MS 154

General note on MSS 153a to 155

These are the first items in the series of what Georg Henrik von Wright called “pocket notebooks”: they are of the right size to be carried in a jacket pocket, and it seems quite likely that on occasion Wittgenstein actually did carry them this way when out of doors. Use of the small letters “a” and “b” indicates that b is a continuation of a.

            In the particular case of this series, however, work on the very voluminous pocket notebook 153a was interrupted for a lengthy period: the sequence of remarks is continued in MS 155. But what is correct is that MS 153b constitutes the continuation of MS 153a. MS 154, for its part, comes soon (but not directly) after MS 153b.

            In studying these notebooks one will wonder again and again whether any of the original notebooks were lost or destroyed by Wittgenstein himself. The notebooks themselves contain occasional (apparent) references to other manuscripts that could be interpreted as alluding to material that is no longer extant. However, in the context of our descriptions, speculation over these issues will be kept to a minimum.

In this pocket notebook (MS 154) Wittgenstein continues his work on writing remarks largely serving as the basis of his reflections developed in MS 113 (Band IX). The first of these remarks can be found on p. 1b (corresponding to a remark on p. 116 of MS 113, 27 April 1932), the last one on p. 87v, corresponding to MS 113, p. 246, 19 May 1932.

            This notebook contains a number of remarks that were evidently not re-used in the context of other manuscripts or typescripts. Occasionally, Wittgenstein interrupted his work on these or Band-IX-related remarks to note down reflections of a more general nature. Accordingly, there is a fair number of entries published in Vermischte Bemerkungen / Culture and Value. A few remarks were (partly) written in English. It is very well possible that these English phrases have nothing to do with Wittgenstein’s preparations for his lectures.