Beschreibung:

WITTGENSTEIN, Ludwig Josef Johann (1889-1951)--Frank Plumpton RAMSEY (1903-1930). The Foundations of Mathematics and Other Logical Essays . Edited by R.B. Braithwaite. London: Headley Brothers for Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., Ltd., 1931. 8° (215 x 137mm). Diagrams in the text. 18-page publisher's catalogue dated 1931 bound in at the end. Original cloth, the spine lettered in gilt and with gilt publisher's device (upper hinge partially split, short tear at head of spine, minor damp-marking), modern cloth-covered box, gilt morocco lettering-piece. Provenance : Lettice Ramsey (presentation inscription on front free endpaper, 'Ludwig , from , Lettice May 1931', gift to:)--Ludwig Wittgenstein (pencilled correction in Wittgenstein's hand on p.266; pencilled marginal markings [?by Wittgenstein] on pp.142, 146 and 273). FIRST EDITION. AN IMPORTANT PRESENTATION COPY INSCRIBED TO WITTGENSTEIN BY THE WIDOW OF THE CO-TRANSLATOR OF THE TRACTATUS . Frank Ramsey studied mathematics at Trinity College, Cambridge, was elected a fellow of King's College in 1924, and was appointed university lecturer in mathematics in 1926. Monk states that, 'Of the people who studied the Tractatus [ Logico-Philosophicus (London: 1922), translated by Ramsey] in its first year of publication, Ramsey was undoubtedly the most perceptive. Though still an undergraduate (in 1923 he was still just nineteen years old), he was commissioned to write a review of Wittgenstein's work for the philosophical journal Mind . The review [reprinted on pp.270-286 of the present volume] remains to this day one of the most reliable expositions, and one of the most penetrating criticisms of the work' (R. Monk Ludwig Wittgenstein (London: 1990), p.215). Wittgenstein wrote to Ramsey later in 1923 and invited him to Puchberg, where the two men studied the Tractatus in close detail, a process that caused Wittgenstein to make corrections and changes to the text in subsequent editions. Although Ramsey (fourteen years his junior) was technically Wittgenstein's supervisor when he returned to Cambridge in 1929, in practice the relationship was one of equals; in the course of that year Ramsey became 'not only Wittgenstein's most valued partner in philosophical discussions, but also his closest friend', and Lettice Ramsey, his wife and the donor of this volume, 'soon became a close friend and confidante' (Monk op . cit ., p.258). In January 1930 Frank Ramsey fell seriously ill with jaundice, and, following an operation, his condition deteriorated swiftly; he died on 19 January, aged twenty-six. The Foundations of Mathematics and Other Logical Essays was prepared after his death by R.B. Braithwaite, who was assisted in the selection of the papers by Wittgenstein and others (cf. p.xiv). Lettice Ramsey's gift of this volume to Wittgenstein would have been not only an acknowledgement of his friendship, but also of his work to preserve the writings and thought of one his closest philosophical associates.