Wittgensteinsource: Content and semantics

How we can envisage a researcher
successfully browsing Wittgenstein Web
contents, but why s/he also should be
able to annotate the contents, and what
needs to be in place for such annotation

Alois Pichler (WAB)
Cortona & Berlin, 17. & 21.1.2013

OA Wittgenstein resources 2012
• (1) A substantial amount of Wittgenstein primary sources
available OA
– http://www.wittgensteinsource.org/
• (2) A substantial amount of Wittgenstein secondary
sources available OA
– http://wab.uib.no/agora-wab
– http://wab.uib.no/agora-alws
– http://www.nordicwittgensteinreview.com/
• (3) A substantial amount of Wittgenstein metadata
available OA
– http://www.wittgensteinsource.org/
– http://wab.uib.no/cost-a32_philospace/wittgenstein.owl
– DM2E …

Alois Pichler (WAB). CCPL BY- 2
NC-SA

Adequate utilization
Adequate utilization of these resources
requires:
• (4) An open RI which integrates and
interlinks the resources and offers an
attractive environment for work on them
along the lines of ”research primitives”/
”scholarly primitives”
Such utilization should also include the
possibility to annotate the resources further
Pundit
NC-SA

My plan for this presentation
• (1) Scholarly scenarios for searching,
browsing and focusing
– RI: wittgensteinsource.org-SwickyNotes
• (2) The case for annotation, and elements
of what is needed for it (→ Pundit)
– Annotation tool
– Controlled vocabularies and ontologies
• Three steps: Wittgenstein Source →
SwickyNotes → Pundit
NC-SA

Wittgenstein Source

NC-SA

SwickyNotes

NC-SA

Pundit

Alois Pichler (WAB). CCPL BY-
NC-SA

Wittgenstein Source
research scenario
• A scholar wishes to investigate Wittgenstein’s
thought about language learning
• Searching for ”learning of language” on the OA
Wittgenstein Source
http://www.wittgensteinsource.org/ brings her to
a number of relevant passages
• She gets particularly interested in a specific
passage from the Brown Book:
http://www.wittgensteinsource.org/Ts-310,1[1]_d

NC-SA

Wittgenstein Source: Searching for
”learning of language”

NC-SA

Wittgenstein Source: Search
results for ”learning of language”

NC-SA

Wittgenstein Source: Focusing on a specific
passage, containing ”learning of language”

NC-SA

But we need more than Wittgenstein Source alone:

The case for something like SwickyNotes

• The researcher wishes to learn more about the Ts-
310,1[1] passage, including about the Ts-310 item and
the context to which it belongs.
– She wants more data (more texts: relevant primary and
secondary sources)
– She wants more metadata (relevant data about these texts and
the relations within and between them: bibliographic, semantic
… metadata)
– She wants to browse the data and metadata in interconnected
ways

NC-SA

In order to get his wish fulfilled, the
researcher has to …
• … be able to find out that there are other
relevant texts (primary and secondary sources)
• … have access to these texts, ideally OA
• … be able to find, have access to and efficiently
browse information about these texts and about
the relations within and between them
(metadata), ideally OA
• … be able to use all these resources together, in
interlinked and integrated ways, ideally, through
one interface, and with nice graph vizualisation
tools as support

NC-SA

In order to get his wish fulfilled,
the researcher has to … (cont.)
• … get data and metadata organized in an OA RI
with an ontology as its backbone
– Ontology (classes, subclasses, instances,
relations/properties), see http://wab.uib.no/cost-
a32_philospace/wittgenstein.owl
• We have this RI now getting in place(!) thanks to EU DISCOVERY
(2006-09), NordForsk JNU VWAB (2008-11), EU Agora (2011-13),
EU SemLib (2011-12), EU DM2E (2012-14), NB-UBB Digitale
Fulltekstarkiv (2012-13), … For a brief description of the situation in
2012 see Pichler & Smith & Falch & Krüger 2012.

NC-SA

The SwickyNotes browsing tool / RI
• The best currently available browsing tool / RI
for Wittgenstein research is SwickyNotes
– SwickyNotes has the great benefit of offering one
interface for working with primary sources, secondary
sources and metadata in interlinked ways
– Three key components
• Resource
• Graph
• Ontology
– Bi-directional interaction between Graph and
Resource
• SwickyNotes is a desktop application. 
NC-SA

The SwickyNotes Trio

(2b) Text / Resource (2a) Graph

→ ←
(1) Ontology

NC-SA

SwickyNotes: Integrating sources,
ontology and graph vizualisation

NC-SA

Searching for ”Lernen der Sprache”

NC-SA

Interlinked browsing of texts (data) and
relations (metadata)

NC-SA

Exploring Wittgenstein’s references to
Augustine further

NC-SA

Checking PG 1969, Part II, §17, and
focusing on one of its sources

NC-SA

Results from focusing on the source of
PG 1969, Part II, §17

NC-SA

Bi-directional interaction
• In order to pursue the original Nachlass
context further, the scholar browses in
Wittgenstein Source to the next
Bemerkung (Ms-114,47v[6]et48r[1]_n).
• This leads to an automatic update of the
graph window which now displays the
relations recorded for Ms-
114,47v[6]et48r[1].

NC-SA

Pursuing the co(n)text of PG 1969, Part II,
§17 in the Nachlass source

NC-SA

”Semantic” queries
• Now the scholar wants to query Wittgenstein
secondary sources for the topic of language
learning.
• On the list of ”Issue” instances he finds a
number of relevant terms, among them
”language acquisition” and ”learning”.*
– ”learning” leads him to two articles on the subject.
*A note: The secondary sources issues are derived from
keywords provided by the authors of these sources.

NC-SA

From ”language acquisition” …

NC-SA

… to a secondary source author …

NC-SA

… to ”form of life”

NC-SA

Querying the relation between
”published works” and Nachlass
• The Wittgenstein scholar familiar with the so-
called ”Published Works” from Suhrkamp or
Blackwell or … wishes to consult the original
Nachlass about a certain passage he knows
from the ”work” ”Philosophical Grammar”: PG
1969, Part II, §17.
• She focuses in the Wittgenstein ontology on the
instance W-PG1969:PartI:II:sect17 which leads
her to the instance Ms-114,47v[5], the Nachlass
source for the ”work” publication.
NC-SA

Now the scholar wants to add new knowledge to
the existing knowledge: Annotation through adding
comments / explicating existing relations

• Annotation can be carried out through ”free
comments”
• However, even such ”free” annotation greatly
benefits from support through controlled
vocabularies and ontologies:
– By referring to and using the same ontological
background, Wittgenstein scholars’ engagement and
interaction with the resource and each other can
become incomparibly more structured and shareable.
– We can more quickly start talking about the same
things! 
NC-SA

”Talking the same language”

Shared concepts for objects (in square brackets):

• ”The text [Bemerkung: Ts-310,1[1]_d]]”
– ”discusses [Issue: learning of language]” (NB: multilinguality!)
– ”is authored by [Person: Wittgenstein Ludwig]”
– ”is part of [TS: Ts-310]”
– ”has been published in [Work: W-BBB]”
– ”dates from [Date: 19341000-19350500]”
– ”has other version in [Bemerkung: Ms-141,1[1]_d]”
– ”refers to [Person: Augustine]”
– ”refers to [External Source: Augustine: Confessiones]”
• ”[Work: W-BBB] is referred to in [Secondary Source:
VenturinhaNuno_2004]”
• [Secondary Source: VenturinhaNuno_2004] discusses several issues,
including [Issue: style]”
• …
NC-SA

”Talking the same language”
(cont.)
Shared concepts for relations:

• The strings in square brackets (e.g. ”Bemerkung: Ts-
310,1[1]_d”) in the slide above describe the stable nodes
of the map (the instances), while the strings between the
entries in square brackets refer to relations between
these nodes (the relations).
• For each relation, its domain and range are defined so
that they are ascribed in consistent and coherent ways.
– E.g.: In our Wittgenstein ontology, it is excluded that one
predicates about an instance of Issue that it has a date (relation:
hasDate); only an instance of Source can have a date.
NC-SA

WAB’s Wittgenstein ontology
(for a brief description see Pichler & Zöllner-Weber 2012)

NC-SA

Source

NC-SA

Subject

NC-SA

Person
• Tba.

NC-SA

Source branch (classes)
• Source: A thing which is a primary or a secondary source.
• Primary source: A primary source for Wittgenstein scholarship, authored by Wittgenstein or in cooperation with
Wittgenstein, or not by Wittgenstein but referred to by Wittgenstein.
• Wittgenstein primary source, subclass of Primary source: A primary source for Wittgenstein scholarship, authored
by Wittgenstein or in cooperation with Wittgenstein.
• External primary source, subclass of Primary source: A primary source for Wittgenstein scholarship, not authored
by Wittgenstein nor in cooperation with Wittgenstein, but referred to in a Wittgenstein primary source.
– Example of instance: Goethe JWv: Faust; Augustine St: Confessiones
• MS, subclass of Wittgenstein primary source: A Wittgenstein primary source physical item, handwritten.
– Example of instance: Ms-115; Ms-139a
• TS, subclass of Wittgenstein primary source: A Wittgenstein primary source physical item, typed.
– Example of instance: Ts-213; Ts-310
• Bemerkung, subclass of Wittgenstein primary source: A single remark in a Wittgenstein primary source.
– Example of instance: Ts-310,21[2]et22[1]
• Sentence, subclass of Wittgenstein primary source: A single sentence in a Wittgenstein primary source.
– Example of instance: Ts-310,21[2]et22[1]_1; Ts-310,21[2]et22[1]_2
• Chapter, subclass of Wittgenstein primary source: A single chapter in a Wittgenstein primary source.
– Example of instance: Ts-213,ch-i
• Work, subclass of Wittgenstein primary source: A standard publication (“work”) of a Wittgenstein primary source.
– Example of instance: W-CV; W-TLP
• Secondary source: A secondary source for Wittgenstein scholarship, not authored by Wittgenstein nor in
cooperation with Wittgenstein, but referring to Wittgenstein or a Wittgenstein primary source.
– Example of instance: PichlerAlois_2001; WallgrenThomas_2008

NC-SA

Person branch (classes)

• Person: A thing which is a person.
• Author, subclass of Person:
– Example of instance: KantImmanuel;
PichlerAlois; WallgrenThomas
• NB: In addition to instances of the
subclass Author, the Person class is also
populated with direct instances of person
– Example of instance: Socrates; Moses;
WittgensteinPaul

NC-SA

Subject branch (classes)
• Subject: All things which are neither a source nor a person (nor a relation)
• Place, subclass of Subject:
– Example of instance: Skjolden; Cambridge
• Date, subclass of Subject:.
– Example of instance: 19361105; 19450000
• Issue, subclass of Subject:
– Example of instance: philosophy; logical analysis
• Point, subclass of Subject:
– Example of instance: Logical analysis is essential to philosophy
• Field, subclass of Subject: A field of philosophical discussion.
– Has subclasses: Metaphysics; Epistemology a.o.
• Example of subclass structure: Field > Epistemology > Scepticism > Rule-
FollowingScepticism
• Perspective, subclass of Subject:
– Has subclasses: APichler_Course_TLP; APichler_Course_PI a.o.
• Example of subclass structure: Perspective > APichler_Course_TLP > [Instances]
Kontradiktion-contradiction; Sachverhalt-state_of_affairs …

NC-SA

Relations (selection)
•
isPartOf ↔ hasPart
– Example of instance:
[Ms-114,48v[5]et49r[1]] isPartOf [Ms-114];
[Ms-114] hasPart [Ms-114,48v[5]et49r[1]]
• isPublishedInWork ↔ isWorkPublishedFrom
[Ms-114,48v[5]et49r[1]] isPublishedIn [W-PG1969:PartI:II:sect19];
[W-PG1969:PartI:II:sect19] isPublicationOf [Ms-114,48v[5]et49r[1]]
• refersTo ↔ isReferredToIn
[Augustinus, Aurelius: Confessiones] isReferredToIn [Ms-114,48v[5]et49r[1]];
[Ms-114,48v[5]et49r[1]] refersTo [Augustinus, Aurelius: Confessiones]
• hasAuthor ↔ isAuthorOf
[ArisoJM] isAuthorOf [ArisoJM_2003];
[ArisoJM_2003] hasAuthor [ArisoJM]
• hasDate ↔ isDateOf
[Ms-118,11r[2]] hasDate [19370825];
[19370825] isDateOf [Ms-118,11r[2]]
• hasOtherVersion
[Ms-114,48v[5]et49r[1]] hasOtherVersion [Ms-152,38[2]]

NC-SA

Relations (selection, cont.)
• Discusses[Issue/Point] ↔ is[Issue/Point]DiscussedIn
[ArisoJM_2003] discusses [dream];
[dream] isDiscussedIn [ArisoJM_2003];
[W-TLP] discusses [Logical analysis is essential to philosophy];
[Logical analysis is essential to philosophy] isDiscussedIn [W-TLP]
• isContra ↔ isArguedAgainstIn
[Logical analysis is essential to philosophy] isArguedAgainstIn [W-PI];
[W-PI] isContra [Logical analysis is essential to philosophy]
• isPro ↔ isArguedForIn
[W-TLP] isPro [Logical analysis is essential to philosophy];
[Logical analysis is essential to philosophy] isArguedForIn [W-TLP]

NC-SA

Conceptual mappings (cf.
http://dm2edata.hu-berlin.de/neologism/dm2e)
WAB speech DM2E data model

isPartOf ↔ hasPart [dct:isPartOf] ↔ [dct:hasPart]
isPublishedInWork ↔ isWorkPublishedFrom [dm2e:publicationOfRemark]
refersTo ↔ isReferredToIn [dm2e:refersTo]
hasAuthor ↔ isAuthorOf [dm2e:author]
hasDate ↔ isDateOf [dm2e:dateOfRemark]
hasOtherVersion
Discusses[Issue/Point] ↔ is[Issue/Point]DiscussedIn
isContra ↔ isArguedAgainstIn
isPro ↔ isArguedForIn

NC-SA

WAB’s Wittgenstein ontology:
a very great number of RDF triples
• The model is throughout: aRb, where a and b
stand for instances (objects), and R for the
relation between them
– Objects can enter into different configurations (pairs)
– but not all combinations are possible
– Between the same pair of object a range of different
relations can obtain – but not all relations
– Formalized example:
• [instance1]R1[instance2] & [instance1]R1[instance3] &
[instance2]R2[instance7] & …
 A web of connections
• Cf. Wittgenstein’s Tractatus logico-
philosophicus!
NC-SA

The RDF triple ”code”: an example
<Bemerkung rdf:about="http://wittgensteinsource.org/Ms-
115,118[1]_n">

<rdfs:label>Ms-115,118[1]</rdfs:label>
<hasAuthor rdf:resource="http://discovery-
project.eu/ontologies/wittgensteinsource/Wittgenstein_Ludwig"/>
<hasDate rdf:resource="19360800-19361100"/>
<isPublishedInWork rdf:resource="http://discovery-
project.eu/ontologies/wittgensteinsource/W-EPB1970"/>

</Bemerkung>

NC-SA

Some figures
As of today (January 2013), our ontology
comprises:
• 10+ types of relations
• 100+ instances of External Source
[Source]
• 500+ instances of Secondary Source
[Source]
• 1 000+ instances of Issue [Subject]
• 10 000+ instances of Bemerkung [Source]
NC-SA

Moreover: The case for user-driven
augmentation of the ontology!

• Why the annotator needs to be able not only to:
– Create free comments
– Explicate already existing relations (picked from a
pre-established set) between already existing
instances (picked from a pre-established set)

• But also to:
– Create new instances and relation types

NC-SA

The case for user-driven augmentation
of the ontology (cont.)
Creating new instances

• A new [Secondary source]
– A scholar has published a new article which discusses a certain Wittgenstein primary source; he wants to make the public aware
of this achievement and (1) adds to the existing ontology a new secondary source instance, and (2) establishes through the
property refersTo the relation between his secondary source and the Wittgenstein primary source.
• A new [Issue]
– Moreover, the scholar (1) adds a philosophical theme (issue) treated in the article to the list of issues, and (2) establishes through
the property discusses the relation between his secondary source and the issues. [NB: it shall be possible to add the new issue in
a different language (or a translation of an already existing issue) → language labels!]
• A new [Point]
– Also, the scholar (1) adds a philosophical claim (point) to the list of points, and (2) establishes through the property discusses the
relation between his secondary source and the point. [NB: the new point can be added in a different language → language labels!]
• A new [Date]
– The scholar disagrees with WAB’s dating of a specific Wittgenstein Bemerkung and wants to propose an alternative date. She (1)
adds to the existing ontology a new date instance, and (2) establishes through the property hasDate the relation between the
Bemerkung and this date. In addition, (3) the scholar creates a point ”Bemerkung […] hasdate […]” and (4) labels, through the
relation isPro, his article to support this point.
• …

There must be procedures and premises for sharing and including user annotation in the backbone ontology!
– Legal
– Technical
– Scholarly
– …

NC-SA

Work flow for user-driven augmentation of
the ontology (adding of new instances and
additional relation types)

• Creating (to begin with in one’s own ”notebook”)
new ontological instances and relations
• Sharing one’s suggestions for new instances
and relations with others
• Submitting the new instances and relations for
review by the ontology coordinators
• (Having the new instances and relations
included in the master ontology the ”master
notebook”)
NC-SA

URLs and references
Entrance:
• (2006-) http://wab.uib.no/wab_philospace.page
Primary and secondary sources:
• (2009-) http://wittgensteinsource.org
• (2011-) http://wab.uib.no/agora-alws
• (2011-) http://wab.uib.no/agora-wab
• (2012-) http://www.nordicwittgensteinreview.com/
WAB’s ontology:
• (2011-) http://wab.uib.no/wittgenstein.owl
SwickyNotes:
• (2010-) http://dbin.org/swickynotes/downloads.php

References:
• (1921) L. Wittgenstein: Logisch-philosophische Abhandlung. In: Annalen der Natur- und
Kulturphilosophie 14. pp. 185-262.
• (2012) A. Pichler & A. Zöllner-Weber: Towards Wittgenstein on the Semantic Web. In: Digital
Humanities 2012 Conference Abstracts. pp. 318-321. Hamburg University Press.
• (2012) A. Pichler, D. Smith, R. J. Falch & W. Krüger: Elements of an e-platform for Wittgenstein
research. In: Ethics - Society - Politics. Contributions of the Austrian Ludwig Wittgenstein Society.
Edited by Martin G. Weiss and Hajo Greif. pp. 268-270. Kirchberg am Wechsel: ALWS.

NC-SA

Wittgensteinsource: Content and semantics

More Related Content

Similar to Wittgensteinsource: Content and semantics (20)

More from Net7 (20)

Recently uploaded (20)

Wittgensteinsource: Content and semantics