Ludwig Wittgenstein 
Lecture on Ethics 

The most complete edition yet published of Wittgenstein’s
1929 lecture includes a never-before published first draft and
makes fresh claims for its significance in Wittgenstein’s
oeuvre.

* The first available print publication of all known drafts of
Wittgenstein’s Lecture on Ethics

* Includes a previously unrecognized first draft of the lecture
and new transcriptions of all drafts

* Transcriptions preserve the philosopher’s emendations
thus showing the development of the ideas in the lecture

* Proposes a different draft as the version read by Wittgenstein
in his 1929 lecture

* Includes introductory essays on the origins of the material and
on its meaning, content, and importance

Table of Content

Acknowledgments vii

1 Introduction: The Content of a Lecture on Ethics 1

2 Established Text of the Lecture: MS 139b Normalized 42

3 The Manuscripts of a Lecture on Ethics 52

4 Description of the Manuscripts 66

5 Symbols Used in the Diplomatic Transcriptions 69

6 Proto-Draft: Diplomatic Transcription 71

7 MS 139a: Diplomatic Transcription 77

8 MS 139b: Diplomatic Transcription 101

9 TS 207: Diplomatic Transcription 123

References 135

Index 137

About the author

Edoardo Zamuner is a postdoctoral fellow in the
Philosophy Department of the University of Hong Kong. He has
conducted research at University College London and the
universities of Bologna and Melbourne. He has been a visiting
researcher in the Wittgenstein Archives of the University of
Bergen. Zamuner co-edited Wittgenstein’s Enduring
Arguments (2009) with David Levy.

Ermelinda Valentina Di Lascio is a Mairie de Paris
Research Fellow at the Léon Robin Centre for the Study of
Ancient Thought at the University of Paris-Sorbonne, France. She
has published work on Wittgenstein, Aristotle’s
Sophistical Refutations, and on ancient philosophical texts
written on papyri. She is a former Leverhulme Early Career Fellow
and Scholar of St John’s College, Cambridge.

D.K. Levy is a teaching fellow in the School of
Philosophy, Psychology, and Language Sciences at the University of
Edinburgh, UK, where he lectures on moral philosophy and the
history of philosophy. His research explores the nature of
understanding, especially moral understanding. Dr Levy has
published papers on moral philosophy, Wittgenstein and cognitive
psychology.