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Half-title + TP + v-xiv = Preface + half-title + [1]-185 + 1 blank leaf. Octavo. First Edition, Second Issue (Fr/McG: B.B.B., p. 43).The First US Issue of The Blue and The Brown BooksWittgenstein's Dictated Classroom Notes Printed from UK sheets, this should be considered the second issue of the book. Details about the Blue Book can be found in our listing for the Blue Book Typescript. While the Blue Book was a straightforward transcription of his lectures, the Brown Book was Wittgenstein's attempt to fully present the state of his thinking as it had progressed up to the school year of 1934-1935. This "book" - which he purposely dictated to Francis Skinner and Alice Ambrose - reads more like a textbook than the much looser Blue Book. Three typed copies bound in brown wrappers were produced. Wittgenstein begins by asking the reader to imagine a tribe whose language composed of four nouns: "cube," "brick," "slab," and "column." The point, here, is to demonstrate what the simplest of language-games might look like. This one is composed of just four words and various intonations that alter their meaning. Wittgenstein then adds numbers, one through ten. Then "this" and "there." Then questions and answers. Then color words. Two major points are emphasized here. First, even in this simplest of forms, language is complex. And second, this language-game can be played with or without the existence of mental representations of the object spoken of. This second point intends to emphasize that mental ideas are not essential to language; language can correspond to an object without the object being imagined. Wittgenstein then continues with another series of language-games. This time, he begins with the idea that there is a tribe whose number system is split into two ways of counting: a closed way and an open way. The closed way has 159 as the final number; the open way is infinite. His point here is to examine the coincidence of numerical structure and its linguistic effects - elucidating the 'nature' of each. He continues his examination of this language-game, going on to think about 'possibility' and 'ability' - the verbs "can" and "to be able to" being the "open" counterpart to our more familiar use of the "closed" verb "is".All of this surely sounds a bit obscure. But Wittgenstein, by trying to play in the simplest terrain possible, breaks open what might be ignored by virtue of being so familiar in our speech. The difference between "can" and "is," for example, drags into question the way we implicitly talk about past, present, and future, introducing a level of complexity to what seems like a simple statement. Here, Wittgenstein is attempting to ensure that philosophical abstractions are not unintentionally misleading, as they so often can be. Though his mentions of philosophy are spartan, the book demonstrates the quagmire of using a language that articulates phenomena in terms of things and verbs - even when what it attempts to describe is very much not a thing, and when the verb used offers a misleading sense of time. Though the point might be missed by the bizarre and complex scenarios that Wittgenstein invites the reader to imagine, the Brown Book ultimately reveals itself to be a guidebook in the use of language simplicity. [See our Catalog 24: Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Man and His Thought for a collection of 81 books and pamphlets by and about Wittgenstein.] Publisher's original blue cloth with silver lettering to the spine. A tight, bright and clean copy. ADDITIONAL PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
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