Frank Ramsey

Frank Ramsey was a brilliant Cambridge philosopher, mathematician, and economist who died in 1930 at 26 having made landmark contributions to decision theory, game theory, mathematics, logic, semantics, philosophy of science, and the theory of truth. This rich biography tells the story of his extraordinary life and intellectual achievement.

Cheryl Misak is University Professor and Professor of Philosophy at the University of Toronto. She works on American pragmatism, the history of analytic philosophy, ethics and political philosophy, and the philosophy of medicine.
Her most recent books include Frank Ramsey: A Sheer Excess of Powers (forthcoming 2020), Cambridge Pragmatism: From Peirce and James to Ramsey and Wittgenstein, The American Pragmatists, Truth and the End of Inquiry: A Peircean Account of Truth, Truth, Politics, Morality: Pragmatism and Deliberation.
She has had visiting fellowships or positions at the Goethe University in Frankfurt, the Free University in Berlin, Trinity College Cambridge, St. Johns College Cambridge, and New York University.
In 2013, she completed a long run in academic administration at the University of Toronto, culminating as Vice-President and Provost.

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