'The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts' Bertrand Russell 'Science is what you know. Philosophy is what you don't know' Bertrand Russell discovered mathematics at the age of eleven. It was, he recalled, a transporting experience: 'as dazzling as first love'. From that moment on, he would pursue his passion with undying devotion and fervour. Mathematics might succeed, he felt, where philosophy had failed, reducing thought to its purest form, and freeing knowledge from doubt and contradiction. And for a time, so it seemed. Russell's mathematical investigations effortlessly resolved at a stroke some of philosophy's most intractable problems. Yet if mathematics could be a liberating mistress, she was also an unreliable one... Opening up the work of one of our age's undisputed giants, Ray Monk's exhilaratingly clear, readable guide tells a compelling human tale too: a moving story of love and loss, of ecstatic triumph and deep disillusion.

The Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus first appeared in 1921 and was the only philosophical work that Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) published during his lifetime. Written in short, carefully numbered paragraphs of extreme compression and brilliance, it immediately convinced many of its readers and captured the imagination of all. Its chief influence, at first, was on the Logical Positivists of the 1920s and 1930s, but many other philosophers were stimulated by its philosophy of language, finding attractive, even if ultimately unsatisfactory, its view that propositions were pictures of reality. Perhaps most of all, its own author, after his return to philosophy in the late 1920s, was fascinated by its vision of an inexpressible, crystalline world of logical relationships. C.K. Ogden's translation of the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus has a unique provenance. As revealed in Letters of C.K. Ogden (1973) and in correspondence in The Times Literary Supplement, Wittgenstein, Ramsey and Moore all worked with Ogden on the translation, which had Wittgenstein's complete approval. The very name Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus was of Ogden's devising; and there is very strong feeling among philosophers that, among the differing translations of this work, Ogden's is the definitive text - and Wittgenstein's version of the English equivalent of his Logisch-Philosophische Abhandlung.

Granta's new How to Read series is based on a very simple, but novel, idea. Most beginners' guides to great thinkers and writers offer either potted biographies or condensed summaries of their major works. How to Read, by contrast, brings the reader face to face with the writing itself in the company of an expert guide. Its starting point is that in order to get close to what a writer is all about, you have to get close to the words they actually use and be shown how to read those words. authors have been asked to select ten or so short extracts from a writer's work and look at them in detail as a way of revealing their central ideas and thereby opening the doors onto a whole world of thought. The books will not be merely a compilation of a thinker's most famous passages, their 'greatest hits', but will rather offer a series of clues or keys that will enable to reader to go on and make discoveries of their own. In addition to the texts and readings, each book will provide a short biographical chronology and suggestions for further reading, internet resources and so on. The books in the How to Read don't claim to tell you all you need to know. Instead they offer a refreshing set of first-hand meetings with those minds. Our hope is that these books will instruct, intrigue, embolden, encourage and delight. other analytic philosophers - the nature of logic, the limits of language, the analysis of meaning - he did so in a peculiarly poetic style that separates his work sharply from that of his peers and makes the question of how to read him particularly pertinent. At the root of Wittgenstein's thought, Monk argues, is a determination to resist the scientism characteristic of our age, a determination to insist on the integrity and the autonomy of non-scientific forms of understanding. The kind of understanding we seek in philosophy, Wittgenstein tried to make clear, is similar to the kind we might seek of a person, a piece of music, or, indeed, of a poem. Wittgenstein's posthumously published writings, including Philosophical Investigations, The Blue and Brown Books, On Certainty and Last Writings on the Philosophy of Psychology.

Ludwig Wittgenstein is one of the greatest and most fascinating philosophers of all time. His Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, composed in a series of remarkable numbered propositions, was the only book he published in his lifetime. He tackles nothing less than the question of whether there is such a thing as a logically perfect language and, armed with it, what we can say about the nature of the world itself. Pushing the limits of language, logic and philosophy, the Tractatus is a brilliant, cryptic and hypnotic tour de force, exerting a major impact on twentieth-century philosophy and stirring the imagination today.

With a new foreword by Ray Monk.

Approaching the writing of major intellectuals, artists, and philosophers need no longer be daunting. How to Read is a new sort of introduction--a personal master class in reading--that brings you face to face with the work of some of the most influential and challenging writers in history. In lucid, accessible language, these books explain essential topics such as Wittgenstein's determination to insist on the integrity and the autonomy of nonscientific forms of understanding. Though Wittgenstein wrote on the same subjects that dominate the work of other analytic philosophers - the nature of logic, the limits of language, the analysis of meaning - he did so in a peculiarly poetic style that separates his work sharply from that of his peers and makes the question of how to read him particularly pertinent. At the root of Wittgenstein's thought, Monk argues, is a determination to resist the scientism characteristic of our age, a determination to insist on the integrity and the autonomy of non-scientific forms of understanding. The kind of understanding we seek in philosophy, Wittgenstein tried to make clear, is similar to the kind we might seek of a person, a piece of music, or, indeed, of a poem.

An unforgettable story of discovery and unimaginable destruction and a major biography of one of America's most brilliant--and most divisive--scientists, "Robert Oppenheimer: A Life Inside the Center" vividly illuminates the man who would go down in history as "the father of the atomic bomb." Oppenheimer's talent and drive secured him a place in the pantheon of great physicists and carried him to the laboratories where the secrets of the universe revealed themselves. But they also led him to contribute to the development of the deadliest weapon on earth, a discovery he soon came to fear. His attempts to resist the escalation of the Cold War arms race--coupled with political leanings at odds with post-war America--led many to question his loyalties, and brought down upon him the full force of McCarthyite anti-communism. Digging deeply into Oppenheimer's past to solve the enigma of his motivations and his complex personality, Ray Monk uncovers the extraordinary, charming, tortured man--and the remarkable mind--who fundamentally reshaped the world.

While the published works of Ludwig Wittgenstein reveal the final, coalesced thoughts of this philosophical giant, Wittgenstein's diary reveals his process of doing philosophy. Only in his private writing does Wittgenstein's philosophical practice fully come to light. In particular, Wittgensten's diary entries from the 1930s reveal themselves as a first-person spiritual epic. Wittgenstein agonizes over his relationship with Marguerite Respinger and tries to come to terms with its failure. He relates and interprets several of his dreams. He comments on his philosophical colleagues Frank Ramsey and G.E. Moore. He comments on musicians such as Beethoven, Bruckner and Brahms, and authors such as Kraus, Mann, Nietzsche, Dostoevsky, and Kierkegaard. He struggles to make confessions to a number of friends and family. He relates in painful detail his spiritual crisis in Norway in the late winter of 1937. From a man who once recommended silence about spiritual matters, we find here an honest and searing articulation of his attempts to believe and live what he finds in the Bible. Here are the raw materials for what could have been one of the great spiritual autobiographies of the twentieth century. It is available here for the first time in an affordable edition, with updated and expanded editorial notes to help the reader understand Wittgenstein's many allusions, and with a new Introduction by Ray Monk, which places the diary in the larger arc of Wittgenstein life.

In this biography of Wittgenstein, the author interleaves the philosophical and emotional aspects of his subject's life.

While the published works of Ludwig Wittgenstein reveal the final, coalesced thoughts of this philosophical giant, Wittgenstein's diary reveals his process of doing philosophy. Only in his private writing does Wittgenstein's philosophical practice fully come to light. In particular, Wittgensten's diary entries from the 1930s reveal themselves as a first-person spiritual epic. Wittgenstein agonizes over his relationship with Marguerite Respinger and tries to come to terms with its failure. He relates and interprets several of his dreams. He comments on his philosophical colleagues Frank Ramsey and G.E. Moore. He comments on musicians such as Beethoven, Bruckner and Brahms, and authors such as Kraus, Mann, Nietzsche, Dostoevsky, and Kierkegaard. He struggles to make confessions to a number of friends and family. He relates in painful detail his spiritual crisis in Norway in the late winter of 1937. From a man who once recommended silence about spiritual matters, we find here an honest and searing articulation of his attempts to believe and live what he finds in the Bible. Here are the raw materials for what could have been one of the great spiritual autobiographies of the twentieth century. It is available here for the first time in an affordable edition, with updated and expanded editorial notes to help the reader understand Wittgenstein's many allusions, and with a new Introduction by Ray Monk, which places the diary in the larger arc of Wittgenstein life.

Maurice O'Connor Drury was among Wittgenstein's first students after his return to Cambridge in 1929. The subsequent course of Drury's life and thought was to be enormously influenced by his teacher, from his decision to become a doctor to his later work in psychiatry. The Selected Writings of Maurice O'Connor Drury brings together the best of his lectures, conversations, and letters on philosophy, religion and medicine. Central to the collection is the Danger of Words, the 1973 text described by Ray Monk as 'the most truly Wittgensteinian book published by any of Wittgenstein's students'. Through notes on conversations with Wittgenstein, letters to a student of philosophy and correspondence of almost 30 years with Rush Rhees, Drury gives shape to what he had learned from Wittgenstein. Whether discussing methods of philosophy, Simone Weil or the power of hypnosis, he makes fascinating excursions into the bearing of Wittgenstein's thought on philosophy and the practice of medicine and psychiatry. With an introduction presenting a new biography of Drury, analysing the relationship between him and Wittgenstein, The Selected Writings of Maurice O'Connor Drury features previously unpublished archival sources. Beautifully written and carefully selected, each piece reveals the impact of Wittgenstein's teachings, shedding light on the friendship and thinking of one of the most important philosophers of the 20th century.

J. Robert Oppenheimer is among the most contentious and important figures of the twentieth century. As head of the Los Alamos Laboratory, he oversaw the successful effort to beat the Nazis to develop the first atomic bomb - a breakthrough which was to have eternal ramifications for mankind, and made Oppenheimer the 'father of the Bomb'. But his was not a simple story of assimilation, scientific success and world fame. A complicated and fragile personality, the implications of the discoveries at Los Alamos were to weigh heavily upon him. Having formed suspicious connections in the 1930s, in the wake of the Allied victory in World War Two, Oppenheimer's attempts to resist the escalation of the Cold War arms race would lead many to question his loyalties - and set him on a collision course with Senator Joseph McCarthy and his witch hunters.

La obra de Ludwig Wittgenstein es el producto de un pensamiento riguroso y de una imaginacin brillante, y slo puede ser comprendida en todo su alcance analizando la relacin entre su filosofa y su vida. Wittgenstein naci en 1889, hijo de una de las ms acaudaladas y cultas familias de Viena, de origen judo pero convertidos al catolicismo, y cuyos miembros eran triunfadores o suicidas; en esta compleja matriz familiar podemos rastrear el origen de su intensa y siempre presente preocupacin por problemas ticos, espirituales y culturales.Su trayectoria como filsofo comienza tras su encuentro con Bertrand Russell en Cambridge, y su trabajo en esta universidad culmina en el Tractatus Logico -Philosophicus, celebrado en la actualidad por los positivistas lgicos, quienes a veces nos hacen olvidar su intenso contenido mstico. Wittgenstein termin esta obra al final de la Primera Guerra Mundial, contienda en la que su experiencia como soldado le enfrent al sufrimiento humano en una escala tal que le marc para siempre. Convencido de que su libro haba resuelto todos los problemas tradicionales del objeto de su investigacin, abandon la filosofa y se dedic a la enseanza en escuelas rurales de Austria, donde se vio envuelto en serias dificultades de ndole profesional y personal.Tena ya ms de cuarenta aos cuando decidi regresar a la vida acadmica y a la filosofa. La radical reelaboracin de su pensamiento anterior, cristalizada en la obra publicada despus de su muerte con el ttulo de Investigaciones filosficas, ha ejercido una influencia decisiva en la filosofa actual.Ray Monk, saludado por la crtica como un renovador del gnero biogrfico, ha podido consultar por primera vez los archivos de Wittgenstein,sus papeles y sus diarios, escritos en cdigo, y que despejan las incgnitas sobre la mistificada vida sexual del filsofo.Muy bien escrita, inteligente, conmovedora: una biografa esplndida, un colorido retrato de un hombre que quera ser 'mora

The Great Philosophers in one volume: the widely acclaimed series on the greatest philosophers by specialists writing for the general reader. The Great Philosophers brings together in one volume and in chronological order the best from our hugely successful series: Anthony Gottlieb on Socrates; Bernard Williams on Plato; John Cottingham on Descartes; Roger Scruton on Spinoza; David Berman on Berkeley; Anthony Quinton on Hume; Terry Eagleton on Marx; Ray Monk on Russell; Jonathan Ree on Heidegger; Peter Hacker on Wittgenstein; Frederic Raphael on Popper Andrew Hodges on Turing.

Hilary Burde, saved by education from a delinquent childhood, cheated out of Oxford by a tragic love tangle, cherishes his obsessive guilt and disappointment in a dull, orderly civil service job. When the man whom he has harmed and betrayed reappears as head of his department, Hilary hopes for forgiveness, even for redemption and a new life, but finds himself haunted by a ghostly repetition.

Maurice O’Connor Drury was among Wittgenstein’s first students after his return to Cambridge in 1929. The subsequent course of Drury’s life and thought was to be enormously influenced by his teacher. The Selected Writings of Maurice O’Connor Drury brings together the best of his lectures, conversations, and letters on philosophy, religion and medicine. Central to the collection is the Danger of Words, the 1973 text described by Ray Monk as 'the most truly Wittgensteinian book published by any of Wittgenstein's students'. Through notes on conversations with Wittgenstein, letters to a student of philosophy and correspondence of almost 30 years with Rush Rhees, Drury gives shape to what he had learned from Wittgenstein. Whether discussing philosophy, Simone Weil or the power of hypnosis, he makes fascinating excursions into the bearing of Wittgenstein’s thought on philosophy and the practice of medicine and psychiatry. Alongside a foreword by Monk and an introduction presenting a new biography of Drury, analysing the relationship between him and Wittgenstein, this collection features previously unpublished archival sources. Beautifully written and carefully selected, each piece reveals the impact of Wittgenstein’s teachings, shedding light on the friendship and thinking of one of the most important philosophers of the 20th century.