J. Hendrickson, C. Huitfeldt, H. Al Ruweh, the Clarin 2020 conference reviewers and editors as well as Jasmin Trächtler.

From Tractatus to Later Writings and Back – New Implications from Wittgenstein’sNachlass

AbstractAs a celebration of theTractatus100th anniversary it might be worth revisiting its relation to the later writings. From the former to the latter, David Pears recalls that “everyone is aware of the holistic character of Wittgenstein’s later philosophy, but it is not so well known that it was already beginning to establish itself in theTractatus” (The False Prison, 1987). From the latter to the former, Stephen Hilmy’s (The Later Wittgenstein, 1987) extensive study of theNachlasshas helped removing classical misconceptions such as Hintikka’s claim that “Wittgenstein in thePhilosophical Investigationsalmost completely gave up the calculus analogy.” Hilmy points out that even in theInvestigationsone finds the use of the calculus/game paradigm to the understanding of language, such as “in operating with the word” (Part I, §559) and “it plays a different part in the calculus”. Hilmy also quotes from a late (1946) unpublished manuscript (MS 130) “this sentence has use in the calculus of language”, which seems to be compatible with “asking whether and how a proposition can be verified is only a particular way of asking ‘How do you mean?’” Central in this back and forth there is an aspect which seems to deserve attention in the discussion of a semantics for the language of mathematics which might be based on (normalisation of) proofs and/or Hintikka/Lorenzen game-dialogue: the explication of consequences. Such a discussion is substantially supported by the use of the open and searchableThe Wittgenstein Archives at the University of Bergen. These findings are framed within the discussion of the meaning of logical constants in the context of natural deduction style rules of inference.

Towards an ultra-diplomatic transcription of Wittgenstein’s Nachlass

Over the following pages, I want to present a sample of ultra-diplomatic transcription of the Wittgenstein Nachlass. The sample builds upon the diplomatic transcription of the Nachlass provided by the Wittgenstein Archives at the University of Bergen (WAB) which I modified using Adobe’s InDesign. The contribution renders in ultra-diplomatic transcription pages 154 and 155 of Ms-115. It also includes facsimiles of the two pages.

Text-Genetic-Philosophical Notes About the Wittgenstein Nachlass: Band Series I Items MSS 105-122

The Wittgenstein Archives at the University of Bergen (WAB) has commissioned Joachim Schulte to author text-genetic-philosophical descriptions for each single item of the Wittgenstein Nachlass. The descriptions, called “notes”, will be published successively in the metadata section (“m”) of the Bergen Nachlass Edition (BNE) on Wittgenstein Source http://www.wittgensteinsource.org/ (for an example see http://www.wittgensteinsource.org/Ms-105_m). Moreover, the descriptions will, beginning with this issue, be published in packets in the “From the Archives” section of the Nordic Wittgenstein Review. This first publication includes descriptions of each item pertaining to the first Band series of the Nachlass, numbered by Wittgenstein I–XVIII (MSS 105–122), as well as a description of the entire series as such.

The Wittgenstein Archives at the University of Bergen (WAB)and the University Library

Presentation given at UiT Digital Humanities Conference 2017

A Brief Update on Editions Offered by the Wittgenstein Archives at the University of Bergen and Licences for their Use (as of June 2018)

Abstract The paper presents the resources offered by the Wittgenstein Archives at the University of Bergen (WAB) on Wittgenstein Source. Moreover, it describes the conditions for their use. Finally, the paper also briefly introduces WAB’s “Nachlass transcriptions” site from which all of WAB’s transcriptions of the Wittgenstein Nachlass can be downloaded, and the tool WiTTFind which permits lemmatized online search in the entire Nachlass and is the result of more than five years of close cooperation between WAB and the Centrum für Informations- und Sprachverarbeitung (CIS) at the Ludwig Maximilians Universität München.

Wittgenstein and the Theatre of Confession

Abstract:In this article we perform a juxtaposition of Wittgenstein’s confession with the art of drama. Our aim is to transpose the private language argument criticizing the ostensive definition of internal objects (beetle in a box thought experiment) onto confession and the art of drama performance. The play (possibly called “game”) of the actor is not an expression of his soul interior, but an autonomous necessity in the most decisive meaning – which means: the only thing to be done. Correspondingly, confession doesn’t express any interior misery – it is an acting (the double sense of this word will be further developed), the only possible acting within these conditions, the only possible response to one’s condition – a condition of mutilation where human misery appears very distinctly. Confession creates neither a relation of power (as Foucault was demonstrating in his late writings) nor a form of emotional exhibitionism but a language game consisting on words judging oneself, immune to interpretation, explanation, and vanity coming from their expression. Irreplaceable words become the agent of salvation.1 This article is the effect of great encounters that helped me – a non-Wittgensteinian – to “see” Wittgenstein perhaps more than understand his philosophy. I should first address many thanks to Dr. Ilse Somavilla who welcomed me on the beautiful roof of the Brenner Archives in Innsbruck together with its director Prof. Ulrike Tanzer (Thank you!). It is through Ilse Somavilla’s writings and archive editing work that I could engage myself and follow her on a path of reading Wittgenstein with a sensibility for religion and art. I owe also a lot of thankfulness to Prof. Alois Pichler for long lasting, repeated hospitality in the Wittgenstein Archives at the Bergen University and great patience for my plans of developing research plans about Wittgenstein in the Polish Galicia. The ability to visit these two places, Norway and Austria, have left inside myself a Wittgensteinian imagery that creates the scenography of my philosophical attempt inside this article. My research would not be possible without receiving the scholarship of the Republic of Austria OEAD for which I also express my deep gratitude. I am also very grateful to Kasia Mala for her linguistic revision of my article. And finally, what triggered this Winn-gensteinian performance were unforgettable dinners with Maja, my Mother Agata, and my son Światopełek – to say they were inspiring is not enough…

Data modeling and processing as a library service for digital humanities research data management

Our University Library (UBL) have seen the need and potential for strengthening the infrastructure for digital full text resources at the University of Bergen and we wanted better to establish the library’s role in this area.Five years ago, several research communities expressed concerns that it was becoming increasingly difficult to sustain the competence necessary to run and maintain both physical and digital research archives. More specifically a concrete need for supporting XML-based digital humanities text resources was voiced. We felt the UBL could meet this need by providing a new service.A combination of data modeling, data conversion and an active use of open data solutions has in our view shown itself to be an effective solution. We find that in-house data modeling and processing competence is essential in order to cope with tasks connected to digital text and image resources.Our poster will outline our digital service provision by giving selected references and examples.The Wittgenstein Archives at the University of Bergen (WAB) is one example of a recipient of UBL data services. WAB maintains a richly encoded XML version of the complete Nachlass of philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein.A library web resource building upon library data modeling and conversion is MARCUS, which shows how catalogue data and image data for the University Library’s own manuscript collections and photographic collections are currently digitized and interconnected using electronic representations of documents and Linked Data/RDF (Resource Description Format) metadata. MARCUS meets UBLs long felt need for a unified special collections digital system. This relates not only to document storage, display and dissemination, but also to the library workflow for the special collections. Both WAB and MARCUS benefits, strategically and day-to-day, from the same competencies within the library.We think that a sensible future-oriented solution entails that each institution, to a greater degree than before, works with modeling and conversion of its own data. Our view is that using Linked Data/RDF encoding will pave the way to connecting data sets in such a way that they enrich one another. Rather than functioning as system providers, we envision large institutions processing and sharing open datasets, as well as encouraging and enabling others to do the same.In line with LIBERs Ten recommendations for libraries to get started with research data management our view is that data modeling and data conversion, within the frame of an active use of open data solutions, are services that belongs within the portfolio of the research library. Presented by Irene Eikefjord, Senior Librarian, University of Bergen Library

The First Nine Months of Editing Wittgenstein - Letters from G.E.M. Anscombe and Rush Rhees to G.H. von Wright

The National Library of Finland (NLF) and the Von Wright and Wittgenstein Archives at the University of Helsinki (WWA) keep the collected correspondence of Georg Henrik von Wright, Wittgenstein’s friend and successor at Cambridge and one of the three literary executors of Wittgenstein’s Nachlass. Among von Wright’s correspondence partners, Elizabeth Anscombe and Rush Rhees are of special interest to Wittgenstein scholars as the two other trustees of the Wittgenstein papers. Thus, von Wright’s collections held in Finland promise to shed light on the context of decades of editorial work that made Wittgenstein’s later philosophy available to all interested readers. In this text, we present the letters which von Wright received from Anscombe and Rhees during the first nine months after Wittgenstein’s death. This correspondence provides a vivid picture of the literary executors as persons and of their developing relationships. The presented letters are beautiful examples of what the correspondence as a whole has to offer; it depicts – besides facts of editing – the story of three philosophers, whose conversing voices unfold the human aspects of inheriting Wittgenstein’s Nachlass. Their story does not only deal with editing the papers of an eminent philosopher, but with the attempt to do justice to the man they knew, to his philosophy and to his wishes for publication.

Contributions to a Conceptual Ontology for Wittgenstein

AbstractA conceptual ontology was used to semantically enrich the Wittgenstein Archives at the University of Bergen’s taxonomy for Wittgenstein Source to facilitate improved searching in the areas of the philosophies of mathematics and psychology. The classes and sub-classes of the multilingual taxonomy were employed to further refine the ways in which themes in these areas of philosophy could be organised. The taxonomy was intended to facilitate the identification of thematic similarities between remarks in instances where this similarity might not be apparent with free text search and in cases where the classified subject of the remarks differed. The approach taken to constructing the taxonomy allows for both its alteration and potential expansion.

The von Wright and Wittgenstein Archives at the University of Helsinki (WWA)

AbstractIn 1948 the then 32 year old Finnish philosopher Georg Henrik von Wright (1916-2003) succeeded Ludwig Wittgenstein as professor of philosophy at Cambridge. When Wittgenstein died in 1951 Elisabeth Anscombe, Rush Rhees and Georg Henrik von Wright became the executors of Wittgenstein’s literary estate.Von Wright played a major role in the editing and publishing of Wittgenstein’s work for over fifty years. In the course of his work as a literary executor von Wright founded the Wittgenstein Archives at the University of Helsinki. The Archives was frequently used by Wittgenstein scholars during von Wright’s lifetime. After his death the Archives has been enriched with new material such as early versions of published works by von Wright, his unpublished manuscripts and lectures, and a large collection of letters to and from von Wright related to the editing and publication of Wittgenstein’s Nachlass. There is now also a small section for Wittgenstein and von Wright memorabilia. In 2009 the Archives was renamed “The von Wright and Wittgenstein Archives” (WWA) and reopened. Its holdings are again wholly accessible on location to visiting researchers.WWA also seeks to provide increasing access to its material through its website.

Sharing and debating Wittgenstein by using an ontology

This contribution discusses some of the challenges involved in building an ontology for research about the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. It pays special attention to different ontological conceptions (event based versus object based). It also discusses how best to model, within the ontology, conflicting views emerging in both Wittgenstein’s work and Wittgenstein scholarship. The contribution presents relevant work in progress at the Wittgenstein Archives at the University of Bergen, which has a special focus on Wittgenstein’s Nachlass, his philosophical estate.

Computational Stylometry of Wittgenstein’s “Diktat für Schlick”.

Using techniques from computational stylometry we will examine some of the dictated writings of Ludwig Wittgenstein which have been made available by the Wittgenstein Archives at the University of Bergen. Our purpose is to give an example of how computational stylometry can be used to help answer concrete questions of Wittgenstein research, and thus to explore how computational stylometry can be applied to issues of philosophical authorship more generally. In particular we use computational stylometry to help examine the question of whether the so-called Diktat fur was in fact dictated by Wittgenstein, and if yes, whether to Schlick or Waismann. To this end we compare documents known to be written by Wittgenstein in person; the Diktat fur Schlick; and samples of some of Schlick's and Waismann's (the potential amanuenses) own writings. Using the Stylometry with R package of Eder and Rybicki, the degree of similarity and dissimilarity between documents is calculated by Burrows' delta measure, and the results are displayed using Cluster Analysis, Multidimensional Scaling and Bootstrap Consensus Trees. The documents are each characterised by the frequencies of the 300 most frequent words in the entire corpus, normalised by document length. Our main findings are that the Diktat fur is far more similar to Wittgenstein's writings than those of either Schlick or Waismann, and that the writings of Wittgenstein and Schlick or Waismann are stylometrically quite distinct.

A Norwegian Anthology of Russell on War, Peace and Pacifism

_Russell_ journal (home office): E:CPBRRUSSJOURTYPE2602\REVIEWS.262 : 2007-01-24 01:12 Reviews 185 A NORWEGIAN ANTHOLOGY OF RUSSELL ON WAR, PEACE AND PACIFISM Stefan Andersson Theology and Religious Studies / U. of Lund s223 62 Lund, Sweden butterflyandeson@hotmail.com Øystein Hide, ed. Bertrand Russell om krig, fred og pasifisme [Bertrand Russell on war, peace and pacifism]. Oslo: Humanist Forlag, 2006. Pp. 261. isbn 8292622101. 268 Kroner. Paperbound. his is a selected anthology of Russell’s writings and interviews on war, Tpeace and pacifism edited by the Norwegian Øystein Hide, who was born in 1975 and has the equivalent of a ma in philosophy from a Norwegian university . He did graduate work at the University of Southampton in 2001–04. He has worked at the Wittgenstein Archives in Bergen and at the University of Bergen. He has done research at the Bertrand Russell Archives1 and is a member of the Mind Association. He has translated Wittgenstein’s Zettel and Über Gewissheit into Norwegian and has done other philosophically relevant work in both Norwegian and English. Øystein Hide has supplied his anthology with an introduction that contains a number of minor factual mistakes that are a bit disturbing, but they do not overshadow his main message that Russell’s writings on war, peace and pacifism are still worth reading. He starts out by distinguishing between “the two Bertrand Russells”: the philosopher and what he calls “the political humanist”. Although Hide does not spend much energy on explaining exactly what he means by it, I find this a thought-provoking expression that to me suggests a secular humanist who is prepared to act on his convictions. He compares Russell to the Norwegian philosopher Arne Næss, who also was a political activist and acted according to his deepest beliefs. Hide says about Russell: “For many people Russell has become the great philosopher who also actively contributed to the general political debate and who, in the capacity of being a philosopher, gave the lovers of peace a philosophical and intellectual alibi with which they could decorate their struggles” (p. 11). 1 Notably resulting in his article, “Wittgenstein’s Books at the Bertrand Russell Archives and the Influence of Scientific Literature on Wittgenstein’s Early Philosophy”, Philosophical Investigations, 27 (Jan. 2004): 68–91. _Russell_ journal (home office): E:CPBRRUSSJOURTYPE2602\REVIEWS.262 : 2007-01-24 01:12 186 Reviews Russell’s position as a philosopher and political activist in Norway is more or less the same as in the other Nordic countries, and although Hide’s book is Norwegian a lot of Swedes, Danes, Finns and Icelanders will be able to benefit from the collection. There is no mention, however, of Russell’s only trip to Norway (in 1948), which had a political purpose. Hide has divided his collection into two parts. The first part contains ten texts written between 1916 and 1920, and the second part contains five between 1950 and 1960. He does not say a lot about why he has included these texts and excluded others. These are the selections he offers: Part 1: “War as an Institution”, Chapter 3 from Principles of Social Reconstruction (1916) “Why the War Continues”, The UDC, 2 (10 Feb. 1917); in Papers 14 “National Service”, The Tribunal, 47 (15 Feb. 1917); Papers 14 “War and Individual Liberty”, The Tribunal, 50 (8 March 1917); Papers 14 “Pacifism and Revolution”, The Tribunal, 67 (19 July 1917); Papers 14 “The International Outlook”, The Pioneer, 347 (10 Nov. 1917); Papers 14 “Draft of Defence” (for Russell’s 1918 trial); Papers 14 “Government and Law”, Chapter 5 from Roads to Freedom (1918) “The World as It Could be Made”, Chapter 8 from Roads to Freedom (1918) “Bolshevik Criticism of Democracy”, Chapter 3 of Part 2 of The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism (1920) Part 2: “Politically Important Desires”, Chapter 2 of Part 2 of Human Society in Ethics and Politics (1954); Nobel Prize speech, 1950 How Near Is War? (London: Fleet Street Forum, 1952); interview “Man’s Peril”, The Listener, 52 (30 Dec. 1954); Papers 28 “The Road to Peace”, The Bomb: Challenge and Answer (London: Batsford, 1955); Papers 28 “War and Pacifism”, Bertrand Russell Speaks His Mind (1960...

Alois Pichler and Simo Säätelä (eds.): Wittgenstein: The Philosopher and his Works. Working Papers from the Wittgenstein Archives at the University of Bergen no 17, Bergen 2005. 420 pages. ISBN 82-91071-20-9

Article Alois Pichler and Simo Säätelä (eds.): Wittgenstein: The Philosopher and his Works. Working Papers from the Wittgenstein Archives at the University of Bergen no 17, Bergen 2005. 420 pages. ISBN 82-91071-20-9 was published on November 1, 2006 in the journal SATS (volume 7, issue 2).

Monkey Business--or What is an Edition?

Digital editions make it possible to create a collection of all existing copies of a text including digital facsimiles. Is this a problem if it means that there will be editions that are in fact collections of full variant texts with no selected or edited reading text? This paper argues that both archival editions with digital facsimiles and encoded source texts (digital diplomatic editions) and digital critical texts can and must exist side by side. It is also suggested that from high quality diplomatically encoded source texts it is possible to automatically extract texts that either directly or with some further encoding/editing can function as a base text for editions of different types and which build on different editorial philosophies. The editions produced at the Wittgenstein Archives in Bergen and in the project Henrik Ibsen’s Writings in Oslo are used as examples of projects supporting the author’s arguments.

REVIEWS

Michael Biggs, Alois Pichler, Wittgenstein: Two Source Catalogues and a Bibliography, Working Papers from the Wittgenstein Archives at the University of Bergen.Peter Philipp, Richard Raatzsch, Essays on Wittgenstein, Working Papers from the Wittgenstein Archives at the University of Bergen.Erich Ammerpller St John's C.nlleoe.Grandpont Papers, The Past and the Present: Problems of UnderstandingJames Guetti, Wittgenstein and the Grammar of Literary ExperiencePeter Johnson, Frames of Deceit. A Study of the Loss and Recovery of Public and Private TrustAnne Maclean, The Elimination of Morality: Reflections on Utilitarianism and BioethicsB.R. Tilghman: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion Oxford