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Diarios secretos
Los Diarios secretos de Wittgenstein están íntimamente ligados a la actividad fi losófi ca de su autor. Sin embargo, a pesar del enorme interés contextual de sus contenidos personales, los albaceas impidieron su publicación, en un intento falsamente piadoso de ocultarnos el personaje real con sus miedos, sus angustias, su elitismo ascético o su homosexualidad. Wilhelm Baum ha rescatado estos cuadernos vivos y patéticos en los que Wittgenstein escribía en clave en las páginas pares sus vivencias íntimas, mientras que en las impares anotaba en escritura normal sus pensamientos públicos.
232 pages, Paperback
Published April 14, 2008
About the author
Ludwig Wittgenstein
313 books3,031 followersLudwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein (Ph.D., Trinity College, Cambridge University, 1929) was an Austrian-British philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language.
Described by Bertrand Russell as "the most perfect example I have ever known of genius as traditionally conceived, passionate, profound, intense, and dominating", he helped inspire two of the twentieth century's principal philosophical movements: the Vienna Circle and Oxford ordinary language philosophy. According to an end of the century poll, professional philosophers in Canada and the U.S. rank both his Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus and Philosophical Investigations among the top five most important books in twentieth-century philosophy, the latter standing out as "...the one crossover masterpiece in twentieth-century philosophy, appealing across diverse specializations and philosophical orientations". Wittgenstein's influence has been felt in nearly every field of the humanities and social sciences, yet there are widely diverging interpretations of his thought.
Described by Bertrand Russell as "the most perfect example I have ever known of genius as traditionally conceived, passionate, profound, intense, and dominating", he helped inspire two of the twentieth century's principal philosophical movements: the Vienna Circle and Oxford ordinary language philosophy. According to an end of the century poll, professional philosophers in Canada and the U.S. rank both his Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus and Philosophical Investigations among the top five most important books in twentieth-century philosophy, the latter standing out as "...the one crossover masterpiece in twentieth-century philosophy, appealing across diverse specializations and philosophical orientations". Wittgenstein's influence has been felt in nearly every field of the humanities and social sciences, yet there are widely diverging interpretations of his thought.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 65 reviews
June 29, 2022
wittgenstein: *fails to work, gets bullied by his colleagues, jerks off, reads poetry*
me: he just like me fr
me: he just like me fr
December 26, 2022
Upon finishing these notebooks I texted my best friend, So -apparently it was underfed wanking which led to the Tractatus.
The entries are mildly interesting in themselves, instances of being bullied by peers and terrified at imminent death by Russian artillery. There is also considerable self-loathing which I can relate to these days.
A trusted authority has said this was poetry and I fear I failed to regard it as such.
The entries are mildly interesting in themselves, instances of being bullied by peers and terrified at imminent death by Russian artillery. There is also considerable self-loathing which I can relate to these days.
A trusted authority has said this was poetry and I fear I failed to regard it as such.
June 1, 2022
I’m sure Wittgenstein would be very pleased to know that people like me are rating and reviewing his private and intentionally coded war-time journal entries about his personal failings, spiritual yearnings and sexual inclinations. 4/5.
The editor/translator seems to have chosen to include prefaces, notes, an introduction and an afterword for no other reason than to satify her own vanity and justify her scholastic existence; however, the actual design of the book (i.e., typography, inclusion of pictures, general "aesthetic," etc.) is A+.
The editor/translator seems to have chosen to include prefaces, notes, an introduction and an afterword for no other reason than to satify her own vanity and justify her scholastic existence; however, the actual design of the book (i.e., typography, inclusion of pictures, general "aesthetic," etc.) is A+.
January 11, 2025
Even geniuses struggle with self-doubt and procrastination just like the rest of us.
A deeper review to follow after I have gathered my thoughts.
A deeper review to follow after I have gathered my thoughts.
April 10, 2022
A poignant picture of the “behind the scenes” of the Tractatus. A whole lot of nothing happens in the first two notebooks. Most of the entries are about how much work he gets done. Sometimes a little, sometimes a lot, sometimes none at all.
In the third notebook, written while Wittgenstein was on the front lines of the war and facing the possibility of death, suddenly his writing blooms into beautiful spiritual, religious poems. From these entries we come to see that the Tractatus is really a guide on how to face death without fear.
In the third notebook, written while Wittgenstein was on the front lines of the war and facing the possibility of death, suddenly his writing blooms into beautiful spiritual, religious poems. From these entries we come to see that the Tractatus is really a guide on how to face death without fear.
October 20, 2022
fixation on not working hard enough; hatred of day job; love of m-dashes; strongly featuring wwi galicia; brief mention of the balloon division (!!!)
I am but a worm but through God I can become a man!
basically he has the disposition of me in my misanthropic freshman year of high school except I didn’t come out of it having written the tractatus xoxox
I am but a worm but through God I can become a man!
basically he has the disposition of me in my misanthropic freshman year of high school except I didn’t come out of it having written the tractatus xoxox
February 27, 2025
The world is not real why did they publish his personal journals 😭. Wittengstein is so real though
“Am not quite in the mood for work. Reading a great deal. Watch duty tonight. Have done almost no work. A little worried about my
future.
“Dark mood. Strong sexual desire. Feeling lonely. .”
“Yesterday for the first ime in 3 weeks. masturbated. I am almost entirely free of sexual desire.”
“If suicide is allowed then everything is allowed. If anything is not allowed then suicide is not allowed.”
“Am not quite in the mood for work. Reading a great deal. Watch duty tonight. Have done almost no work. A little worried about my
future.
“Dark mood. Strong sexual desire. Feeling lonely. .”
“Yesterday for the first ime in 3 weeks. masturbated. I am almost entirely free of sexual desire.”
“If suicide is allowed then everything is allowed. If anything is not allowed then suicide is not allowed.”
March 20, 2023
Entre balance del trabajo intelectual del día y recuento de la cantidad de acciones onanistas de la semana, entre anotaciones sobre los acontecimientos de su vida privada y comentarios sobre la situación bélica de aquellos años, Wittgenstein a veces introduce reflexiones sobre la posibilidad de vivir una vida sin sentido o sobre cómo poder convivir con el infierno de los otros. No sé si me lo he leído entero, pero no son unos diarios cualesquiera y, aunque Cata se confundiera con los diarios de los años 30, los "Diarios secretos" son una lectura que conectan también con el más íntimo Ludwig Wittgenstein.
January 20, 2026
Tole je res lep prevod, kar vem, ker sem se v svoji magistrski nalogi še sam mučil prevajati te dnevnike in so nastali precej bolj okorni fragmenti od tega, kar beremo tukaj. Tale knjiga je čudovit spremni material za ob branju Logično-filozofskega traktata, še tako lepi sestrski izdaji so pripravili na LUD Šerpa, da so Dnevniki in Traktat vizualno poenoteni. Zraven dnevnikov je v knjigi še sloviti narek G. E. Mooru in pa pisma Russellu, vse to je pravzaprav nujno čtivo za razumevanje Traktata. Kapo dol Uletu, da je vse to izpeljal, kot kaže smo Slovenci res prvi na svetu s kompletnimi Dnevniki, tudi tistimi deli, ki so prišli v javnost šele leta 2022 ali 23.
May 9, 2022
The blurbs lie! There's absolutely nothing exciting to be seen here -- nothing additive to the philosophy itself and nothing interesting about the great man's external life or inner world either. It's hard for me to understand how there was even enough here to justify publication. For professional academics and true Wittgenstein fan-boys only.
May 7, 2022
Read my commentary here:
https://tosh.substack.com/p/private-n...
https://tosh.substack.com/p/private-n...
August 28, 2022
9/10 - Genius and hilarious and sad, all of this and more if you read it with Natalia.
June 30, 2025
ALLES WAS WIR SEHEN, KÖNNTE AUCH ANDERS SEIN
Read
March 10, 2025A lot of reference to masturbation.
April 12, 2022
Wittgenstein kept these notebooks, three of them, during his military service in WWI. They are intriguing and quite moving. The entries here are what he wrote to himself in private code on the verso (left) side of the notebook. They have not been published before. (The entries on the recto (right) side of the notebooks were his thoughts leading to the Tractatus-Logico-Philosophicus; these entries were published long ago.)
Two major elements of his personality and thought emerge via these brief, pungent comments
Personality: At age 25-27, Wittgenstein volunteered as a kind of test. He seems to have wanted to know how he could mesh with other soldier/sailors and what his reaction would be to the perils of war. Although he was born to a wealthy family and inherited great wealth as a consequence, he was a humble person and a courteous person. This didn't help him get along with his shipmates on a river patrol boat. They were bores and oafs and apparently picked on him and annoyed him incessantly. So he withdrew to the best of his ability and circumstance. The problem was that he did have homosexual urges that made him quite lonely, and in wartime he could hear little from loved ones via letter. So he monitored his masturbation in these notebooks and he alluded to shore leaves that involved visits to "baths." Neither activity seems to have given him a lot of relief. But this aspect of the notebooks shouldn't be overstated because Wittgenstein had an ascetic streak that was driving him to discover how he could shed his sense of self altogether. This led to hazardous duty and consideration of suicide. He seems to have been sincere in wanting to bait death and either prove his courage or succumb to his cowardice. This desire complemented his evident religiosity. He wanted to leave himself in God's care and wrestled with the idea of God all the time.
Looking at these notebooks on a philosophical plane, we can see important outcomes. Through war and deep thought, Wittgenstein was cultivating detachment and accepting the limits of what we can know...or affect. It's easy to see the influence of Schopenhauer (and thereby Hinduism) on him. He developed a notion of existence as illusion and fate as a force beyond the ken of mankind. In particular he seized on the idea that the fundamental illusion is what we tell ourselves with words.
The challenge of Wittgenstein has been that he entered into the realm of pure thought via logic but he never shed his deep feeling that a spiritual or quasi-mystical understanding offered better, if frustrating, results. He was a man in self-conflict, as these notebooks reveal (and as his entire biography reveals). The fact that Wittgenstein often presented philosophical findings enigmatically, through results that were not bolstered by an accompanying explanation of the methods that led him to these results, may perhaps be attributed a kind of self-cancellation. The ideas that he explored were hard won and powerful but if the truth about existence is that it is an illusion woven of words and his ideas were ultimately conveyed by words, what were they worth?
Later in life, after the war, during his long tenure at Cambridge, Wittgenstein devoted intense energy to philosophizing for the benefit of his students on the spot, as it were. Perhaps the quirkiness of his long silences broken now and then by philosophical eruptions can be traced back to his military service. I say "perhaps." I don't know. But for Wittgenstein the value of "now" in wartime was immense. Anything can happen now in wartime and little that happens before or after now signifies much. Let's say the past and the future are inexistent when you are under fire and add the thought that the past and the future are illusions of almost no value. Let's go beyond that and place the wartime truth that you are not in control of your fate in the context of Wittgenstein's larger conclusion that you are not in control of your fate at any point. Schopenhauer would have said the same. Nietzsche tried to go beyond Schopenhauer, but Wittgenstein was drawing the conclusion in these notebooks that nothing self-based matters. Nothing. One could not even wrap oneself in the Divine with the confidence that this would lead to good. It might lead to evil. Ethics, he writes here, is a nonstarter. How does he explain that? He doesn't, but I am trying to do so here based on the fragments recorded in three little books that were overlooked, never published, until 100 years after they were jotted down by a lonely man on a boat, in a barracks, occupied for most of his day by tasks that should have been humiliating for him but weren't either because he wanted to be humiliated or he thought no one can be humiliated since humiliation is just another illusion.
Two major elements of his personality and thought emerge via these brief, pungent comments
Personality: At age 25-27, Wittgenstein volunteered as a kind of test. He seems to have wanted to know how he could mesh with other soldier/sailors and what his reaction would be to the perils of war. Although he was born to a wealthy family and inherited great wealth as a consequence, he was a humble person and a courteous person. This didn't help him get along with his shipmates on a river patrol boat. They were bores and oafs and apparently picked on him and annoyed him incessantly. So he withdrew to the best of his ability and circumstance. The problem was that he did have homosexual urges that made him quite lonely, and in wartime he could hear little from loved ones via letter. So he monitored his masturbation in these notebooks and he alluded to shore leaves that involved visits to "baths." Neither activity seems to have given him a lot of relief. But this aspect of the notebooks shouldn't be overstated because Wittgenstein had an ascetic streak that was driving him to discover how he could shed his sense of self altogether. This led to hazardous duty and consideration of suicide. He seems to have been sincere in wanting to bait death and either prove his courage or succumb to his cowardice. This desire complemented his evident religiosity. He wanted to leave himself in God's care and wrestled with the idea of God all the time.
Looking at these notebooks on a philosophical plane, we can see important outcomes. Through war and deep thought, Wittgenstein was cultivating detachment and accepting the limits of what we can know...or affect. It's easy to see the influence of Schopenhauer (and thereby Hinduism) on him. He developed a notion of existence as illusion and fate as a force beyond the ken of mankind. In particular he seized on the idea that the fundamental illusion is what we tell ourselves with words.
The challenge of Wittgenstein has been that he entered into the realm of pure thought via logic but he never shed his deep feeling that a spiritual or quasi-mystical understanding offered better, if frustrating, results. He was a man in self-conflict, as these notebooks reveal (and as his entire biography reveals). The fact that Wittgenstein often presented philosophical findings enigmatically, through results that were not bolstered by an accompanying explanation of the methods that led him to these results, may perhaps be attributed a kind of self-cancellation. The ideas that he explored were hard won and powerful but if the truth about existence is that it is an illusion woven of words and his ideas were ultimately conveyed by words, what were they worth?
Later in life, after the war, during his long tenure at Cambridge, Wittgenstein devoted intense energy to philosophizing for the benefit of his students on the spot, as it were. Perhaps the quirkiness of his long silences broken now and then by philosophical eruptions can be traced back to his military service. I say "perhaps." I don't know. But for Wittgenstein the value of "now" in wartime was immense. Anything can happen now in wartime and little that happens before or after now signifies much. Let's say the past and the future are inexistent when you are under fire and add the thought that the past and the future are illusions of almost no value. Let's go beyond that and place the wartime truth that you are not in control of your fate in the context of Wittgenstein's larger conclusion that you are not in control of your fate at any point. Schopenhauer would have said the same. Nietzsche tried to go beyond Schopenhauer, but Wittgenstein was drawing the conclusion in these notebooks that nothing self-based matters. Nothing. One could not even wrap oneself in the Divine with the confidence that this would lead to good. It might lead to evil. Ethics, he writes here, is a nonstarter. How does he explain that? He doesn't, but I am trying to do so here based on the fragments recorded in three little books that were overlooked, never published, until 100 years after they were jotted down by a lonely man on a boat, in a barracks, occupied for most of his day by tasks that should have been humiliating for him but weren't either because he wanted to be humiliated or he thought no one can be humiliated since humiliation is just another illusion.
Read
October 27, 2025100th book this year ✌️
I tried reading his Tractus earlier this year and couldn’t make any sense of it so this was a much smoother introduction to Wittgenstein whose summarized philosophy I find v interesting, just could not comprehend the raw material bc I’m too small-brained.
This doesn’t feel right to rate considering they’re just journal entries but I did highlight probably a fifth of the book so there’s that.
I tried reading his Tractus earlier this year and couldn’t make any sense of it so this was a much smoother introduction to Wittgenstein whose summarized philosophy I find v interesting, just could not comprehend the raw material bc I’m too small-brained.
This doesn’t feel right to rate considering they’re just journal entries but I did highlight probably a fifth of the book so there’s that.
April 3, 2026
Wittgenstein is kinda my intellectual great grandpa of sorts — he taught Anscombe who taught Mueller who I was a student of. I remember asking Mueller what Anscombe thought of Ludwig. All he said was she believed he was a great man.
September 11, 2022
An extraordinary publication - the first in English in this depth - of Wittgenstein's private mental, emotional and philosophical record during his difficult time serving below the status of officer in WWI, on the German/Austrian side. This was the gestation of the Tractatus. At this early stage still his connections intellectually were mostly with the Cambridge school. Wittgenstein came from one of the wealthiest families in Austria.; his famous pianist brother lost an arm in battle, spent POW time in Siberia and thereafter commissioned pieces for the left hand. Even while living a personally ascetic life (before giving away or renouncing his fortune) he gave money anonymously to support several artists, including Rilke. This record is made even more interesting for Marjorie Perloff's detailed contextual setting, faithful translation and sympathy and understanding. Her honesty in discussing Wittgenstein's gay sexuality and his own words are compelling. His first love, David Pinsent, died in 1918 not because of wounds in battle but in a flying accident at England's aircraft testing facility. The Tractatus concludes with statements about how life is timeless when lived in the present. That perspective is deepened with these wartime notebooks as background. The dramatic history biography of the Wittgenstein family, plagued by suicides, persecuted by the Germans in WWII, is told in another great book, The House of Wittgenstein.
January 30, 2024
i found the Perloff intros and addendums to be devoutly starved and unilluminating, for lack of better words, but the actual journals are fun. his "Completely asexual today" got a chuckle out of me. the coded comments about sexuality are of some interest but honestly doesn't really do or mean much. seems to me that Wittgenstein was confused and maybe even a little repulsed by his sexuality in general with little regard towards hetero or homosexual designations.
December 6, 2022
Invaluable
November 25, 2025
This was one of my favorite books I have read this year!
In applying to grad school, I developed an interest in Ludwig Wittgenstein's philosophy of language. Before delving into his philosophical writing, I wanted to get a sense of who he was as a person. While I do have apprehensions about the publication of his private notebooks, I can see why scholars of Wittgenstein deemed the issuing of these three essential to understanding an embryonic Tractacus.
This was also a strangely comforting read. Grad school applications feel vulnerable and scary, opening the doors for a lot of self-doubt and anxiety. Reading accounts of one of the most prolific philosophers of the twentieth century struggling to work and fearing that he would never again have another idea was relatable, grounding a lot of my own worries. We all start somewhere, and for Wittgenstein, these notebooks saw his turn from probing the foundation of logic to questioning the natural world and begin to formulate propositions that forever changed how we interact with our faculty of language.
In applying to grad school, I developed an interest in Ludwig Wittgenstein's philosophy of language. Before delving into his philosophical writing, I wanted to get a sense of who he was as a person. While I do have apprehensions about the publication of his private notebooks, I can see why scholars of Wittgenstein deemed the issuing of these three essential to understanding an embryonic Tractacus.
This was also a strangely comforting read. Grad school applications feel vulnerable and scary, opening the doors for a lot of self-doubt and anxiety. Reading accounts of one of the most prolific philosophers of the twentieth century struggling to work and fearing that he would never again have another idea was relatable, grounding a lot of my own worries. We all start somewhere, and for Wittgenstein, these notebooks saw his turn from probing the foundation of logic to questioning the natural world and begin to formulate propositions that forever changed how we interact with our faculty of language.
December 4, 2025
trabaja poco, se masturba y se deprime, yo le entiendo
August 23, 2021
“Non sarebbe meglio andare tristemente alla deriva nella lotta senza speranza contro il mondo esterno? Ma una vita del genere è priva di senso. E perché non condurre una vita senza senso? È indegno? Ma cosa devo fare affinché la mia vita non vada sprecata? Devo sempre essere cosciente dello spirito, esserne sempre cosciente” (8-12-1914)
Il testo propone i pensieri che Wittgeinstein scrisse mentre si trovava in guerra sul fronte orientale. Questi diari sono “segreti” perché inizialmente non pubblicati dai curatori letterari testamentari.
Queste annotazioni furono scritte in codice parallelamente alla stesura delle riflessioni poi pubblicate col nome di “Quaderni, 1914-16”.
In questi “Diari segreti” incontriamo un Wittgeinstein “nuovo” e intimo. Per quanto ogni tanto si riescano a notare tracce di quello che poi sarà lo scrittore del “Tractatus”, Wittgeinstein in queste note personali è molto insicuro, a disagio in mezzo alle altre persone, in difficoltà nel suo lavoro di pensiero. È un Wittgeinstein molto diverso dal tono “profetico” che sembra assumere nel “Tractatus”.
Parla dei suoi superiori, disprezza volgarità e bassezze della maggior parte dei compagni d’arme, racconta delle sue letture al fronte, della continua ed estenuante stanchezza, della difficoltà di lavorare e pensare quando si sentono gli aerei sopra le proprie teste.
Si tratta di un testo prezioso per chi fosse interessato ad approfondire Wittgeinstein.
Metto 5 stelle, perché trovo impossibile riuscire a giudicare con un sistema numerico i diari intimi e le memorie di un altro essere umano.
Il testo propone i pensieri che Wittgeinstein scrisse mentre si trovava in guerra sul fronte orientale. Questi diari sono “segreti” perché inizialmente non pubblicati dai curatori letterari testamentari.
Queste annotazioni furono scritte in codice parallelamente alla stesura delle riflessioni poi pubblicate col nome di “Quaderni, 1914-16”.
In questi “Diari segreti” incontriamo un Wittgeinstein “nuovo” e intimo. Per quanto ogni tanto si riescano a notare tracce di quello che poi sarà lo scrittore del “Tractatus”, Wittgeinstein in queste note personali è molto insicuro, a disagio in mezzo alle altre persone, in difficoltà nel suo lavoro di pensiero. È un Wittgeinstein molto diverso dal tono “profetico” che sembra assumere nel “Tractatus”.
Parla dei suoi superiori, disprezza volgarità e bassezze della maggior parte dei compagni d’arme, racconta delle sue letture al fronte, della continua ed estenuante stanchezza, della difficoltà di lavorare e pensare quando si sentono gli aerei sopra le proprie teste.
Si tratta di un testo prezioso per chi fosse interessato ad approfondire Wittgeinstein.
Metto 5 stelle, perché trovo impossibile riuscire a giudicare con un sistema numerico i diari intimi e le memorie di un altro essere umano.
September 5, 2024
Very insightful to the person of Wittgenstein. The translator wishes to hyper focus on Wittgenstein’s sexuality. I think noting the tone that the private notebooks take towards his sexuality is worth noting. However, I think that the translator is somewhat too concerned with this feature. Many other things are revealed about Wittgenstein the man than just his sexuality in these previously unpublished writings. His sensitivity to seemingly trivial matters, his internal religious struggle, his constant concern to be living an ethical life, etc. Anyone who is interested in complimenting their reading of Wittgenstein’s other works with this text will profit significantly.
July 16, 2022
An interesting insight into Wittgenstein's life during WW1 in the form of a coded notebook/diary written in conjunction with the work he was doing to formulate his philosophy. His frustrations with the other soldiers with whom he has to share his living space are more than apparent, but he is at least aware of how grumpy he is. Although nothing is explicitly written down there are hints about some sexual encounters, which cause more mental anguish because of his religious beliefs. One for those interested in the finer details of his life.
April 15, 2022
A fascinating historical document and certainly a must-read for Wittgenstein completists, even if much of the text is limited to variations on the following three themes:
1) Nicht gearbeitet. ("[I] did no work.")
2) Jeder haßt mich. ("Everybody hates me.")
3) Heute wieder onaniert. ("[I] Roughed Up the Suspect again today.")
Things begin to open up a bit in the third notebook, in which W. begins making significant progress on the Tractatus.
1) Nicht gearbeitet. ("[I] did no work.")
2) Jeder haßt mich. ("Everybody hates me.")
3) Heute wieder onaniert. ("[I] Roughed Up the Suspect again today.")
Things begin to open up a bit in the third notebook, in which W. begins making significant progress on the Tractatus.
June 22, 2022
This book ought to be read only by readers who've spent time with the Tractatus. It made me realize that the Tractatus can (should?) be read as an example of WW1 literature. It makes me want to reread it alongside David Jones, Ernst Jünger, and other writers who saw combat.
I'm not convinced by Perloff's arguments about Wittgenstein's homosexuality, and I wish she had included all of the recto pages. I can't imagine why she didn't.
I'm not convinced by Perloff's arguments about Wittgenstein's homosexuality, and I wish she had included all of the recto pages. I can't imagine why she didn't.
October 25, 2024
Los cuadernos privados de Wittgenstein, filósofo referencial del siglo XX, escritos mientras se encontraba en el frente de guerra. Ahí aparecen, a salpicones, notas de su Tractatus Logicus Philosophicus. Imprescindible.
October 25, 2022
love to hear his prayers. particularly when he thinks he's bout to be killed. Thy will be done. Pretty sure I'm religious now. Also 5 stars for first-hand descriptions of his masturbation routine.
April 28, 2026
The Spirit keeps you in good faith! -----.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 65 reviews