WITTGENSTEIN, Ludwig.

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"Logisch-Philosophische Abhandlung." True first edition of the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, Wittgenstein's earliest published work, and one of the 20th century's undisputed philosophical masterpieces.This German-language journal publication precedes the book-form publication of the Tractatus by a year. It includes a 13-page preface by Bertrand Russell, providing an explanation of the article's significance that secured its publication. Wittgenstein, whose attitude to publication was often ambivalent, confided that he was "pleased my stuff is going to be printed'" (quoted in Monk, pp. 203-4).The work was written during his service in the First World War, although its roots go back at least as far as his notes on logic from 1913. It swiftly became the cornerstone of logical positivism and of the Cambridge school of analytic philosophy, articulating the relationship of language and reality and defining the limits of science.

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