Lecture on Ethics

The most complete edition yet published of Wittgenstein’s 1929 lecture includes a never-before published first draft and makes fresh claims for its significance in Wittgenstein’s oeuvre. The first available print publication of all known drafts of Wittgenstein’s Lecture on Ethics Includes a previously unrecognized first draft of the lecture and new transcriptions of all drafts Transcriptions preserve the philosopher’s emendations thus showing the development of the ideas in the lecture Proposes a different draft as the version read by Wittgenstein in his 1929 lecture Includes introductory essays on the origins of the material and on its meaning, content, and importance

Acknowledgments vii 1 Introduction: The Content of a Lecture on Ethics 1 2 Established Text of the Lecture: MS 139b Normalized 42 3 The Manuscripts of a Lecture on Ethics 52 4 Description of the Manuscripts 66 5 Symbols Used in the Diplomatic Transcriptions 69 6 Proto-Draft: Diplomatic Transcription 71 7 MS 139a: Diplomatic Transcription 77 8 MS 139b: Diplomatic Transcription 101 9 TS 207: Diplomatic Transcription 123 References 135 Index 137