The Foundations of Mathematics and other Logical Essays. Edited by R. B. Braithwaite. With a preface by G. E. Moore.

RAMSEY, Frank Plumpton.

Published by London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., 1931

About this Item

First edition, first impression, of the posthumous collection of essays by the Wittgenstein-influenced philosopher Frank Ramsey (1904-1930), here the copy of the American philosopher Rush Rhees (1905-1999), one of the literary executors of Wittgenstein's estate, with his handwritten and typed notes loosely inserted and his extensive marginalia; a significant association volume between two close friends of Wittgenstein. Ramsey published a review of Wittgenstein's Tractatus in the journal Mind while still an undergraduate, a review which is printed on pages 270-286 of the present volume. It remains to this day one of the most reliable expositions of the work. With C. K. Ogden, Ramsey translated the Tractatus for the parallel English German edition published in 1922. Ramsey's work was thereafter infused with Wittgenstein's thought, and he became Wittgenstein's closest friend upon the latter's return to Cambridge in 1929. In 1930 Ramsey died suddenly, aged only 26, and the present book, a collection of his philosophical and logical papers and articles, was posthumously prepared by R. B. Braithwaite, with the assistance of Wittgenstein (cited on p. xiv). Wittgenstein's friend and pupil, Rhees was appointed by him, together with two others, as executor of his estate and overseer of the publication of his vast amount of unpublished work, his "Nachlass", totalling some twenty thousand pages. From these unpublished papers, Rhees prepared with Elizabeth Anscombe the Philosophical Investigations in 1953, and Wittgenstein's own works on mathematical philosophy, Remarks on the Foundations of Mathematics, in 1956. Rhees himself also authored a number of philosophical works. The present volume is annotated throughout by Rhees in pencil and ink (chiefly in marginal notes), with a typescript and a manuscript copy of the article "Foundations of Mathematics" from the Encyclopedia Britannica loosely inserted (dated 1987), alongside 3 pages of typescript notes on Ramsey's writings on Wittgenstein, and 3 pages of manuscript notes in ink. Octavo. Original green cloth, spine lettered gilt. Somewhat rolled and shaken, hinges a little split, still all holding, some toning and foxing; a good copy.

Seller Inventory # 148605

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Foundations of Mathematics and other Logical Essays. Edited by R. B. Braithwaite. With a preface by G. E. Moore.
• Publisher: London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., 1931
• Edition: 1st Edition