Ray Monk is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Southampton. He has written books on Ludwig Wittgenstein and Bertrand Russell. His most recent book is Robert Oppenheimer: A Life Inside the Center. (December 2016)
by Margaret Paul, with a foreword by Brian McGuinness and an afterword by Gabriele Taylor
In his very brief lifetime Frank Ramsey made fundamental contributions to mathematics, philosophy, and economics. Despite the persistent and widespread admiration he arouses among academics, however, Ramsey is little known to the public at large.
“Perhaps the best place to begin trying to understand Wittgenstein’s character,” the British philosopher Colin McGinn once remarked, “is with the photographs that exist of his face.” Looking into Wittgenstein’s eyes, McGinn went on, it is hard to meet his gaze for very long: They are imploring eyes yet with …