Despite its awe-inspiring scale, Musil’s novel Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften¹ is a torso. Its first volume, containing 123 chapters, comprising parts 1 and 2, appeared in late 1930. A second volume of equal length was supposed to follow soon. Yet when the second volume appeared at the end of 1932, it contained only the thirty-eight chapters of part 3. Part 4 of the novel never materialized. Nor is it certain that part 4 would have entailed the novel’s conclusion, as Musil originally planned. Until the day of his death in April 1942, Musil seems to have been undecided how to...

Ulrich’s biography, his erudition, and his intimate familiarity with the culture and politics of the scientific community closely reflect those of Musil himself. Musil had already received a diploma as a mechanical engineer when, in 1903, at the age of twenty-three, he registered at the Friedrich-Wilhelms University in Berlin to study philosophy. After he finished his graduate studies in spring 1908 with a doctoral thesis on Ernst Mach, he received an offer from Alexius Meinong (1853–1920) to become assistant professor of psychology at the University of Graz. Meinong was the founder of the first laboratory for experimental psychology in...

Musil’s Kakania is fiction — a caricature that serves both the satirical as well as the utopian intentions of the author. The “dual” monarchy of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire is satirized as a political construction whose historical uniqueness defies representation — both in terms of actual governance as well as in terms of symbolic representation. In fact, the failure of the one cannot be separated from the impossibility of the other. The empire’s peculiar construction is described as “a whole and a part” (MWQ 180). The whole is set off from a part that paradoxically both belongs and does not belong to...

The if-then logic underlying the plot of the novel emphasizes the portrayal of a world in which one coincidence leads to another and micro-events such as a witty remark by a journalist or the caprice of a chambermaid produce significant effects. When Leo Fischel interrogates Ulrich about the actual motives behind the Parallel Campaign, Ulrich teases the philosophically-educated bank director by calling to his attention “the Principle of Insufficient Cause” (chapter 35). Ulrich’s remark, of course, alludes to Leibniz, who had made it a principle of logical deduction that nothing exists “without” a sufficient reason. This principle, and the principle...

Few novels have attracted so much attention because of the way they begin than Musil’s The Man Without Qualities. The novel’s first chapter contains a narrative in status nascendi — a ferment of voices, focal points, actions, and motifs, which, however, do not coalesce into a steady flow of storytelling. Instead, the opening chapter represents a state of affairs that appears to defy any mimetic impulse — any form of representation other than that of statistical enumeration. However, a meteorological analysis does not convey a sense of what it is like to actually experience the weather conditions in question. On the other...

The usually steadfast Diotima becomes quite irritated when her impertinent cousin Ulrich evokes the Frauenmörder Moosbrugger in her presence: “Why are you always talking about criminals? Crime seems to hold a special fascination for you. What do you suppose that means?”

Moosbrugger — the allegorical impersonation of Kakania — is introduced as someone who has captured Ulrich’s attention despite the primitive voyeurism underlying the publicity of his case. It is shortly before the arrival of the first of three letters from Ulrich’s father that we initially hear about the sex murderer. The letter reminds Ulrich of his social position as son of...

In the Tractatus logico-philosophicus, Ludwig Wittgenstein made the case that it is impossible to derive the “ought” from the “is.” For this reason, science must remain indifferent to the larger question to what end people should live their lives. As the philosopher famously put it, things one cannot speak about must be passed over in silence. Parodying Wittgenstein’s conclusion, Musil’s hero follows the maxim “to keep silent when one has nothing to say” (schweigen, wo man nichts zu sagen hat; MWQ 265).

Of course, not being able to say something is not quite the same as having nothing to say....