Wittgenstein and the Vienna Circle: Conversations

264 Pages·1979·19.366 MB·English

by  Friedrich Waismann

Wittgeannstdth eVeii ne nCniar cle
conversarteicoonrsbd ye d
FriedWraiicshm ann
Edited by Brian McGuinness
Translated by Joachim Schulte
and Brian McGuinness
BOOKS
10 53d St.. York 10022
East New
diviolsi Honar per& R ow Publi$hersI.nc .
Published in the U.S.A. by Harper and Row Publishers, Inc.,
Barnes & Noble Import ·Pivision
@ Basil Blackwell, 1979
All rights reserved. No pan of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission
of the publisher.
ISBN 0-06-497310-7
Library of Congress Catalog Number 78-6452
Printed in Great Britain
CONTENTS
Wittgensteciint-eWdo rks 10
EditPoerrfa'cse 1 l
I
33
Wednesday, 18 December 1929 (at Schlick's house)
(PrionoM fa thematics) 33
WhaDto eLoosk infgo Sro metMheianingnM athema3t4i cs?
Example: Trisection of an Angle 36
Simile: Unravelling a Knot 3 7
Geomeast Sryyn tI ax 38
ConstiecsnyI 38
38
Sunday, 22 December 1929 (at Sch/ick's house)
('AIl)l ' 38
Objects 41
What Does 'All' Mean? 44
Solipsism 45
The Sense of a Proposition is its Verification 47
Wheels Turning Idly 48
('cIa nnfoeyteo lup ra in') 49
(LanguaangWdeo rld) 50
Wednesday, 25 December (at Schlick's house) 51
'AlIlI' 51
Time 53
External-Internal 54
VisSuapla ce 55
Addendum, 30 December 1929 59
Geometasry S yntIaIx 61
PhysaincPdsh eneonmology 63
Colour-System 63
Is Every Proposition Part of a System? I 65
(The World is Red I) 65
66
Addendum, Monday, 30 December 1929
Anti-Husserl 67
68
Monday, 30 December 1929 (at Schlick's house)
Apropos of Heidegger 68
Dedekindian Definition 69
Real Numbers I 71
73
Thursday, 2 January 1930 (at Schlick's house)
(Elementary Propositions) 73
('The Present State of Knowledge in Mathematics') 81
83
Freely developing sequence
84
(Miscellaneous)
84
Sunday, 5 January 1930 (at Schlick's house)
Positive and Negative Propositions 84
The Colour Blue in Memory 87
'The World is Red' II 88
Is Every Proposition Part of a System? II 89
Inference 91
Lecture on Ethics 92
Probability I 9 3
Dice 95
II
97
22 March 1930 (at Schlick's house)
(Verification and the Immediately Given) 97
98
(Verification and Time)
Probability II 98
Hypotheses I 99
100
Double Meaning of Geometry
101
(Various Remarks about Hypotheses)
III
102
19 June 1930 (at Schlick's house)
(What to Say at Konigsberg) 102
103
Formalism
105
Equation and Tautology
6 I
25 September 1930 107
107
108
(Miscaenelal)
Proof 109
Variables
109
113
ReaNlu mberIsI
113
Idealization
Interpretation
IV
Wednesday, 17 December 1930 (Neuwaldegg) 115
115
115
OnSc hlicEkt'hsi cs
117
Valeu
118
Religion
119
Ought
ConsisItIe ncy
Friday, 26 December 1930 (at Schlicle's house) 121
121
StyolfTe h inking
Sunday, 28 December 1930 (at Schlick's house) 121
121
Sheffer's DiscMJery 122
ConsisItIeIn cy
(Rules and Configurations of a Game) 123
What Does it Mean to Apply a Calculus? 126
128
(InddeepneeIc n)
Tuesday, 30 December 1930 (at Schlicle's house) 130
130
(Frege and Wittgenstein I) 130
(ConsiIsVt)e ncy
Hilbert's Proof 137
Thursday, 1 January 1931 (at Schlicle's house) 142
America. The Institution of Colleges 142
142
Independence II 145
ConsisVt ency
Summary 148
Hilbert's Axioms 1.1 and I. 2 148
7
(Calculus and Everday Prose) 149
Frege and Wittgenstein II 150
Sunday, 4 January 1931 (at Schlick's house) 152
(Equation and Substitution-Rule I) 152
(Equation and Tautology) 158
(Verification of the Propositions of Physics) 158
Hypotheses II 159
162
(GeorMtry as Syntax
Addenda 163
II)
Chess 163
Apropos of Konigsberg 164
Definition of Number 164
V
Monday, 21 September 1931 (first Argentinierstrasse, then in
the street) 166
Intention, to Mean, Meaning 166
(Calculus and Application) 170
(Looking Things Up in a Diary) 171
Constructing a Boiler 171
Proof of Existence 17 2
(Consistency VI) 173
Hidden Contradiction 173
Contradiction 175
(Equation and Substitution-rule II) 178
Indirect Proof I 179
VI
Wednesday, 9 December 1931 (Neuwaldegg ) 182
On Dogmatism 182
On Infinity 187
On Ramsey's Definition of Identity 189
Consistency VIII 192
8
Insertion from dictation 196
Consistency VIII 196
An Ana/ogy-'The Expansion' of 201
(The Concept of a Calculw) 202
(Proof in Geometry and Arithmetic) 203
Bisection of an Angle 204
Generality in Geometry 206
Indirect Proof II 207
VII
1 July 1932 (A rgentinierstrasse) 209
Hypotheses III 210
Appendix A
Totality and System 213
Equation and Tautology 218
Concept and Form 220
What is a Number? 221
Sense and Meaning 227
On Infinity 227
Dedekind's Definition 232
Appendix B
Theses by Friedrich Waismann (ca. 1930) 233
I. States of Affairs, Facts, Reality 233
2. Language 235
3. Syntax 239
4. Symmetry, Asym"1etry 241
5. Identity 242
6. Verification 243
7. Definition 246
8.
Objects 254
9. Logical Space 260
Index 263
9
WITTGENSTEWIONR:K SC ITED
Approximate
Abbrevia­ date of com­
tion position
NL Notes on Logic (Notebooks 1914-1916, 1913
Oxfo1r9d16 ,p p9.3 -106)
Nh Notehooks (ibipdp.2.,- 91) 191-41917
TLP Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (firpsutb lis1h9e1d8 -1919
as Logisch-Phi/osophische Abhand/ung, latest
editLoinodno,1n 9 71)
LE 'LectuorneE thi(cPhsil·oso phical Review 1929
lxxi(v1 96p5p).3, - 12)
MS vol/. Manuscrviopltu m1e-sX( unpublish1e9d2)9 -1932
PR Philosophical Remarks (Oxfo1r9d7 5fi,r st1 930
publisahseP dhil osophische Bemerkungen,
Oxforadn dF rankfu1rt9 65{)c ontains
materfrioamMl S v ol1l-.1a 1n1pd a rotfM S
volI.V ]
EM Extracfrto mt hMean uscripvto lum(eusn -1931-1932
publis{hate ydpe)s corfi7 p7t0p agesc;o n-
taimnast erfrioamMl S v olVl-.I X]
BT The 'BiTgy pesc(ruinpptu'b l{iats yhpee-d1)9 32
scroifp7 t6 8pa ges;c ontamiantse rfrioaml
EM ando thseirm ielxatrr aacrtrasn,gi end
sectiaonndcs h apters]
GdM Grundlagen der Mathematik {thleas t2 40 1932
pageso fBT ; fotrh meo spta rptu bliisnh ed
PG)
PG Philosophical Grammar (Oxfo1r9d7 4fi,r st1 932-1936
publisas� ePdhi losophische Grammatik,
Oxforda ndF rankfurt1 969{)c ontGaidMn s
andr eworkoifon tghspe arr otfBs TI
RFM Remarks on the Foundations of Mathematics 1937-1942
(Oxfor1d9 5ful6l,e edri tiaso Bnemw leungen
iiber die Grundlagen der Mathematik, Frank-
furt 1974)
Pl Philosophical Investigations (Oxfo1r9d5 3) 19379-419
IO
EDITOR'S PREFACE
I
The material translated in the present volume is practically all drawn
from the papers of the late Friedrich Waismann (1 897-1959). The
exceptions are a few pages missing from Waismann's own copy of his
Theses (Appendix B), which were supplied by Dr. Josef Schachter of
Jerusalem, and some sections of the notes on the philosophy of
mathematics (Appendix A), which exist only in the form of extracts
made by Mr. Shimshon Stein, now of Tel Aviv. It was all first
published in the original German jointly by the present publishers
and by Suhrkamp of Frankfurt in 1967. The present edition follows as
nearly as possible the pagination of that one.
None of the material can be described without qualification as
Waismann's own work. All of it originated at a time when Wittgen­
stein, though with considerable misgivings, was willing to see his
ideas propagated at any rate in Vienna by means of reports composed
by Waismann. Gradually, however, as we shall see, he became
dissatisfied with this method and had recourse to full collaboration
with Waismann. When that too proved unsatisfactory, it seems that
his philosophical ideas were communicated to his Viennese friends for
the most part as a result of his meetings with Schlick and through the
despatch of copies of the Blue Book and other dictated notes.
Waismann, for his part, was able to incorporated many of Witt­
genstein's ideas on the philosophy of mathematics into his own
Einfiihrung in das mathematirche Denken (lntroduaion to Mathematica/
thinking), 1 which first appeared in 1936 and is of course essentially a
work of Waismann's. But his book Logik, Sprache, Phi/osophie (Logic,
Language, Philosophy), which had been announced several times be­
tween 1929 and 1931, never appeared in Waismann's lifetime,
despite or because of frequent revisions. It was finally published in
1 Vienna 1936, 21947, 3Munich 1950; E. T. New York 1951. Wittgenstein·s
contribution to this work is described in detail in an appendix.
II
Principles
translation six years after Waismann•s death under the title
of Linguistic Philosophy2
in a form much altered from the original
concepcmn.
II
The earliest material published in the main part of this volume
consists of the record of a conversation that took place in December
1929. Wittgenstein had spent that year in Cambridge: his return to
philosophy as his main occupation can be dated to that time. But, as
might be expected, there were several occasions earlier in the twenties
when his interest in the subject began to revive, whether stimulated
by others or of its own accord. F. P. Ramsey visited him several times
in 1923 and also in 1924 over a period of six or seven months. The two
Tractatus
men discussed the and Wittgenstein proposed a number of
changes in the English translation, which were in fact adopted for the
3
second edition. They also talked about the foundations of mathema­
tics and about the changes to be wished for in a second edition of
Principia Mathematica.
On 24 March 1924, however, Ramsay wrote to
Keynes saying that Wittgenstein obviously found thinking to be
uphill work and needed someone like Ramsey himself to stimulate
4 (4
him. Wirtgensrein later July 1924) wrote to Keynes saying, 'You
ask in your letter whether you could do anything to make it possible
for me to return co scientific work. The answer is, No: there's nothing
that can be done in that line, because I myself no longer have any
strong inner drive towards that sort of activity. Eve thing that I
ry
had
really to say, I have said, and so the spring has run d . That
ry
sounds queer, but it•s how things are., There the matter rested for the
moment. A plan to induce Wittgenstein to spend in Cambridge the
remainder of the time necessa to qualify him for a doctorate was
ry
2 London, 1965. The German original was later published under the title Logik,
Sprache, Phi/oJophie, Stuttgart, 1976, with some account of the genesis of the work,
for which see also Section IV below.
3 See C. Lewy·s ·Note on the text of the TractatuJ· in Mind 76(1967)416-423.
4 See L. Wittgenstein, Letters to Rwse/1, Keynes and Moon, pp. 114-118, for both
Ramsey· s and Wittgenstein· s letters at this time.
12