Remarks on the Foundations of Mathematics by Ludwig Wittgenstein first 1956

Oxford: Basil Blackwell (1956)
 
8vo; in the publisher’s dark blue boards, with gilt lettering to the spine; with the first issue dust wrapper with the correct price of 37s. 6d. net to the inside flap; pp xixe, 204; parallel text in English and German; overall a very good copy, with some edge wear to the corner tips and spine ends, and browning to the first couple of pages, where Paul Hirst’s notes have sat, the dust wrapper has a toned spine and minor loss with edgewear to the spine ends.
 
‘Remarks’ was Wittgenstein’s second posthumous works to be published by Basil Blackwell after Philosophical Investigations in 1953. It was originally introduced to be the second part of Philosophical Investigations, hence the two gilt stars on the spine, but as a body of work it stands by itself.
 
This copy was owned by the British sociologist and political theorist Paul Quentin Hirst, and his pencil signature is on the front free end paper. He has underlined sections of the book in pencil and made copious notes on nine sides of paper that has been left inserted loosely at the front of the book.
 
Hirst was a leading figure in early British structural Marxism. But later in his life, he became critical of certain aspects of it, drawing upon Michael Foucaut and Wittgenstein. It is interesting to see here his handwritten and detailed notes, expressing his thoughts based on what he has read in Remarks, as he references sections of the book. A rare book in very good condition, but particularly so with the ownership marks and associated notes of Paul Hirst.