This paper introduces and publishes two letters from 1934 written by Wittgenstein to Sraffa. The first of these confirms that on the one hand Wittgenstein and Sraffa had communicative difficulties. On the other hand Wittgenstein acknowledged the strength of Sraffa’s thinking and he was aware of being positively influenced by it. The second longer letter is part of a debate between Wittgenstein and Sraffa that had been ongoing in the few weeks preceding the letter. In the letter, Wittgenstein tried to (...) clarify and review in part his thinking on the points he discussed during the debate. (shrink)

This paper presents a list of meetings between Wittgenstein and Sraffa during the period 1929-1951. It was compiled using Sraffa’s notes from his pocket diaries and including supplement appointments noted by Wittgenstein. The information - like addresses or names of other speakers - added by Sraffa to some appointments have been here explained in the footnotes. As it is shown, it emerges by the list that the meetings between Wittgenstein and Sraffa can be divided in several different periods.

The main goals of this paper are to highlight the new philosophical aspects emerging from Wittgenstein’s Nachlass and to analyze some of the philological questions that should be considered by editors and translators of Wittgenstein’s writings and by scholars of Wittgenstein’s philosophy. There are undoubtedly advantages to be had from exploring Wittgenstein’s Nachlass and this contribution will be focused on them. However, there are also some critical issues to be taken into account. They concern Wittgenstein’s way of writing and doing (...) philosophy as well as the status of Wittgenstein’s manuscripts and the history of their publication. The advantages of investigating Wittgenstein’s movements of thought through and across the Nachlass and the resulting critical issues will be argued from the perspective of direct work editing Wittgenstein (e. g., the edition of two discovered letters of 1934 from Wittgenstein to Sraffa) and through the semantic reconstruction of crucial concepts from Wittgenstein’s philosophy. This reconstruction has been realized by the searching of Wittgenstein’s concepts occurrences and the recording and exploration of the nuances of meaning represented by each occurrence within the project to compose a Wittgenstein dictionary from the Nachlass. (shrink)

As philosophers we look-through a phenomenon and we see as it appears. The philosopher feels the sensation of dissatisfaction and lives in revolt against an instinctive dissatisfaction with the language. We see as the words are played, because they are source of confusion. He searches the liberating word, which liberates us from dissatisfaction or mental cramps: it subverts an idea, renews a thought, creates new knowledge and opens to the difference. The choice of words, based on the listening to the (...) words, is an aesthetic analyse, in the sense that it is a pursuit of pleasure and an avoidance of pain. (shrink)