Ray Monk

Wittgenstein possessed one of the most acute philosophical minds of the 20th century. In this incisive portrait, Monk offers a unique insight into the life and work of a modern genius who radically redirected philosophical thought in our time.

The Duty of Genius

Ludwig Wittgenstein

Revered biographer Monk solves the enigma of Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb. He details his life and personality, and brilliantly illuminates his contribution to the revolution in 20th-century physics.

A Life Inside the Center

Robert Oppenheimer

This series--a personal master class in reading--presents the work of some of the most influential and challenging writers in history. The volumes present a context and explanation that will facilitate understanding of the text.

How to Read Wittgenstein

Details the life of the acclaimed philosopher and author of Principia Mathematica, in particular his inner conflict between rigorous principle and romantic desire and his relationships with his contemporaries. 15,000 first printing.

The Spirit of Solitude, 1872-1921

Bertrand Russell

The Great Philosophers (The Great Philosophers Series)

Russell

1921-1970, The Ghost of Madness

Ludwig Wittgenstein is perhaps the greatest philosopher of the twentieth century, and certainly one of the most original in the entire Western tradition. Given the inaccessibility of his work, it is remarkable that he has inspired poems, paintings, films, musical compositions, titles of books -- and even novels. In his splendid biography, Ray Monk has made this very compelling human being come alive in a way that perfectly explains the fascination he has evoked. Wittgenstein's life was one of great moral and spiritual depth. Although his work addresses problems of logic, language, mind, and knowledge, he often described it as having an ethical point, and once said that he "could not help seeing every problem from a religious point of view." In successfully bridging the gap assumed by many to exist between Wittgenstein's life and his work, Monk's biography helps to explain the interest in Wittgenstein's later philosophy on the part of Buddhist scholars.

Historical events of the twentieth century. The Spirit of Solitude is the first biography of this towering figure to go behind Russell's public life and reveal a complex and even contradictory character that has, until now, remained obscure.

J. Robert Oppenheimer is among the most contentious and important figures of the twentieth century. As head of the Los Alamos Laboratory, he oversaw the successful effort to beat the Nazis to develop the first atomic bomb – a breakthrough which was to have eternal ramifications for mankind, and made Oppenheimer the 'father of the Bomb'. But his was not a simple story of assimilation, scientific success and world fame. A complicated and fragile personality, the implications of the discoveries at Los Alamos were to weigh heavily upon him. Having formed suspicious connections in the 1930s, in the wake of the Allied victory in World War Two, Oppenheimer’s attempts to resist the escalation of the Cold War arms race would lead many to question his loyalties – and set him on a collision course with Senator Joseph McCarthy and his witch hunters.

The Life of J. Robert Oppenheimer

Inside The Centre

Robert Oppenheimer was among the most brilliant and divisive of men. As head of the Los Alamos Laboratory, he oversaw the successful effort to beat the Nazis in the race to develop the first atomic bomb—a breakthrough that was to have eternal ramifications for mankind and that made Oppenheimer the “Father of the Atomic Bomb.” But with his actions leading up to that great achievement, he also set himself on a dangerous collision course with Senator Joseph McCarthy and his witch-hunters. In Robert Oppenheimer: A Life Inside the Center, Ray Monk, author of peerless biographies of Ludwig Wittgenstein and Bertrand Russell, goes deeper than any previous biographer in the quest to solve the enigma of Oppenheimer’s motivations and his complex personality. The son of German-Jewish immigrants, Oppenheimer was a man of phenomenal intellectual attributes, driven by an ambition to overcome his status as an outsider and penetrate the heart of political and social life. As a young scientist, his talent and drive allowed him to enter a community peopled by the great names of twentieth-century physics—men such as Niels Bohr, Max Born, Paul Dirac, and Albert Einstein—and to play a role in the laboratories and classrooms where the world was being changed forever, where the secrets of the universe, whether within atomic nuclei or collapsing stars, revealed themselves. But Oppenheimer’s path went beyond one of assimilation, scientific success, and world fame. The implications of the discoveries at Los Alamos weighed heavily upon this fragile and complicated man. In the 1930s, in a climate already thick with paranoia and espionage, he made suspicious connections, and in the wake of the Allied victory, his attempts to resist the escalation of the Cold War arms race led many to question his loyalties. Through compassionate investigation and with towering scholarship, Ray Monk’s Robert Oppenheimer tells an unforgettable story of discovery, secrecy, impossible choices, and unimaginable destruction.

o dever do gênio

Wittgenstein

The second volume of Ray Monk's biography of Bertrand Russell focuses on Russell's tragic and moving relationship with his first son John. It uses the relationship as a centerpoint to expound on Russell's public achievements, such as his political campaigning for peace.

The Ghost of Madness

Bertrand Russell, 1921-70

维特根斯坦传：天才之为责任

geniets plikt

La obra de Ludwig Wittgenstein es el producto de un pensamiento riguroso y de una imaginacin brillante, y slo puede ser comprendida en todo su alcance analizando la relacin entre su filosofa y su vida. Wittgenstein naci en 1889, hijo de una de las ms acaudaladas y cultas familias de Viena, de origen judo pero convertidos al catolicismo, y cuyos miembros eran triunfadores o suicidas; en esta compleja matriz familiar podemos rastrear el origen de su intensa y siempre presente preocupacin por problemas ticos, espirituales y culturales.Su trayectoria como filsofo comienza tras su encuentro con Bertrand Russell en Cambridge, y su trabajo en esta universidad culmina en el Tractatus Logico -Philosophicus, celebrado en la actualidad por los positivistas lgicos, quienes a veces nos hacen olvidar su intenso contenido mstico. Wittgenstein termin esta obra al final de la Primera Guerra Mundial, contienda en la que su experiencia como soldado le enfrent al sufrimiento humano en una escala tal que le marc para siempre. Convencido de que su libro haba resuelto todos los problemas tradicionales del objeto de su investigacin, abandon la filosofa y se dedic a la enseanza en escuelas rurales de Austria, donde se vio envuelto en serias dificultades de ndole profesional y personal.Tena ya ms de cuarenta aos cuando decidi regresar a la vida acadmica y a la filosofa. La radical reelaboracin de su pensamiento anterior, cristalizada en la obra publicada despus de su muerte con el ttulo de Investigaciones filosficas, ha ejercido una influencia decisiva en la filosofa actual.Ray Monk, saludado por la crtica como un renovador del gnero biogrfico, ha podido consultar por primera vez los archivos de Wittgenstein,sus papeles y sus diarios, escritos en cdigo, y que despejan las incgnitas sobre la misti

Ludwig Wittgenstein. The Duty of Genius (span.).

A collection of a dozen commissioned essays that, like its predecessor (Elgar Studies , Scolar Press, 1990) seeks to reflect many aspects of the life and work of the great English composer. Each essay is self-contained but the strong literary thread running through most of them suggested the title of the collection. Many of the contributors to the earlier volume are again represented.

Music and Literature

Edward Elgar

Robert J. Oppenheimer is among the most contentious and important figures of the twentieth century. As head of the Los Alamos Laboratory, he oversaw the successful effort to beat the Nazis to develop the first atomic bomb - a breakthrough which was to have eternal ramifications for mankind, and made Oppenheimer the 'father of the Bomb'.

Inside the Centre

J. Robert Oppenheimer is among the most contentious and important figures of the twentieth century. As head of the Los Alamos Laboratory, he oversaw the successful effort to beat the Nazis to develop the first atomic bomb - a breakthrough which was to have eternal ramifications for mankind, and made Oppenheimer the 'father of the Bomb'. But his was not a simple story of assimilation, scientific success and world fame. A complicated and fragile personality, the implications of the discoveries at Los Alamos were to weigh heavily upon him. Having formed suspicious connections in the 1930s, in the wake of the Allied victory in World War Two, Oppenheimer's attempts to resist the escalation of the Cold War arms race would lead many to question his loyalties - and set him on a collision course with Senator Joseph McCarthy and his witch hunters.

Bertrand Russell 1872-1970 Bertrand Russell discovered mathematics at the age of eleven. It was, he recalled, a transporting experience: 'as dazzling as first love.' From that moment on, he would pursue his passion with undying devotion and all but erotic fervour. Mathematics might succeed, he felt, where philosophy had failed, reducing thought to its purest form, and freeing knowledge from doubt and contradiction. And so, for a time, it seemed. Russell's mathematical investigations effortlessly resolved at a stroke some of philosophy's most intractable problems. Yet if mathematics could be a liberating mistress, she was an unreliable one... Opening up the work of one of our age's undisputed giants, Ray Monk's exhilaratingly clear, readable guide tells a compelling human tale too: a moving story of love and loss, of ecstatic triumph and deep disillusion.

Ray Monk

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