Wittgenstein's Poker By David Edmonds & John Eidinow
Philosophy: Love and pursuit of wisdom by intellectual means and moral self-discipline. This book is the account of a ten minute meeting of the Moral Science Club at Cambridge in 1946. The two philosophers Ludwig Wittgenstein and Karl Popper, both Viennese, both genius in their own right. Apparently, in the philosophical circles, this meeting and it's circumstances have become fabulous fodder for myth. The myth is behind Wittgenstein's use of the fire poker to make a statement, most of the men there that fateful evening believed that "probability presented problems that could not be solved merely through linguistic disentagllement'', Wittgenstein based his theories on language, translating simple sentences into equations to prove his point, "Philosophy is a battle against the bewitchment of our intelligence by means of language." therein lies the start of his frustrations and when you've got to make a point, one would think that a fireplace poker would suffice;) Wittgenstein is well known as a great philosopher, as is Popper, but Wittgenstein and his amazing charisma has the propensity to enrapture his audience with his passionate thoughts and theroys, and Popper is all but a well read puppet of Bertrand Russell unwilling to accept other probabilities and angles of philosophy. The book covers the beginning of anti-Semitism in Europe and Hitler's rise and fall. Social factors play into the characters of these men, and we learn where they metriculated and who they admired. In the beginning Betrand Russell (a well known philosopher in his own right) championed the young and brilliant Wittgenstein, and took little note of Popper. But it seems in the end that is was Popper who wins the dual through teaming with Wittgensteins mentor Russell, I believe in a futile attempt to humble Wittgenstein who beliefs were rising in popularity over Russells. I love philosophy and was compelled to read this book out of curiosity towards 20th century philosophers, I thought philosophy began and ended with Socrates and Aristotle..der. A pretentious and vain group of mostly men melding together math, logic and language as our moral guides, civilizations have based their exsistence on these thoughts of these great men. All things, affect all things, cause and effect, stupid is as stupid does. Many of men have devoted their lives in pursuit of tying all these threads together, some are strongholds that develop our dogma for a time, until the next paradigm shift comes into play, back to the drawing board, rework the equation. We think too much and it makes some of us crazy, but our beliefs and desire to know, fuel our passion. We need Philosophers who weild pokers, we need droll philosophers to disagree, we need to quench our desire to learn. We need to understand our thoughts and have them logically propell our growth as humans. Somebody get me a poker! *Snap!*