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Title: Wittgenstein's Poker : The Story of a Ten-Minute Argument Between Two Great Philosophers by David Edmonds, John Eidinow ISBN: 0-06-093664-9 Publisher: Ecco Pub. Date: 17 September, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.98 (60 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Wittgenstein and Popper and Twentieth Century History
Comment: I have struggled unsuccessfully to recall a parallel to this unusual book. The authors recount a brief, acrimonious debate between two noted philosophers, Karl Popper and Ludwig Wittgenstein, that remained largely forgotten until Popper published his memoirs years later. Surprisingly, Popper's recollections triggered a volley of sharp comments in the London Times Literary Supplement by some attendees to this 1946 meeting of the Cambridge Moral Science Club.
David Edmonds and John Eidinow used this trivial event as a basis for investigating the lives of two remarkable philosophers of the twentieth century. We readers learn something about academic life in pre-World War II Vienna and at Cambridge University. Also, while this is not a philosophy text, we do come away knowing a little more about the Wittgenstein school of philosophy.
I previously knew little of Wittgenstein and Popper. Apparently, neither man was especially likeable. Popper had a life-long obsession with debunking the philosophy of Wittgenstein; Wittgenstein claimed to be unaware of Popper. Both were known for aggressiveness, a no-holds-barred confrontational style of argument. Both believed that their vision was critical for the future of philosophy.
I am still puzzled why I so enjoyed Wittgenstein's Poker. Possibly I just became intrigued with these two brilliant, irascible, antagonistic protagonists.
Or maybe this work is most fascinating on another level. Edmonds and Eidinow convincingly demonstrate how fundamentally our world has changed. Tolerance, relativism, and the triumph of uncertainty now shape our thoughts in ways inconceivable just fifty years ago. Having just defeated Nazism and now threatened by Stalin's regime, there was little opportunity in 1946 for ambiguous intellectual positions.
Today the story of Wittgenstein's Poker seems incongruous, and even humorous. And yet, perhaps the real interest of this brief argument at Cambridge is that it provides a sobering glimpse at twentieth century history.
Rating: 5
Summary: EXCELLENT!
Comment: An excellent book!I spotted this essay already a year ago, while surfing the philosophy bookshelf, but actually decided to read only after a very positive review published a few months ago by Mario Vargas-Llosa on El Pais.What is so interesting about it? Well, first, it is a very concise history of contemporary philosophy, focusing on the thought of two great XX Century minds and proposed with a language and in a way that can result easy and clear (that doesn't mean imprecise anyway) also to the non academic reader. As an history of philosophy it presents with many examples problems as "causation", "verification", "inductive reasoning" and "falsification" Secondly, it is a very interesting portrait of fin de siecle Vienna with its intellectual turmoil, its still multicultural population, intersected with the smaller personal stories of immensely wealthy Wittgenstein family and solid middle class respectability of Popper's family. But the real value of the book rests on other aspects. One is the ability in describing situations and characters. In dealing with Popper the authors are very able to explain why his thought was so revolutionary, specially if considered against the English mainstream works: the same popperian theory of extreme verification and the boldness (if not violence) in putting forward his own opinions is the actual negation of British politeness and understatement... and it could show strong link with the clashing verbal violence of some European movements (not only Nietzsche, Hegelianism, Marxism... but also the fascism and nazism whose intellectual roots he was to "falsify" and denounce ). On the other hand a very fine if puzzling portrait comes out of Wittgenstein. I had the feeling that the authors could not really grasp his true essence and this they admit with puzzlement: the more you come near, the more you feel far from him. So he appears like an ancient saviour, larger than life, a kind of Eraclitus, you can describe by the clash of contrary evidence... There's a very fine chapter, near the end, in which they try to inquire about the Wittgenstein's point of view of the 10 minutes argument . There's very tiny written or remaining evidence... but they make through with a delicate analysis remembering the one of Virginia Woolf in her novels.... What you cannot define with reason, you can grasp with intuition... . but of course, this is only a guess.I truly enjoyed this book, and I warmly recommend to everyone may be interested in Logic, philosophy or just in well researched journalism. Feel free to write me if you want share some opinion about it or - even better - if you can recommend similar essays: I'm a good reader and love arguing and sharing my opinion. Thanks for reading.
Rating: 4
Summary: A century in ten minutes
Comment: This exploration of a ten-minute explosive meeting between philosophers Wittgenstein and Popper at Cambridge is not just about philosophy,although it focuses on what the authors make a seminal conflict between two sharply divided perspectives on morality in a world gone brutal. It is also about two Jewish men, both brought up in Vienna at the height of its anti-Semitism; it's about mid-century history, the consequences and personal intellectual and deeply emotional responses, the hope and despair, that came out of two world wars and the haolacaust. It is also about what might be seen as the dry heights of philosophical argument, as two men whose entire lives are devoted to different visions, commitments to different definitions of one's role in a tumultuous, terrifying and endlessly pioneering time in our lives.
This book is extraordinary in its extending this one short meeting, these two seemingly ego-centric and insulated academics and their philosophies, to something that matters.
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Title: The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in America by Louis Menand ISBN: 0374528497 Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux Pub. Date: 10 April, 2002 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: Open Society and Its Enemies (Volume 1) by Karl Raimund Popper ISBN: 0691019681 Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr Pub. Date: 01 February, 1971 List Price(USD): $22.50 |
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Title: Tractatus Logico Philosophicus (Routledge Classics) by Ludwig Wittgenstein, David Francis Pears, Brian McGuinness, Bertrand Russell ISBN: 0415254086 Publisher: Routledge Pub. Date: 01 September, 2001 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Duty of Genius by Ray Monk ISBN: 0140159959 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: November, 1991 List Price(USD): $21.00 |
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Title: The Making of a Philosopher: My Journey Through Twentieth-Century Philosophy by Colin McGinn ISBN: 0060197927 Publisher: HarperCollins Pub. Date: 26 March, 2002 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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