MS 121
XVII. Philosophische Bemerkungen
General note on MSS 116-122 (Bände XIII to XVIII)
Chronologically speaking, the first two (of four) parts of MS 116 (= 116i and 116ii), the first part of MS 117 (= 117i), the whole of MS 118 and most of MSS 119 and 120 are very closely connected, even interrelated; at some points one might speak of overlap. Many entries bear a date or are easy to date.
The connections between the relevant parts of MSS 117-120 can, very roughly speaking, be described as follows: MSS 117i-120i are Wittgenstein’s notebooks from the time he spent in Norway after his return there in August1937. The earliest entries can be found in MS 118 (continuously dated from 13.8. to 24.9.37). Similar observations apply to MS 119, which is the immediate continuation of MS 118 (beginning on 24.9., running on to 19.11.), and virtually all of MS 120i (beginning on 19.10. and running on to 10.12. — the day before Wittgenstein’s departure from Skjolden).
MSS 118 and 119 resemble each other in several respects: both of them are used by Wittgenstein as notebooks from which he picks certain remarks which are then transferred and revised in MS 117; both of them contain a fair number of diary remarks chronicling the history of Wittgenstein’s contemporary writings as well as of his moods, impressions, and feelings. MS 117i, on the other hand, is basically a reservoir of more or less polished remarks selected from MS 118 and to a small extent from MS 119, and in contrast to these latter two does not contain a journal.
Owing to the existence of this journal we are informed about an interruption in Wittgenstein’s work, which can be dated as having occurred more or less exactly on 23 October 1937. The interruption is due to his having taken out his »old typescript« (as he calls it now), that is to say, a copy of the Big Typescript (= TS 213). From this point onwards he re-reads large parts from the first half of this typescript and works on it in the following sense: he selects remarks that arouse his interest and copies them in more or less revised form into a very large and so far unused manuscript book. This is MS 116i, which as it were contains the result of Wittgenstein’s temporary loss of interest in the work he was doing in MSS 117-119.
One of the most striking features of volumes XIV to XVI is the journal Wittgenstein keeps in these manuscript volumes. Many, but by no means all, of the remarks forming this journal were written in code. This habit of regular journal-writing was interrupted around the time Wittgenstein spent in Dublin in February and March 1938. This was the time of the Anschluss and increased worries about the safety of his relatives. These worries and the difficulty, or impossibility, of concentrating on his own problems and writings may have been a crucial factor contributing to Wittgenstein’s giving up on his journal.
Of course, this is not the only difference between volumes XIII to XVI, on the one hand, and the last two (XVII and XVIII), on the other, but it is a convenient way of marking a break. At the same time, we must remember that volume XIII (= MS 117) itself forms a composite structure made up of heterogeneous parts: its first part is closely connected with MSS 118 and sections of 119, but other parts of MS 117 are in no way connected with this conglomerate, while its last part (= MS 117v) even brings up the rear inasmuch as it constitutes the continuation and terminus of the train of remarks making up MS 122. This latter manuscript volume is the last one of those Bände Wittgenstein marked as belonging to a special series by assigning Roman numbers to them. Perhaps there is a certain irony in the fact that the tail end of the series is not to be found in the as it were »officially« last volume but was tucked away in an earlier one.
Notes on MS 121 (Band XVII)
The first entry in this manuscript volume bears the same date as the last entry in Band XVI (26 April 1938). So it constitutes the immediate continuation of Wittgenstein’s previous volume. The last entry is dated 5 January 1939. So the volume taken as a whole covers a time span of over 8 months. There is a clear break, however, in the middle of this manuscript volume: after what appears to be the last remark written on 17 July 1938 Wittgenstein draws a line across the page; the following 3 remarks bear no date (cf. MS 117iv); and then another line is drawn. The next remark bears the date 5.9.38 (121: 48v) and introduces a brief discussion of sense-data. The following pages consider all kinds of questions concerning the philosophy of mathematics and contain material later transferred to TS 221. The next date (after 5.9.) is »25.12.38« (121: 60r). So one may want to speak of another gap between (roughly speaking) September and December 1938. The last entries were evidently written on 5 January 1939.
A fair number of remarks written on 25 December and the following days (up to 3.1.39) were selected and published by the editors of RFM as §§40 to 61 of the second part of this book. §§23 to 39 of this part were taken from an earlier section of MS 121 (dated 30.5., 10.6., 11.6., 12.6., 13.6., and 12.7.), while §§1-22 are based on the section entitled »Ansätze« from MS 117 (= 117ii).
In addition to these remarks on the philosophy of mathematics, this manuscript volume contains a number of remarks on the language of pain, on images, and on memory. It is similar to previous volumes in recording Wittgenstein’s thought day by day, but it differs from these volumes in containing virtually no personal remarks, i.e. no journal. Moreover, readers will find only a couple of general observations printed in Culture and Value.
Abstracting from the fact that some chronological gaps might be filled by entries in smaller notebooks from the same time, gaps like those between July and September or between September and December 1938 can easily be explained by Wittgenstein’s worries and the pressure he was working under in those months. And of course, teaching and various activities connected with applying for the Cambridge chair that would fall vacant after Moore’s retirement will also have contributed to his not finding sufficient time and concentration to continue sustained work on his manuscripts.