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Ludwig Wittgenstein is one of the most widely read philosophers of the twentieth century. But the books in which his philosophy was published - with the exception of his early work Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus - were posthumously edited from the writings he left to posterity. How did his 20,000 pages of philosophical writing become published volumes? Using extensive archival material, this Element reconstructs and examines the way in which Wittgenstein's writings were edited over more than fifty years, and shows how the published volumes tell a thrilling story of philosophical inheritance. The discussion ranges over the conflicts between the editors, their deviations from Wittgenstein's manuscripts, other scholarly issues which arose, and also the shared philosophical tradition of the editors, which animated their desire to be faithful to Wittgenstein and to make his writings both available and accessible. The Element can thus be read as a companion to all of Wittgenstein's published works of philosophy.

AbstractUsing hitherto unpublished archival materials, this article reconstructs the editorial story of Wittgenstein's Vermischte Bemerkungen (engl. edition: Culture and Value) in its historical context. The article's starting point is the view of the editor of Vermischte Bemerkungen - Georg Henrik von Wright - that the book does not belong to Wittgenstein's philosophical work, but that it shows Wittgenstein as "geistige Erscheinung" in relation to his times. It is argued that von Wright was particularly sensitive for the significance of Wittgenstein's remarks on literature, music, religion and history, since their friendship rested essentially on conversations about these non-philosophical topics. The new archival materials show, however, that it needed a turn in Wright's life and in his conception of philosophy, before he could regard a publication of Vermischte Bemerkungen as philosophically legitimate: Only after biographical and philosophical changes in the 1960s von Wright thought that occupation with public and cultural concerns may be a part of the philosopher's work, and only in the light of this new understanding publishing Wittgenstein's remarks on general topics seemed justified to him. Thus, Vermischte Bemerkungen is not only a portrait of Wittgenstein in relation to his times; the editorial story shows that the book is also a manifestation of von Wright's philosophical development in relation to his own times.

Rush Rhees, Elizabeth Anscombe and Georg Henrik von Wright were Wittgenstein's literary heirs and edited many posthumous volumes from Wittgenstein's writings. Their archived correspondence provides unique insights into this editorial work. The selection of letters written by Rhees which is presented here stems from an early phase of his editorial endeavour to shed light on Wittgenstein's philosophical development between the TLP and the PI. The letters were written between 1962 and 1964, in connection with the volume that appeared as Philosophische Bemerkungen (PB 1964), and show how Rhees' understanding of Wittgenstein's texts developed during editing. They contain some of the central considerations that governed Rhees' work as Wittgenstein's literary executor.

The National Library of Finland (NLF) and the Von Wright and Wittgenstein Archives at the University of Helsinki (WWA) keep the collected correspondence of Georg Henrik von Wright, Wittgenstein's friend and successor at Cambridge and one of the three literary executors of Wittgenstein's Nachlass. Among von Wright's correspondence partners, Elizabeth Anscombe and Rush Rhees are of special interest to Wittgenstein scholars as the two other trustees of the Wittgenstein papers. Thus, von Wright's collections held in Finland promise to shed light on the context of decades of editorial work that made Wittgenstein's later philosophy available to all interested readers. In this text, we present the letters which von Wright received from Anscombe and Rhees during the first nine months after Wittgenstein's death. This correspondence provides a vivid picture of the literary executors as persons and of their developing relationships. The presented letters are beautiful examples of what the correspondence as a whole has to offer; it depicts – besides facts of editing – the story of three philosophers, whose conversing voices unfold the human aspects of inheriting Wittgenstein's Nachlass. Their story does not only deal with editing the papers of an eminent philosopher, but with the attempt to do justice to the man they knew, to his philosophy and to his wishes for publication.

Presented here is the transcript of a BBC radio broadcast by Elizabeth Anscombe that was recorded in May 1953 – the month when Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations appeared in England for the first time. In her radio talk, Anscombe provides some biographical and philosophical background for reading the Philosophical Investigations. She addresses the importance of the Tractatus and of the literary qualities of Wittgenstein's writing. Anscombe warns that it would be fruitless to adopt slogans from Wittgenstein without insight. She also calls it a misunderstanding to think that Wittgenstein had championed something like the Ordinary Language Philosophy as it was practised at the time of the recording.