Librería Portfolio

The first full biography of one of the great thinkers of the twentieth century
Captures and reflects upon all aspects of his short life and extensive work
Presents an insightful and accessible explanation of his achievements in philosophy, mathematics, and economics
Reveals his intense personal relationships with Wittgenstein, Russell, Keynes, Moore, and other notable figures from Cambridge and the Bloomsbury Group
Draws on rich and surprising new material from archives and interviews
Written by a leading historian of philosophy




When he died in 1930 aged 26, Frank Ramsey had already invented one branch of mathematics and two branches of economics, laying the foundations for decision theory and game theory. Keynes deferred to him; he was the only philosopher whom Wittgenstein treated as an equal. Had he lived he might have been recognized as the most brilliant thinker of the century. This amiable shambling bear of a man was an ardent socialist, a believer in free love, and an intimate of the Bloomsbury set. For the first time Cheryl Misak tells the full story of his extraordinary life.



Table of Contents

Foreword: ´Mind and Heart´
Part I: Boyhood
1:The Ramseys
2:Winchester Nearly Unmade Him
3:´We really live in a great time for thinking´
Part II: The Cambridge Man
4:Undergraduate Life
5:´To my generation, he was rather frightening´
6:Ramsey and the Early Wittgenstein
7:Vienna Interlude
8:´The fundamentals are so philosophical´
9:The New Don
10:Passion Found
Part III: An Astonishing Half Decade
11:Settling Down in Work and Life
12:Revolution in Philosophy
13:Two Crises
14:Cambridge Economics
15:Ramseyan Economics: The Feasible First Best
16:1928 Return to Mathematics
17:Wittgenstein Comes Home
18:´The problem of philosophy must be divided if I am to solve it´
19:The End and Meaning of a Life