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One of Popper's Students Writes ...

Image result for fireplace poker
Karl Popper and Ludwig Wittgenstein were two of the giants of mid-century philosophy, especially of the Anglo-centric sort. They could each legitimately claim to the the true heir to Bertrand Russell as Russell receded from the central issues under debate in favor of a role as senior sage for antinuclear activists.

There is an oft-today story of a ten minute argument between the two at a meeting hosted by the Cambridge University Moral Sciences Club. Popper argued that there are substantive moral issues that philosophy can address, Wittgenstein replied that all Popper's examples of such questions were in fact linguistic confusions. Wittgenstein was standing next to a fireplace and started waving a poke around as the discussion, no pun intended, became heated.

By way of winding up the discussion, Popper said that there was at least one moral certitude, that one should not "threaten visiting lecturers with pokers."

I bring up this familiar story because a student of Popper's, Joseph Agassi, has just written a monograph about Wittgenstein, thus continuing the old dispute into a new generation. The new book is called, LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN'S PHILOSOPHICAL INVESTIGATIONS: AN ATTEMPT AT A CRITICAL RATIONALIST APPRAISAL.

Although Popper remains an important influence in the philosophy of science, the influence of his "critical rationalism" elsewhere has waned, and Wittgenstein's influence has often seemed to have no limits. Agassi seeks to re-state the balance, if not indeed to throw the beam all the way to the other side.


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  1. HenryOctober 4, 2019 at 7:42 PM

    There is an entire book on the poker incident: Wittgenstein's Poker: The Story of a Ten-Minute Argument Between Two Great Philosophers, by David Edmonds and John Eidinow.

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