Abstract
Lieber Herr Wittgenstein! Ich danke Ihnen bestens für Ihren Kartengruss. Dass Sie als Kriegsfreiwilliger eingetreten sind, habe ich mit besonderer Befriedigung gelesen und bewundere es, dass Sie sich noch dabei der Wissenschaft widmen können. Möge es mir vergönnt sein, Sie nach dem Kriege gesund wiederzusehen, und die Unterredungen mit Ihnen weiterzuführen. Gewiss werden wir uns dadurch zuletzt näher kommen und uns immer besser verstehen. Wir hatten hier 3 Leichtverwundete im Hause; Alfred musste dazu seine Spielstube hergeben. Sie erzählten viel von ihren Kämpfen in den Vogesen, ohne Hochachtung vor den Franzosen, denen sie sich bei gleicher Anzahl überlegen fühlten; aber sie hatten den Eindruck, meist gegen eine grosse Überzahl gekämpft zu haben. Ihnen alles Gute wünschend mit herzlichem Grusse
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Notes
- 1.
The card’s official postmark says “25.6.16”, but this is presumed to be an error. We take the date to be what Frege writes, viz., “24.VI.15”. Reasons for preferring the earlier date are as follows. First, Wittgenstein was not in the Kraków workshop after July 1915 (on this see Brian McGuinness, Wittgenstein, A Life: Young Ludwig 1889–1921 (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1988) and Ray Monk, Wittgenstein: The Duty of Genius (New York: The Free Press, 1990), p. 132). Second, Lemberg was recaptured in 1915, and not 1916, and it seems most likely that Frege is referring in the letter to this recent event. (“Lemberg”, now in the Ukrainian Democratic Republic, is currently known as “Lviv”; when it was part of Poland (1919–1945) it was known as “Lvov”.)
- 2.
Nothing in particular is known about this plan. Frege did record various political thoughts in his diary. These were published with annotated commentary in “Gottlob Freges politisches Tagebuch. Mit Einleitung und Kommentar”, eds. G. Gabriel and W. Kienzler, Deutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie 42 (1994), 6: 1057–1098, an edition which subsequently appeared in an English translation by Richard L. Mendelsohn in Inquiry 39 (1996): 303–342. For more on Frege’s politics in historical context, see Wolfgang Kienzler, “Frege und Deutschland” in K.M. Kodalle, ed., Die Angst vor der Moderne. Philosophische Antworten auf Krisenerfahrungen. Der Mikrokosmos Jena 1900–1940 (Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg, 2000), pp. 135–156. On Frege’s liberalism before 1918 one may read his proposal for an election system in “Vorschläge für ein Wahlgesetz von Gottlob Frege”, eds. U. Dathe and W. Kienzler, in G. Gabriel and U. Dathe, eds., Gottlob Frege-Werk und Wirkung (Paderborn: Mentis Verlag, 2000), pp. 283–313. Compare Uwe Dathe, “Wismar, Jena, Bad Kleinen—wo liegen die Wurzeln für Gottlob Freges politische Anschauungen? Einige Ergänzungen zu Lothar Kreisers Frege-Biographie”, Zeitschrift des Vereins für Thüringische Geschichte 56 (2002): 417–421, a comment which should be compared with Lothar Kreiser’s discussion in Gottlob Frege Leben-Werk-Zeit (Hamburg: Felix Meiner Verlag, 2001).
- 3.
“Fhrch” probably an abbreviation for “Fähnrich”. Wittgenstein was given the rank of Fähnrich in the Reserve on 1 December 1916 (later backdated to 1 October 1916) according to McGuinness, p. 256.
- 4.
That is, on the river Vistula.
- 5.
This letter appears to have consisted of one bifolium page. On the first side only the right sector was written on; on the second, both sectors were written on and both were signed by Frege; presumably the second signature attached to a postscript. Only the top part of the letter remains: a portion of the bottom of the page is torn off, quite neatly, along a line. I have put square brackets with an ellipsis mark at the points in the text of the letter that are missing. It is possible that this was done intentionally in an effort to blot from the record a detailed description by Frege of his mental condition, which was not always stable (see L. Kreiser, Gottlob Frege Leben-Werk-Zeit, pp. 512ff). The editors of the CD-ROM of Wittgenstein’s Briefwechsel report that this letter “contained a picture.”
- 6.
Lothar Kreiser, Frege’s biographer, reports that “Through a gift from Ludwig Wittgenstein at the beginning of 1918 and the sale of his Jena house in the same year it became possible for Frege to move back to his home region of Mecklenburg. Preparations for this began already in 1918. On 15.10.1918 Frege wrote for the first time under the name of his new place of residence, Bad Kleinen, to Wittgenstein” (Gottlob Frege Leben-Werk-Zeit (op. cit.) p. 504; see the letter to Wittgenstein of this date translated below). Kreiser adds that as a result of war loans and inflation the amount of Wittgenstein’s gift to Frege was reduced, so that had Frege not owned the piece of land his house stood on in Bad Kleinen, with only his annual pension in reserve he “would have been standing at the threshold of poverty” (Gottlob Frege Leben-Werk-Zeit, p. 566).
- 7.
Frege’s writing is difficult to read, but this line may say “K 1/ G 11”. He left the return address blank on this card.
- 8.
The address was double underlined and crossed out in the original.
- 9.
In Frege’s hand the address line reads: “G.A.R. 11 Bt. 1/Field Post 379”, but someone crossed out the last number and wrote instead: “8/G.A.R. 11” and then changed the Field Post number to 280. Compare Wittgenstein’s letter to Engelmann of 9 April 1918, in Paul Engelmann, Letters from Ludwig Wittgenstein, With a Memoir (Oxford: Basil Blackwells, 1967/New York: Horizon Press, 1968), also on the Intelex CD-ROM of Wittgenstein, Briefwechsel.
- 10.
Frege is referring here to his essay “Der Gedanke. Eine logische Untersuchung”, in Beiträge zur Philosophie des deutschen Idealismus, vol. I, pp. 58–77, to which he also refers in his letter to Wittgenstein of 16 September 1919. An English translation of this essay appears under the title “Thoughts” in Frege, Collected Papers on Mathematics, Logic, and Philosophy, ed. B. McGuinness, trans. M. Black et al. (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1984), pp. 351–372.
- 11.
“Die Verneinung”, published in Beiträge zur Philosophie des deutschen Idealismus I (1918–1919), pp. 143–157; translated into English as “Negation”, in Frege, Collected Papers on Mathematics, Logic, and Philosophy (op. cit.), pp. 373–389.
- 12.
Frege actually wrote “equilateral triangle” in this second-quoted phrase, the same as what he had written in the first-quoted phrase, but presumably this was a slip of the pen. We assume that he intended to write “equiangular triangle” here, for only then would he be able to say, as he does, that the first- and second-quoted expressions have “different compositions” and hence “different senses”.
- 13.
Here we have translated “Sachverhalt” as “atomic fact” and “Sachlage” as “state of affairs”, following the earlier translation of Wittgenstein’s Tractatus by C.K. Ogden, a translation that Wittgenstein himself worked through and accepted.
- 14.
Here we eliminate a “.” written in Frege’s hand, reading for it “und”, according to a suggestion of Christian Thiel.
- 15.
Der Gedanke, eine logische Untersuchung, in den Beiträgen zur Philosophie des Deutschen Idealismus, I. Bd. S. 58.
- 16.
Frege’s handwriting is difficult to read here: he may have written “noch” or “auch” in this sentence. If the latter, then the translation would read “perhaps also setting it right”.
- 17.
Frege adds a footnote here: “Der Gedanke, eine Logische Untersuchung, in den Beiträgen zur Philosophie des Deutschen Idealismus, I Bd. S. 58.”
- 18.
Beiträge zur Philosophie des deutschen Idealismus. Frege did contact both Bauch and Hoffmann, who are mentioned here; see G. Gabriel et al., eds., Gottlob Frege, Wissenschaftlicher Briefwechsel, vol. II of Nachgelassene Schriften und Wissenschaftlicher Briefwechsel, (Hamburg: Felix Meiner Verlag, 1976), pp. 8–9, 81, including the notes concerning letters from Bauch dated 31 October 1919 (III/4) and Hoffmann dated 23 January 1920 (XVI/3).
- 19.
The phrase “this question sentence” [Dieser Fragesatz] was replaced by “this question” [Diese Frage].
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Dreben, B., Floyd, J. (2011). Frege-Wittgenstein Correspondence. In: De Pellegrin, E. (eds) Interactive Wittgenstein. Synthese Library, vol 349. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9909-0_2
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