WITTGENSTEIN, LUDWIG. - [THE WORK THAT CHANGED PHILOSOPHY MOST DECISIVELY IN THE 20TH CENTURY, -THE MAIN INFLUENCE ON ANALYTIC PHILOSOPHY]
Logisch-Philosophische Abhandlung (i.e. later Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus). (In:) Annalen der Naturphilosophie. XIV. 3/4. Viezehnter Band. Drittes u. viertes Heft. Herausgegeben von Wilhelm Ostwald.
Leipzig, Verlag Unesma, 1921. 8vo. Here both entire volumes (3 and 4) bound together, as issued, in the original orange printed wrappers. All margins of wrappers professionally repaired w. minor loss to small part of printed illustration and one letter redone. Back totally redone. A very small hole to front wrapper and a small tear to both front- and back-wrapper. Wrappers fragile and crisp, but overall nice and mainly intact in original condition. First leaf w. a hole to upper margin, not affecting any text, and two "RELEASED" stamps, otherwise internally very nice and clean, and the main part unopened. Pp. (185)- 262. (Rest of the volume: pp. (263) - 308, (1) leaf, being "Inhalt" for the entire volume 14. The contents list for these parts 3 and 4 of volume 14 is printed on the inside of back wrapper. Placed in a very nice, custom-made half-leather box of orange morrocco w. two raised bands at capitals, single gilt line-borders and gilt title ("ANNALEN DER NATURPHILOSOPHIE") on back. Single gilt line-borders to boards of box.
¶ Exceedingly scarce first edition of this groundbreaking and immensely influential main work of 20th century philosophy, -the only philosophical book that Wittgenstein published in his life-time. Probably no other work has had as great an influence on philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, philosophy of mathematics, and analytic philosophy in general as this one.
The work was meant to put an end to (i.e. propose the solution to) all fundamental philosophical problems, which would obviously also come to mean the end of all philosophical production, which is why Wittgenstein left philosophy for a number of years and never came to publish another book.
The work instantly became immensely influential, both in England and Austria, the home-country of Wittgenstein, and when Russell published the second issue of his groundbreaking work, Principia Mathematica, in 1925 (first issue: 1910-13), he revised certain notions in accordance with theories he had found in "Tractatus". The work also greatly influenced the Vienna Circle, consisting of persons such as Gödel, Neurath, Carnap, and Hahn, under the leadership of Moritz Schlick, the last being one of the publishers of the "Tractatus". They especially adapted his condemnation of metaphysics, his distinction between tautological sentences and non-tautological ones, which leads to the notion that the classical problems of philosophy are actually senseless, and that philosophy should essentially be the logical syntax of language. This combined with the notion that all sentences of the language are truth-functions of the elementary sentences makes "Tractatus" one of, if not the, main work(s) in the constitution of logical empiricism.
The work originally appeared, as it is here, under the title "Logisch-Philosophische Abhandling" in volume 14, part three of "Annalen der Naturphilosophie" in 1921, being the final year of the publication of the journal, and parts three and four, which are present here, being the very last parts of the journal. In 1922 the work was issued in English with the original German as parallel-text. The famous Cambridge-philosophers Bertrand Russell and G.E. Moore may be considered the godfathers of this seminal work, and the later Latinized translation of the title into "Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus" is due to G.E. Moore. Russell wrote the famous preface for the work, which is already published with the first edition. The parallel-edition later appeared in a huge number.
After having written "Tractatus", Wittgenstein lived in accordance with his theory of having solved the fundamental problems of philosophy, and he had nothing to do with the world of philosophy for several years. In 1929, however, he returned to Cambridge, where, with the help of Russell and Moore, he became Doctor due to "Tractatus" and was given a research fellowship at Trinity College. In 1939 he succeeded Moore as Professor of Philosophy at Cambridge. He died in 1951.
During the two last decades of his life, Wittgenstein developed a philosophy which was completely different from the one presented in "Tractatus". Due to the vast difference between his two philosophies and due to the fact that they have both been very influential, the first of them, represented by "Tractatus", is now called the early Wittgenstein and the second the later Wittgenstein.
It is doubtful whether any other work has influenced 20th century philosophy to such an extent as "Tractatus", and one needs no hesitation to claim that no other work has had as great an impact on philosophy of language and mind as this one. To understand the philosophy of Wittgenstein is to understand the connection between philosophical problems and language, and to understand philosophy of language and mind, one must understand the ideas behind "Tractatus".
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