International Meeting organized by the Internationale Ludwig Wittgenstein Gesellschaft e.V. and by  The Ludwig Wittgenstein Project and hosted by the Department of Philosophy "Piero Martinetti"
 

70 Years of Editing Wittgenstein. History, Challenges and Possibilities

 

7th-8th October 2022

Università degli Studi di Milano, via Festa del Perdono 7, 20122 Milan. Aula Crociera Alta - Human Studies, Icehous Courtyard, first floor.

As is well known, Wittgenstein published only one philosophical book during his lifetime, the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. Since his death in 1951, numerous writings have been published posthumously by his trustees – with more or less editorial modifications, depending on the condition of the manuscripts and typescripts. In Wittgenstein-scholarship, this has repeatedly given rise to discussion, criticism and, in some cases, new (also digital) editions, translations and collections. Now, 70 years after Wittgenstein’s death, his writings have entered the public domain in many countries, significantly changing the way his writings can be accessed and dealt with.

On behalf of the International Ludwig Wittgenstein Society (ILWG), we would like to take the passing of these 70 years as an opportunity to rethink the philological and editorial work on and with Wittgenstein’s writings. More concretely, the conference aims to link philosophical, philological and editorial aspects and questions and to discuss how the editorial decisions of the last 70 years have shaped the reception of Wittgenstein and what problems and opportunities might arise from this for the future, especially concerning digital editions of Wittgenstein’s Nachlass. Within the framework of the three panels “History”, “Challenges” and “Possibilities”, there will be individual lectures devoted to editorial-philological problems in the past, stylistic peculiarities in the editing and translation of Wittgenstein’s writings and new forms of presentation through digital formats.

In addition, new perspectives for broader digital access to Wittgenstein’s works will be showcased in a workshop centred on the Ludwig Wittgenstein Project.

 

Outline

Friday, 7 October 2022: Symposium

9:00-9:15	Paolo Spinicci, Jasmin Trächtler: Institutional welcome and opening
9:15-10:15	History
	Moira De Iaco: “New philosophical aspects and some philological questions emerging by exploring the digital edition of Wittgenstein’s Nachlass” (Abstract ↓)
10:25-11:25	Challenges
	Peter Winslow: “Daring not to mend: some thoughts on translating intertextualities and rhetorical figures in Wittgenstein’s Investigations” (Abstract ↓)
11:35-12:35	Possibilities
	Yrsa Neuman: “Future open scholarship in Wittgenstein studies in the light of current open science policy” (Abstract ↓)
Lunch
14:30-15:30	History
	Ilse Somavilla: “Wittgenstein’s Noteboooks/Diaries” (Abstract ↓)
15:40-16:40	Challenges
	Alois Pichler: “30 years of editing Wittgenstein at the Wittgenstein Archives at the University of Bergen: Developments and future perspectives” (Abstract ↓)
17:00-18:00	Possibilities
	David Stern: “From the Iowa Tractatus Map to the first complete translation of Wittgenstein’s Tractatus and its German sources” (Abstract ↓)

Saturday, 8 October 2022: Workshop

9:00-9:15	Welcome and introduction
9:15-9:30	Challenges
	Laura Duparc: Explicit and implicit references in Wittgenstein: A work in progress for a crowdsourcing and visualisation tool in the history of philosophy (Abstract ↓)
9:30-9:45	Challenges
	Sacha Raoult: NLP exploration of the Tractatus (Abstract ↓)
	Possibilities
10:00-12:00	Michele Lavazza: The Ludwig Wittgenstein Project – New Possibilities for Wittgenstein’s Texts Online (Abstract ↓)

 

Scientific organizers
Dr Frederic Kettelhoit (University of Kassel) and Dr Jasmin Trächtler (Technical University of Dortmund)

Host
Prof Paolo Spinicci (Università degli Studi di Milano)

The talks will be in English.

All are welcome to attend.

It will be possible to attend the conference remotely via Zoom. If you wish to participate online, please send an email to traechtler@wittgensteinproject.org by 5 October 2022 to receive the link. Online participants will be welcome to ask questions via Zoom as well; please be aware, however, that due to technical and time-related constraints it might happen that we won’t be able to discuss all the questions.

Participation is strongly recommended to students of the Doctoral School in Philosophy and Human Sciences and to students of the Doctoral School “The Human Mind and its Explanations: Language, Brain, and Reasoning”.