Wittgenstein's Poker
Wednesday, August 29th, 2001 10:52 pmThat's poker as in the thing you poke fires with, not the game. I've been reading an entertaining book of this title, about a debate between Wittgenstein and Popper lasting five minutes, in which Pooper either did or did not come off best, and in which Wittgenstein either did or did not threaten Popper with a poker. It is to answer these questions that the authors, David Edmonds and John Eidinow have applied their considerable talents, going into the lives and times of these two philosophers in impressive detail. Not the kind of thing most people would choose for their bed-time reading, but I recommend it to the philosophy students reading this, of whom I know there are at least two.