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WITTGENSTEIN, Ludwig Josef Johann (1889-1951). 70-leaf roneoed typescript on rectos only entitled 'The Brown Book. Notes Dictated to F. Skinner and A. Ambrose 1934-35 by L. Wittgenstein. Unofficial'. Collation: title; ll.1-2; 4-36; 36a; 37-69. (Lacking l.3)
[bound with:]
Herbert FEIGL (1902-1988). 22-leaf roneoed typescript on rectos only entitled 'De principiis non disputandum -- ? An Essay on the Meaning and Limits of Justification'. Collation: ll.[1]-22.
[?Minnesota: after 1935 and [?]before 1950.] 4° (280 x 216mm). The leaves watermarked 'STAMINA , DUPLICATOR , COPY PAPER , MADE IN U.S.A.', and hole-punched and bound in an 'ACCOPRESS BINDER' by Acco Products Inc. of Ogdensburg, New York, paper label pasted onto upper cover, with manuscript title 'L. Wittgenstein, Brown Book , H. Feigl, De Principiis Non-Disputandum' (edges of covers a little bumped). Provenance: Paul A. Bredenberg (later Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at North Carolina State University, inscription on title label).
A RARE, PRE-PUBLICATION COPY OF THE NOTES THAT EVOLVED INTO WITTGENSTEIN'S PHILOSOPHISCHE UNTERSUCHUNGEN. The Brown Book--named thus for the colour of the wrappers it was bound in--was a typescript dictated by Wittgenstein to his students Francis Skinner and Alice Ambrose for two to four hours a day, four days a week, during 1934-1935. The intention was to order the results of his work into a document for his own use; at that time he does not seem to have considered publishing it, and described it in a letter to Moritz Schlick as a text which demonstrated 'the way in which I think the whole stuff should be handled' (R. Monk Ludwig Wittgenstein (London: 1990), p.346). Three copies of the typescript were made for Wittgenstein, which he only showed to close friends and pupils; however, those who borrowed these three ur-texts in turn made copies, and soon 'there was a trade in them' (R. Rhees (ed) Preliminary Studies for the ''Philosophical Investigations'' ... (Oxford: 1969), p.v). In August 1936 Wittgenstein travelled to Norway, for a stay of some nine months in the house in Skoldjen i Sogn that he had built before the Great War. He took a copy of The Brown Book with him, and intended to translate the text into German and develop it into a book; however, while the house's 'quiet seriousness' (B. McGuiness and G.H. von Wright (eds) Ludwig Wittgenstein: Cambridge Letters (Oxford: 1995), p.281) made it easy to work, on reading his translations he 'found it all, or nearly all, boring and artificial. For having the English version before me had cramped my thinking. I therefore decided to start all over again and not let my thoughts be guided by anything but themselves.--I found it difficult the first day or two but then it became easy. And so I'm writing now a new version and I hope I'm not wrong in saying that it's somewhat better than the last' (McGuiness and von Wright op. cit., p.283). The new work--Philosophische Untersuchungen--was eventually published posthumously in a translation by G.E.M. Anscombe as Philosophical Investigations (Oxford: 1953).
The present copy of Wittgenstein's work is of note for the addition of Feigl's text. Feigl and Wittgenstein had both been members of the Vienna Circle in the late 1920s; in 1930 Feigl went to Harvard on a nine-month fellowship, where he and A.E. Blumberg published 'Logical Positivism: A New Movement in European Philosophy' in the Journal of Philosophy (1931). This paper is widely credited with introducing logical positivism to American philosophers, and henceforth Feigl was regarded as a leading authority on, and champion of, logical positivism. The American paper, binding and provenance suggest that the present volume was produced in Minnesota (where Feigl had been Professor of Philosophy since 1940), during the years prior to 1950, when Feigl's 'De principiis non disputandum' was published in Max Black (ed.) Philosophical Analysis (Ithaca, NY: 1950, pp.119-56). Only two typescript copies of The Brown Book are recorded at auction by ABPC since 1975.
[bound with:]
Herbert FEIGL (1902-1988). 22-leaf roneoed typescript on rectos only entitled 'De principiis non disputandum -- ? An Essay on the Meaning and Limits of Justification'. Collation: ll.[1]-22.
[?Minnesota: after 1935 and [?]before 1950.] 4° (280 x 216mm). The leaves watermarked 'STAMINA , DUPLICATOR , COPY PAPER , MADE IN U.S.A.', and hole-punched and bound in an 'ACCOPRESS BINDER' by Acco Products Inc. of Ogdensburg, New York, paper label pasted onto upper cover, with manuscript title 'L. Wittgenstein, Brown Book , H. Feigl, De Principiis Non-Disputandum' (edges of covers a little bumped). Provenance: Paul A. Bredenberg (later Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at North Carolina State University, inscription on title label).
A RARE, PRE-PUBLICATION COPY OF THE NOTES THAT EVOLVED INTO WITTGENSTEIN'S PHILOSOPHISCHE UNTERSUCHUNGEN. The Brown Book--named thus for the colour of the wrappers it was bound in--was a typescript dictated by Wittgenstein to his students Francis Skinner and Alice Ambrose for two to four hours a day, four days a week, during 1934-1935. The intention was to order the results of his work into a document for his own use; at that time he does not seem to have considered publishing it, and described it in a letter to Moritz Schlick as a text which demonstrated 'the way in which I think the whole stuff should be handled' (R. Monk Ludwig Wittgenstein (London: 1990), p.346). Three copies of the typescript were made for Wittgenstein, which he only showed to close friends and pupils; however, those who borrowed these three ur-texts in turn made copies, and soon 'there was a trade in them' (R. Rhees (ed) Preliminary Studies for the ''Philosophical Investigations'' ... (Oxford: 1969), p.v). In August 1936 Wittgenstein travelled to Norway, for a stay of some nine months in the house in Skoldjen i Sogn that he had built before the Great War. He took a copy of The Brown Book with him, and intended to translate the text into German and develop it into a book; however, while the house's 'quiet seriousness' (B. McGuiness and G.H. von Wright (eds) Ludwig Wittgenstein: Cambridge Letters (Oxford: 1995), p.281) made it easy to work, on reading his translations he 'found it all, or nearly all, boring and artificial. For having the English version before me had cramped my thinking. I therefore decided to start all over again and not let my thoughts be guided by anything but themselves.--I found it difficult the first day or two but then it became easy. And so I'm writing now a new version and I hope I'm not wrong in saying that it's somewhat better than the last' (McGuiness and von Wright op. cit., p.283). The new work--Philosophische Untersuchungen--was eventually published posthumously in a translation by G.E.M. Anscombe as Philosophical Investigations (Oxford: 1953).
The present copy of Wittgenstein's work is of note for the addition of Feigl's text. Feigl and Wittgenstein had both been members of the Vienna Circle in the late 1920s; in 1930 Feigl went to Harvard on a nine-month fellowship, where he and A.E. Blumberg published 'Logical Positivism: A New Movement in European Philosophy' in the Journal of Philosophy (1931). This paper is widely credited with introducing logical positivism to American philosophers, and henceforth Feigl was regarded as a leading authority on, and champion of, logical positivism. The American paper, binding and provenance suggest that the present volume was produced in Minnesota (where Feigl had been Professor of Philosophy since 1940), during the years prior to 1950, when Feigl's 'De principiis non disputandum' was published in Max Black (ed.) Philosophical Analysis (Ithaca, NY: 1950, pp.119-56). Only two typescript copies of The Brown Book are recorded at auction by ABPC since 1975.
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