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Frank Ramsey: A Sheer Excess of Powers

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The full story of Frank Ramsey's extraordinary life.

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 story of his tragically short, but extraordinary life.

ISBN-10

019875535X
ISBN-13

978-0198755357
Publisher

Oxford University Press
Publication date

March 6, 2020
Language

English
Dimensions

9.3 x 1.9 x 6.1 inches
Print length

544 pages
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"This book is dedicated to the memory of Ramsey in a solemn and comprehensively devoted manner. The author has tried to satisfy all the parties interested in Ramsey for one reason or another...The result is an introduction to his work, as well as an account of his life." -- Michael Otte, MathSciNet

"Frank Ramsey: A Sheer Excess of Powers is a very well researched biography, thus is of great value to academic students and professional scholars alike. The book is a joy to read for not only economists but also mathematicians and philosophers too." -- Jason Wakefield, Avello Publishing Journal

"I read the book over three long nights of lockdown, in the middle of an Australian winter. Iâd expected to find it fascinating, but not to find it so gripping... she [Misak] takes us so successfully into Ramseyâs world, and we know how it ends... [she] pitches things just right. She takes us into Ramseyâs personal world, without over-dramatising it." -- Huw Price, Society

"...a brilliant, evocative biography of Ramsey." -- Pratap Bhanu Mehta, Open

About the Author

Cheryl Misak, University of Toronto

Cheryl Misak is Professor of Philosophy, as well as Vice-President and Provost at the University of Toronto. She received a BA from the University of Lethbridge, an MA from Columbia University, and a DPhil from the University of Oxford. She works on American pragmatism, the theory of truth, moral and political philosophy, and the philosophy of medicine. She has published and edited books with Oxford University Press, Routledge, and Cambridge University Press, and has published over forty scholarly articles. In 2008, her 'Experience, Narrative, and Ethical Deliberation' was declared one of the ten best papers in philosophy by The Philosopher's Annual. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and has been a Humboldt Fellow at the Goethe University in Frankfurt, a Visiting Fellow of St. John's College Cambridge, and a Rhodes Scholar.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Oxford University Press (March 6, 2020)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 544 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 019875535X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0198755357
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.74 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 9.3 x 1.9 x 6.1 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #378,579 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #139 in Individual Philosophers (Books)
- #263 in Philosophy of Logic & Language
- #271 in Philosopher Biographies

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4.5 193 ratings

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Robert P. Neuman is a retired college professor and management consultant

Wittgenstein's Foul Bathmat

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 14, 2020

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It's a tribute to the excellence of this fine biography that it can be read at several levels: the upper stratosphere of economics, philosophy, and mathematics; a midlevel by those interested in the hijinks of the Bloomsbury group; and finally, by readers like me, who are amused by anecdotes about intellectual eccentrics. For example, the Cambridge don fired from his job in the 1920s because it was found out that he used "engines of love," that is, condoms. (207) Or that Ramsey, the great mathematician, to his surprise, often found his bank account empty when he thought it full (254); or that a Communist don could be employed at Cambridge in the 1940s as long as he gave two week's notice before blowing up the college chapel (301) Worth noting that this was on the eve of the purge of Marxist economists from the ranks of the American professoriate. And finally, we read here that Ludwig Wittgenstein, Ramsey's intellectual sparring partner, slammed the lavatory door at night (347) and demanded the return of a foul bathmat he left behind when he moved abruptly (433) Trivia? Yes. Funny trivia? I think so.

12 people found this helpful

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jerry michael winn

Error in the book

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 28, 2021

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Overall I enjoyed the book, but --and I don't know if it has been mentioned in other reviews-- it might help someone to know she got the definition of material implication(p405) reversed; should read p is true and q is false.

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Amazon Customer

Very interesting and readable

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 6, 2020

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I found Ramsey and the people he used to hang with fascinating . These were super smart and creative people that were trying out new things as far as morals or the lack of it is concerned. Since I have an economic background did I really enjoy that part of the book .The deep philosophical stuff was over my head. If you have a basis in that,I am sure you'll like this book a lot. Ramsey was truly a remarkable person for his time

6 people found this helpful

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M. Beekman

Must have a real interest

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 10, 2020

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Slow read but very good

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 1, 2021

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Superb biography of one ot the 20th century's most important thinkers

One person found this helpful

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Paul E. Oppenheimer

An Extraordinary Mind

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 13, 2020

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In his brief 26 years, Frank Ramsey influenced many of the areas in which I work. This biography of Ramsey taught me much.

10 people found this helpful

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lgt

don’t waste your time on this book

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 21, 2021

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An overrated scholar by no means in the Paul Cohen class an equally young true University of Chicago math department product This book shows math at Cambridge was a backwater

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 11, 2020

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Great book about a great man. My ignorance about the intellectual atmosphere and the great people circa 1920s kept me from really enjoying and understanding this work.If only…

2 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

G. M. Lusignan

Outstanding!

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on February 21, 2021

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Cheryl Misak begins chapter 14 of her magistral biography of Frank Ramsey with these words:

“1927-28 was a year of intense activity in economics for Ramsey. His work during this brief period has made him famous amongst contemporary economists. A striking number of innovations still in play are named after him and the two papers he wrote are still taught in economics graduate courses. One would think this would have him written into the intellectual history books. But when he makes appearances in biographies and studies of Keynes, he is usually nowhere near centre stage, and two recent biographies of Pigou don’t even have him in the index. That’s something of a mystery.”

In the history of twentieth century British thought in the immediate post-World War I period, we find famous names aplenty: Bertrand Russell, G.E. Moore, Ludwig Wittgenstein and John Maynard Keynes. Cambridge University was the place to be and all of the above had strong links to the artistic and literary circle known as Bloomsbury and its key figures: Leonard and Virginia Woolf, and Vanessa and Clive Bell. But if a ‘class photograph’ were taken around this time, we would spot a tall, bear-like man in the back row, slightly off to one side and grinning like a mischievous puppy. This is Frank Plumpton Ramsey.

By the time Ramsey was eighteen, he was a Cambridge undergrad, busily translating Wittgenstein’s Tractatus into English, arguing as an equal with Russell and Moore about the nature of reality, and helping Keynes with his math. Ramsey died in 1930, just short of his 27th birthday. Who was this man??

Cheryl Misak seeks to solve this mystery in one of the best biographies of a philosopher yet written (which is how Ramsey thought of himself). She invites this amiable bear to step out of the shadows and amble down to the footlights so we can get a better look at him. The result is an eye-popping revelation backed by sound historical scholarship. Misak writes with a keen eye for the easily-overlooked connection and the telling detail. Her focus is on the interest level of the average reader and doesn’t presuppose a lot of training in philosophy or economics. For those who want to explore Ramsey’s ideas in greater depth, she provides a number of text boxes written by leading experts. The more casual reader can safely ignore these with no loss.

Misak scores a solid five out of five for her trouble. She has cast valuable additional light on a fascinating period in modern philosophy and economics, and allowed Frank Ramsey to take his rightful place in it.

One person found this helpful

Alex C. Michalos

Excellent bio of a bright man whose life was too short.

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on August 13, 2022

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Anyone interested in philosophers of science first quarter of 20th century will enjoy this book

Amazon Customer

Excellent biography of an extraordinary man

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on April 11, 2023

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Frank Ramsey was a mathematician, a philosopher and a mathematical economist who died in 1930 at the age of 26. In his short life he created two branches of mathematics, two of economics and persuaded his close friend Wittgenstein that his theory of knowledge, as published in the Tractatus (which Ramsey translated into English) was wrong and needed to be revised. Ramsey was also a close friend of John Maynard Keynes, the Bloomsbury set and the Cambridge Apostles. Ramsey's subjectivist theory of probability laid the basis for modern Bayesian statistics.

Cheryl Mizak's sympathetic, detailed and well-researched biography is a joy to read and brings this relatively unknown genius into the light. Highly recommended.

timothy beecroft

An outstanding book, about an extraordinary man

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on February 27, 2020

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This is an outstanding book, about an extraordinary man.

During his tragically short life (he died in 1930 shortly before his 27th birthday) Frank Ramsey made significant contributions to philosophy, economics and pure mathematics, many of which were not recognised until many years later. He was influenced by, but also influenced Wittgenstein, Keynes and Bertrand Russell.

If describing someone as a genius means anything, clearly he was one of the greatest geniuses of the last 100 years. And yet he is virtually unknown outside academic circles. Why? Perhaps because it has been difficult for someone who isn’t an “expert” to get to grips with the range and depth of his achievements – where they came from, what they mean and the effect that they have had.

Until now, that is. In “Frank Ramsey - a sheer excess of powers” Professor Cheryl Misak not only gives a warm and insightful account of Frank Ramsey the man, but rises magnificently to the challenge of putting his ideas across to a general reader with sufficient detail to be useful and clarity to be understandable (and, if you want to know more, the book contains short sections, that can be read separately in which specialist scholars explore particular ideas in more depth).

This book is a remarkable achievement which I can’t recommend highly enough. As someone else has already said “Finally Ramsey has the biography he deserves.”

If you already know anything about Frank Ramsey you’ll want to read this book.

And if you know nothing at all about him you should read this book.

PS: OUP – when this comes out in paperback put the photographs in a separate section on shiny paper where they can be seen properly, not scattered through the book, muddily printed on text paper.

18 people found this helpful

Peter Lukacs

Fascinating biography of a remarkable man

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on May 24, 2020

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A fascinating biography of a remarkable man. It captures very well the Cambridge and Bloomsbury circles in which he lived and paints a very sympathetic portrait of Frank Ramsey as a person.

Intellectually the breadth of his work in the short period of his life was amazing. I am an economist and so familiar with his work in this area. His work on subjective probability, the influence of pragmatism and his later work on truth were new to me and were explained clearly in a way that has left me wanting to understand and read more. The sections on logic and the philosophy of Wittgenstein and Russell I found harder going, maybe because the material is more challenging and less familiar to me.

6 people found this helpful

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