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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 September 1962
1 B renders Wittgenstein's “die gesamte Naturwissenschaft” by “the whole of natural science”, but one wonders whether any purpose is served by the adjective. The German “Naturwissenschaft” corresponds quite accurately to the English “science”: the German “Geisteswissenschaften” are not commonly referred to as “sciences” at all.
2 “The thinking, presenting subject; there is no such thing.” B is as crisp as the German original: “There is no such thing as the subject that thinks or entertains ideas.”
3 A more literal translation of “müssen sich von selbst verstehen” would be “must be self-evident”.
4 Cf. J. Hintikka's criticism of Urmson in Mind, vol. lxvii (1958), p. 88. Urmson may well be right, however, in rendering Wittgenstein's “was der Solipsismus...meint” as “what solipsism intends“. Both A and B have “what solipsism means”, but the standard German equivalent of this would be “was der Solipsismus bedeutet”.
