An Impatient Man and His Papers

Abstract

Ludwig Wittgenstein died in 1951. At the time, the ideas he had developed after his return to philosophy in 1928 were known only to a handful of people through his lectures and conversations and through the typescripts which he had dictated and which were circulating among friends and colleagues. The wider philosophical community was eagerly waiting for Wittgenstein’s ideas to become effectively available.

A shorter version of this article appeared in The Times Literary Supplement N. 4565, 28 September–4 October 1990, p. 1030. The reprint of the previously published material is by permission of The Times Literary Supplement.

I am also grateful to Professors G. H. von Wright, Rudolf Haller, and David Stern as well as to Mr. Heikki Nyman for information and for other kinds of help.