Alois Pichler | 30 years of editing Wittgenstein at the WAB: Developments and future perspectives

Alois Pichler: “30 years of editing Wittgenstein at the Wittgenstein Archives at the University of Bergen: Developments and future perspectives”, 7 October 2022.

This presentation was a part of the 7th Symposium of the International Ludwig Wittgenstein Society, "70 Years of Editing Wittgenstein. History, Challenges and Possibilities", co-organised by the Ludwig Wittgenstein Project, hosted by the University of Milan, 7–8 October 2022.

Abstract:

Since its beginnings in 1990, the Wittgenstein Archives at the University of Bergen (WAB) have gone through a series of developments. These include the following:

1. complementing the then existing copies of the Nachlass with high quality colour images (1995-99, 2014-)
2. developing with Mecs-Wit a system for the transcription of the Wittgenstein Nachlass, transcribing the Nachlass according to this system into a “machine-readable version” (1990-99) and preparing from the transcriptions an edition published at Oxford University Press (BEE, 1998-2000)
3. continuously correcting and improving the transcriptions and supplementing WAB’s facsimile of the Nachlass with facsimiles of items still missing in the BEE (2000-)
4. recognizing that WAB’s real treasure is not the BEE but the machine-readable version which not only is the most comprehensive and detailed existing representation of the Wittgenstein Nachlass, but also serves as a basic edition for yet other editions
6. expanding WAB’s focus from the Nachlass to all parts of the Wittgenstein domain and working towards interlinking them (2019-)
8. complementing access restricted with gratis open access and partly also CC licensed offers (2009-)

While I will be happy to respond to queries regarding any of the above points in the Q&A session, in my presentation I will focus on developments and perspectives in (9)-(10).

[clumsydad]

Very cool and interesting how his nachlass is becoming open to the world, and that process

[Fafner]

Any plans to add English translations? (particularly of the unpublished stuff)