John Berkman

Anscombe on Wittgenstein

Ludwig Wittgenstein was one of the greatest philosophers of the modern era, while his pupil and friend Elizabeth Anscombe is increasingly recognized as being an important philosopher in her own right. Over a number of years, Anscombe kept a series of notebooks labeled "Anecdotes about Wittgenstein," documents which are uniquely valuable for their ability to shed light on the intellectual and personal character of Wittgenstein, as well as Anscombe's own views on a wide range of topics--cultural, historical and psychological. While the original manuscript was divided into sections of varying lengths and jumped around among topics, Anscombe on Wittgenstein reorders them thematically so that readers might more vividly perceive the contours of her subjects. Between 1946-1947, Anscombe, Wittgenstein, and Wasfi Hijab routinely had philosophical conversations, which Anscombe wrote down immediately afterward while they were still fresh in her mind. Transcribed here as they were originally written--similar to a play, with the voices of the participants indicated by their initials--readers can experience these philosophers grappling with topics such as rule-following, necessity, and the notion of the indefinite, all subjects that were at the heart of Wittgenstein's later philosophy. This book also offers a previously unpublished essay by Anscombe, as well as two essays by the book's editors, leading scholars on Anscombe, and biographies of the characters mentioned in the manuscripts. What emerges from these accounts is not only a picture of Wittgenstein, the man and philosopher, but also a memoir of a close friendship between two of the most significant philosophers of the twentieth century.