Wittgenstein’s Poker by David Edmunds and John Eidinow, Faber and Faber, £9.99, ISBN 057120547X
IT WAS the first and only time they came face to face — the legendary meeting of two of the 20th century’s intellectual titans, philosophers Karl Popper and Ludwig Wittgenstein. Popper had been invited to speak on whether philosophical problems exist. Popper held that they did. Induction is a real philosophical problem and, he said, so is the relationship between mind and body. Wittgenstein dismissed these as either mathematical or linguistic puzzles, not real philosophy.
Both were passionate crusaders, pulled no punches and were indefatigable in argument. According to some accounts of the heated exchange, Wittgenstein, brandishing a poker, challenged Popper to present an example of a moral rule. Popper riposted with: “Not to threaten visiting lecturers with a poker.” Wittgenstein left the room. Such is the stuff of legends that some would even to this day say that he is only “alleged” to have left the room.
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In Wittgenstein’s Poker, David Edmunds and John Eidinow present a gripping account of the fiercely intellectual personalities and troubled histories of these profoundly influential men. But they touch only briefly on the philosophy the intellectual fight. Too much weight is placed on exactly when Wittgenstein left the room. The fact is that he did leave. Wittgenstein was used to reducing people to silence, but could he have been an intellectual coward on this occasion?