WITTGENSTEIN’S TREASURE CHEST Symposium in Memory of Allan Janik (1941-2026)

WITTGENSTEINS SCHATZKÄSTLEIN
WITTGENSTEIN’S TREASURE CHEST

Symposium in Memory of Prof. Allan Janik (1941–2026)

In English
Tuesday, 1 December 2026
10.00–17.00
Bulgarian Cultural Institute ‘Haus Wittgenstein’
Parkgasse 18, 1030 Vienna, Galerie Parterre
Admission: €10 / free for members of the Wittgenstein Initiative association

Speakers

Dr. Steven Beller (historian, Washington, DC)
Ing. Hannes Erler (Innsbruck, former Vice-President for Innovation at Swarovski)
Prof. Dr. Eran Guter (Max Stern Yezreel Valley College, Israel)
Prof. Dr. Lothar Höbelt (Allan Janik Scientific Adviser, Wittgenstein Initiative)
Michele Lavazza (Milan, the Ludwig Wittgenstein Project)
Prof. Dr. Alois Pichler (Director of the Wittgenstein Archives, University of Bergen)
Prof. Dr. Catherine Schmezer (Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3)
Prof. Gerhard Schmezer (Senior Lecturer, Université Paris 8)
Dr. Alfred Schmidt (Wittgenstein scholar, Austrian National Library)
Radmila Schweitzer (Wittgenstein Initiative)
Dr. Joseph Wang-Kathrein (Brenner Archive, University of Innsbruck)

This symposium is dedicated to the memory of Allan Janik (1941–2026), whose work taught us that Wittgenstein cannot be understood apart from the culture that formed him. One of Allan’s last pieces of advice to us was that Johann Peter Hebel was among Wittgenstein’s favourite authors, and that Schatzkästlein, ‘Treasure Chest’, is a fitting title for any attempt to gather Wittgenstein’s many-sided universe under one roof. We are honoured to host some of Allan’s closest friends, colleagues and former students. In their company, we offer these contributions as a treasure chest of our own.

Programme

10.00–12.00
Welcome (Radmila Schweitzer / Pavel Naydenov, Director of the Bulgarian Cultural Institute ‘Haus Wittgenstein’)
The Future Humanities: Allan’s Idea of the Aim and Value of the Humanities and Its Implications for Digital Humanities (Wang-Kathrein)
The Wittgenstein Chatbot (Pichler)
The Wittgensteins’ Role in the Society and Industry of the Habsburg Empire: Some Remarks (Höbelt)

12.00–12.30 Break

12.30–14.00
Philosophy at the Core of the ‘Wittgenstein Treasure Chest’: Dynamically Embedding and Interactively Exploring Wittgenstein’s Published Writings in a Virtual Project (Lavazza)
Wittgenstein’s Religious Imagination: From Vienna to Cambridge (Gerhard Schmezer)
Wittgenstein and Antiquity: ‘Mixed Remarks’ from a Philologist and Patrologist (Catherine Schmezer)

14.00–14.30 Break

14.30–17.00
The Cultural Sounding-Board: Wittgenstein’s Aesthetics as an Open-Ended Mode of Interaction (Guter)
From Tacit Knowing to Lived Practice: Allan Janik’s Legacy for a Living Wittgenstein Universe in the Age of AI (Erler)
Ludwig Wittgenstein and Johann Peter Hebel’s Schatzkästlein des rheinischen Hausfreundes (Schmidt)
Wittgenstein Unbound – Treasure Chests, Networks and Memory Palaces: How a Virtual Version of Wittgenstein’s Vienna Can Be a Treasure Chest without Borders (Beller)