It is generally considered the case that an authorial preface is an author’s opportunity t0 give the reader a hand in interpreting the work he or she is about t0 read. It is strange then that the Preface t0 Wittgenstein’s Pactatas (1922) has often been overlooked. Max Black’s (1904) influential A Companion to l/Wtgensteink 77/actatas, for example, passes over the Preface in silence. And even in the latest published edition 0f the s0—called P1/ofoti/actatas (1996), the Preface is the 0nly part that appears in hand—written facsimile but is not reproduced in typescript form. Perhaps an argument for not s0—reproducing the Preface 0f the Prototiactatus in typescript is also an argument for the importance 0f the Preface: not 0ne letter 0f this early hand—written text 0f the Preface is different from the final published edition (I will return t0 this later). Only of late has the Preface t0 the 77/actatus been seen as having any kind of focal importance.This recent interest in the Preface has largely been spawned by Cora Diamond’s andjames C0nant’s “New” view 0f Wittgenstein. This New view (designated as such subsequent t0 the publication in 2000 0f the volume entitled The New l/Wtigenstein) uses the Preface as a central interpretive t00l that, according t0 this vievm shows that the 77/actatas takes “a strong anti—metaphysical stand” which is “most explicit inWittgenstein’s statements in the b00k’s Preface and concluding remarks.1”The third and fourth paragraphs 0f the Preface are seen as especially revealing 0f Wittgenstein’s anti—metaphysical...