"ONE OF THE FUNDAMENTAL TEXTS OF 20TH-CENTURY PHILOSOPHY": FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH OF WITTGENSTEIN'S TRACTATUS LOGICO-PHILOSOPHICUS

WITTGENSTEIN, Ludwig. Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., 1922. Octavo, original olive green cloth. $13,000.

First edition in English of the only major philosophical text published in Wittgenstein's lifetime, immediately recognized as "a major contribution to philosophy," with parallel German-English text and an introduction by Bertrand Russell.

Wittgenstein served in the Austrian army during WWI, was captured on the Italian front in 1918 and wrote this, the only major philosophical work published in his lifetime, while in a POW camp near Monte Cassino. First printed in the German periodical Annalen der Naturphilosophie (1921; Vol. 14:3-4), the Tractatus "was recognized as a major contribution to philosophy on its appearance in 1922… with an English translation and an expository introduction by Bertrand Russell" (Garland, 995). It is a "startling work consisting of a series of numbered, aphoristic remarks centered on the nature and limits of language… since the limits of language are also the limits of thought he reaches the rather portentous conclusion 'whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent'" (Magnusson, 1574). Tractatus remains "one of the fundamental texts of 20th-century philosophy—short, bold, cryptic, and remarkable in its power to stir the imagination of philosophers and non-philosophers alike" (Michael Frayn). Containing Ogden's translation on the rectos facing the original German text. With publisher's postcard laid in and with 16 pages of publisher's advertisements at rear, including a one-page advertisement for International Library of Psychology, Philosophy and Scientific Method, 1929 (copies were bound as needed to supply demand, and often have advertisements dated years after the publication date); the second edition did not appear until 1933. Without the virtually unobtainable dust jacket.

Scattered minor foxing; light toning and wear to spine and extremities, front joint cloth partially split but holding strong. An extremely good copy.