Wittgenstein's Poker: The Story of a Ten-Minute Argument Between Two Great Philosophers

david edmonds john eidinow

On October 25, 1946, in a crowded room in Cambridge, England, the great twentieth-century philosophers Ludwig Wittgenstein and Karl Popper came face to face for the first and only time. The meeting -- which lasted ten minutes -- did not go well. Their loud and aggressive confrontation became the stuff of instant legend, but precisely what happened during that brief confrontation remained for decades the subject of intense disagreement.

An engaging mix of philosophy, history, biography, and literary detection, Wittgenstein's Poker explores, through the Popper/Wittgenstein confrontation, the history of philosophy in the twentieth century. It evokes the tumult of fin-de-siécle Vienna, Wittgentein's and Popper's birthplace; the tragedy of the Nazi takeover of Austria; and postwar Cambridge University, with its eccentric set of philosophy dons, including Bertrand Russell. At the center of the story stand the two giants of philosophy themselves -- proud, irascible, larger than life -- and spoiling for a fight.

Genres philosophyhistorynonfictionbiographybiography memoirpsychologysciencepolitics20th centurybritish literature

368 pages, Paperback

First published January 1,2001

Literary awards

guardian first book award,

This edition

Format: 368 pages, Paperback
Published: September 17, 2002 by Ecco
ISBN: 9780060936648
ASIN: 0060936649
Language: English

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Karl Popper

Karl Popper

Sir Karl Raimund Popper, FRS, rose from a modest background as an assistant cabinet maker and school teacher to become one of the most influential theorists and leading philosophers. Popper commanded international audiences and conversation with him was a...
Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein

Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein (1889 - 1951) was an Austrian philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. He is considered by some to be the greatest philosopher of the...