Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus; Philosophical Investigations; The Blue and Brown Books

WITTGENSTEIN’S THREE MAJOR WORKS, FROM THE WORKING LIBRARY OF THE PHILOSOPHER ANTHONY KENNY, WITH COPIOUS MANUSCRIPT ANNOTATIONS

WITTGENSTEIN, Ludwig; Bertrand RUSSELL [Intro.]; G. E. M. Anscombe [Trans.]

Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus; Philosophical Investigations; The Blue and Brown Books

London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd., 1955, 1953 & 1958

8vos., 3 vols; navy blue cloth, each volume lettered in gilt to spine with publisher’s name to foot and publisher’s device to foot of the Tractatus; pp. [vi], 7-207, [ii], 2-7, [i] (ads); [vi], v-xe, [i], 1-232e, [iii]; [iv], v-xiv, [iii], 2-185, [iii]; the Tractatus and the Philosophical Investigations containing parallel text in English and German; the Investigations with the errata slip as called for; very good copies all; the Tractatus with some scuffing, nicking, and splitting to the cloth at spine, along with some discolouration; a little bumped at corners, with ‘Parkers of Oxford’ bookseller sticker to front paste-down; mild offsetting to the endpapers; Philosophical Investigations with very minor bump to corner of upper board; a couple of tiny spots and ever-so-slight even toning throughout; The Blue and Brown Books evenly sunned to spine and lightly rubbed at tips and corners; similar mild even toning to the text block in accordance with age and paper stock. Provenance: With decorative bookplate ‘From the Personal Library of Anthony Kenny’ affixed to the front paste-down of volumes I and III, and with his ownership name and date (A. Kenny, Rome 1955/Oxford 1958) written in ink to the front endpapers of Vols I and II. 

A collection of the three major works in Wittgenstein’s canon of philosophical writings, the Tractatus being a first edition, sixth impression, the Philosophical Investigations being a first edition, first impression, The Blue and Brown Books being a first edition, first impression. All three copies are taken directly from the working library of the philosopher Sir Anthony Kenny, with his numerous and extensive annotations throughout all three volumes in both pencil and ink. 

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) is best known today for his work on the philosophy of language, logic, mathematics and mind. Born in Vienna into a rich Austrian family, he initially studied engineering and aeronautics, and it was during this time that he began to develop an interest in mathematics, specifically the work of Bertrand Russell and Gottlob Frege, the latter who suggested that he attend Cambridge to study under Russell’s tutelage. Arriving at Trinity College unannounced, Russell later recalled: “an unknown German appeared, speaking very little English but refusing to speak German. He turned out to be a man who had learned engineering at Charlottenburg, but during this course had acquired, by himself, a passion for the philosophy of mathematics & has now come to Cambridge on purpose to hear me.” Russell first found Wittgenstein an annoyance, but in time considered him somewhat of a genius, and the pair became firm friends, Wittgenstein later writing that Russell had saved his life and given him a purpose in the pursuit of philosophy. 

After serving in the Austro-Hungarian army during the First World War, Wittgenstein spent some time at his family’s summer home in Vienna where, making use of numerous notebooks containing philosophical jottings which had accumulated during active service, he completed the Tractatus. This work was to be the only one published in his lifetime, and contained an introduction by Russell, who noted that it would have been unlikely to have been accepted otherwise. Wittgenstein did not return to Cambridge until 1929, when he took up a fellowship and lectureship at Trinity, a post he held until 1947. After his death in 1951, two of his executors, his student Elizabeth Anscombe and the philosopher Rush Rhees, published his Blue and Brown Books, a series of informal notes made for his lectures from 1933 to 1935. Later, these came together in a more defined form for the Philosophical Investigations. 

Anthony Kenny (1931-present) trained as a Roman Catholic priest, and was ordained in 1955, but was later excommunicated upon his marriage in 1965. Between 1963-4, he became a lecturer and fellow at a series of Oxford colleges, and in 1989, following the death and stepping back of the original members, he was appointed Wittgenstein’s literary executor, responsible for overseeing the unpublished writings and editorial legacy. In the 2000s, Kenny published his New History of Western Philosophy, a comprehensive and important work which is still used by philosophy students today. 

Kenny’s annotations are extensive, and make reference to Wittgenstein’s ‘two phases’ of philosophical writing, with copious marginal notes and annotations in his hand evidently attempting to compare, contrast, and ultimately establish continuity between the differing stages of Wittgenstein’s thought. In doing so, he attempts to draw parallels between the early, middle and late periods. The Investigations, for example, appears to be his main resource. Here, there are hundreds of notes, some engaging directly with the text, others making corrections to the translation, and cross-references to other works including almost all of Wittgenstein’s other published titles as well as to Descartes, Berkeley, Russell and Plato.  These notes seemingly begin in 1955, two years after the book’s publication and the same year Kenny was ordained in Rome. In the Tractatus, acquired by Kenny in 1958, the final endpaper contains his own jottings on the philosophy of language, as well as a note correcting Wittgenstein’s quoting of Frege (‘**Frege never thought this’, Kenny writes). 

Together, Kenny’s annotations become a unique ‘skeleton key’ between the three texts. Many scholars have remarked on the great differences between Wittgenstein’s Tractatus and the later published Investigations, with the first aiming for a perfect logical structure of language and the latter rejecting this assertion. However, Kenny’s notes help to show the connection and influence between both, offering unique and valuable academic insight into Wittgenstein’s development of thought. Kenny’s corrections of the German further provide an understanding of his own process of translating Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Grammar into English, the first edition of which was published by Blackwell in 1974.

A unique association copy, and an extraordinary act of scholarship between Wittgenstein and his literary executor. 

"Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent"