Graphical Problems in Wittgenstein ' s Nachlaß

This paper describes some features of Wittgenstein's Nachlaß which lie on the boundary between text and graphics. These deliberately ambiguous features are introduced as part of Wittgenstein's method of using "text-experiments" comparable to "thought-experiments". These features present problems of interpretation, and therefore of representation, in print or as encoded text for computer-aided analysis because their ambiguity must be maintained. The avoidance of the problem by the use of names is rejected with reference to Wittgenstein's discussion of universals in BLB. The resultant system of encoding graphics for computer-aided analysis at the Wittgenstein Archives is briefly described. Finally, in any representation of the Nachlaß, the need to maintain the integration of graphics and text is emphasised. Graphical Problems in Wittgenstein's Nachlaß The primary objective of the transcriptions being undertaken at the Wittgenstein Archives at the University of Bergen is to present material which is capable of textual analysis by computer. However, Wittgenstein's philosophical works are well known for containing graphics. In my catalogue of the graphics in the published works (Biggs and Pichler 1993) I identified 479 instances, and work in progress compiling a database of graphics in the manuscripts in the Nachlaß (MSS 101-182 as defined in von Wright 1982) contains approximately 2500 instances. In some cases these graphics may be included or excluded without affecting the "Graphical Problems in Wittgenstein's Nachlaß" in: Johannessen, K. and Nordenstam, T. (eds) Culture and Value: Philosophy and the Cultural Sciences, 751761. Kirchberg a/W, Austria: Die Österreichische Ludwig Wittgenstein Gesellschaft, 1995. ISSN 1022-3398 Online version. Original pagination in square brackets. online version, page 2 of 10 ability to analyse the text. But there are some graphics which act as wordsubstitutes. Therefore even if exclusively textual analysis is desired, some encoding is necessary in such places to indicate the presence of a graphic. In addition to the unequivocal use of graphics, there are many instances of features which lie at the very margin of the distinction between graphics and text. These features are a symptom of Wittgenstein's philosophical method and this paper focuses on them and considers the implications for the mark-up of the body text. [752] The general impression one gains from the Nachlaß is that the scripts are working documents, full of corrections, amendments and compositional instructions. Some of these annotations made by Wittgenstein on his own writings are graphical in character. For example, there are many occurrences of arrows indicating the repositioning of text on a single page. He also uses a series of marks and ciphers to stand for editorial instructions such as moving sections to locations in other scripts, indentation of new sections, etc. All this commentary, both graphical and textual, on the base text may be referred to as the meta-text. The meta-text contains interesting information on Wittgenstein's compositional process, but consists of signs which are not to be reproduced in the reorganised or edited text itself. We can thus distinguish between the diplomatic version of the text, and the normalised version; the former reproducing the meta-text either typographically or in facsimile, and the latter in which the instructions contained in the meta-text are implemented. The term "graphic" is itself somewhat vague, and may be used to describe a wide variety of phenomena. Wittgenstein's method, particularly in the later writings, is to question our philosophical assumptions about the way that language is operating, and one means by which this is achieved is to present text-experiments, rather like thought-experiments. In these experiments a new sign is introduced. It is often a simple pictorial graphic with more than one reading: