Frank Ramsey: A Sheer Excess of Powers [Paperback]

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.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.Foreword: 'Mind and Heart'Part I: Boyhood1. The Ramseys2. Winchester Nearly Unmade Him3. 'We really live in a great time for thinking'Part II: The Cambridge Man4. Undergraduate Life5. 'To my generation, he was rather frightening'6. Ramsey and the Early Wittgenstein7. Vienna Interlude8. 'The fundamentals are so philosophical'9. The New Don10. Passion FoundPart III: An Astonishing Half Decade11. Settling Down in Work and Life12. Revolution in Philosophy13. Two Crises14. Cambridge Economics15. Ramseyan Economics: The Feasible First Best16. 1928 Return to Mathematics17. Wittgenstein Comes Home18. 'The problem of philosophy must be divided if I am to solve it'19. The End and Meaning of a LifeCheryl Misak,University of TorontoCheryl Misakis 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 alã$