World Famous Comics: Wittgenstein's Poker: The Story of a Ten-Minute Argument Between Two Great Philosophers
Wittgenstein's Poker: The Story of a Ten-Minute Argument Between Two Great Philosophers
By: David Edmonds, John Eidinow Publisher: Harper Perennial Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: Harper Perennial Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 352 Publication Date: September 01, 2002 Release Date: September 17, 2002
On October 25, 1946, in a crowded room in Cambridge, England, the great twentieth-century philosophers Ludwig Wittgenstein and Karl Popper came face to face for the first and only time. The meeting -- which lasted ten minutes -- did not go well. Their loud and aggressive confrontation became the stuff of instant legend, but precisely what happened during that brief confrontation remained for decades the subject of intense disagreement.
An engaging mix of philosophy, history, biography, and literary detection, Wittgenstein's Poker explores, through the Popper/Wittgenstein confrontation, the history of philosophy in the twentieth century. It evokes the tumult of fin-de-siécle Vienna, Wittgentein's and Popper's birthplace; the tragedy of the Nazi takeover of Austria; and postwar Cambridge University, with its eccentric set of philosophy dons, including Bertrand Russell. At the center of the story stand the two giants of philosophy themselves -- proud, irascible, larger than life -- and spoiling for a fight.
Amusing and interesting poking The authors are poking about in a mostly interesting way, but for a philosopher the middle of the book containes a bit too much detailed information on what lies outside the story of the poker incident and the philosophically interesting bits. However, in the end the threads are all gathered up nicely, and the book is safely recommended to those who find the personalities of great philosophers interesting.
Just Poking around This is a fine read to get some sense of both Popper and Wittgenstein and the culture in which they grew up and then influenced. Written in accessible language- somewhat short on philosophy but keeps ones interest easily and is a good introduction to Wittgenstein from my perspective.
Character studies, and the biography of an era Ludgwig Wittgenstein and Karl Popper are two of the most interesting figures in 20th century philosophy. Edmonds and Eidinow use a 1946 encounter as a launching point for profiles of the two and their philosophies. It is, of necessity in a book of this length, philosophy lite. What really happened in the encounter is portrayed as a minor mystery, but in the end the differing versions tell us enough about the participants to make the truth merely incidental. Highly recommended as an introduction to both philosophers (and their era).
Sturm und Drang In the fall of 1946, the philosophers Ludwig Wittgenstein and Karl Popper had their only face-to-face encounter during an argument over the nature of the work of philosophers; the splenetic Wittgenstein used a poker from the fireplace to emphasize a point, left the room, and Popper made a sarcastic triumphal comment after he left about not waving pokers in the face of guests. This silly but revealing little contretemps is the basis for this little study of what led up to this encounter both in terms of the two famous men's remarkably similar backgrounds (they were both displaced Christianized Jews from Vienna working in England, and both were mentored by Bertrand Russell, who was also in the room) and in terms of currents in philosophy in the early twentieth century.
The book is ingeniously worked out, and you do come away from it knowing some basic ideas about what both Popper and Wittgenstein represented to European philosophy and how they both ran up against Hitler's Anschluss. The downside of the text is that it forefronts the more gossipy side of this encounter and then only towards the end getting to the content of their ideas, so that if you don't much about Anglo-Austrian philosophy you're left a bit puzzled as to why this meeting mattered until the book ends. But it's short enough a read that that doesn't present too much of a problem. This is a lightweight book, but still stimulating and worth reading.
Excellent piece of research Having read some of the reviewers before me, I ought to warn the reader the book is more about a research of the surrounding facts of the Popper/Wittgenstein confrontation than, as some of the naive reviewers seem to have expected, an in-depth account or opinion of the philosophy of both. The book is true to its nature and in that sense it is outstanding indeed. Seldom will anyone obtain, in one piece, such a detailed portrait of two of the most outstanding intellectuals of the XX th Century. It may be curious to ascertain that these men, despite being born and educated in Austria, came to expose their differences before the english speaking world, where political tolerance has been rooted for centuries. It is a gripping read and one that will make you re-live with passion the beautiful tradition of philosophical awe, love for logic and the un-ending quest in search for the truth.
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