“Renford Bambrough and I met once on January 31 1982, when I had returned to Cambridge from the USA for my PhD viva voce examination. He signed and gave me his last personal copy of Reason, Truth and God. Three years earlier, in 1979, I, as a 24 year old PhD student under F.H. Hahn in economics, had written to him expressing my delight at finding his works and saying these were immensely important to economics; he invited me to his weekly discussion groups at St John’s College but I could not attend. Between 1979 and 1989 we corresponded while I worked in America on my application of his and Wisdom’s work to problems in economics, which emerged in Philosophy of Economics: On the Scope of Reason in Economic Inquiry (Routledge, International Library of Philosophy 1989, 1991), a work which got me into a lot of trouble with American economists (though Milton Friedman and Theodore W. Schultz defended it). Bambrough said of it “The work is altogether well-written and admirably clear”. On another occasion he said he was “extremely pleased” at the interest I had taken in his work. The preface of my book said he was not responsible for the use I had made of his writings, which I reiterate now. Returning to Britain in 2004, I find the work of Wisdom and Bambrough unknown or forgotten, even at the great University North East of Buckingham where they had lived and worked. In my view, they played a kind of modern-day Plato and Aristotle to Wittgenstein’s Socrates; in terms of Eastern philosophy, the wisdom they achieved in their lives and have left behind for us in their work to use and apply to our own problems, make them like modern-day “Boddhisatvas” of Mahayana Buddhism. My lecture “Science, Religion, Art, and the Necessity of Freedom” purports to apply their work to current international problems of grave significance, namely the cultural conflicts made apparent since the September 11 2001 attacks on America. As I am as likely to fail as to succeed in making this application, the brief bibliography given above is intended to direct interested persons to their work first hand for themselves.”
Two philosophers I most admire are John Wisdom and Renford Bambrough. It is wonderful to find someone else who feels the same way. I have found only two theses/dissertations (from the 1970’s) on Wisdom and none on Bambrough: a real shame, as I think they are more relevant to philosophy than the naturalists.
John Wisdom taught at the University of Oregon during the seventies and may have worked with graduate students on their dissertations then.
He was a joy to discuss philosophy with and hear lectures about the greats at Cambridge. The U of O archives may yield more. There must have been other theses/dissertations from his Cambridge years. I was an undergraduate student and had the privilege of working with him during his stay in Oregon. Sometimes in life you manage to be at the right place at the right time.
The search engine above should locate any article by its title; the Index and Archives may be used as well.
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October 12, 2008 at 7:55 am
Two philosophers I most admire are John Wisdom and Renford Bambrough. It is wonderful to find someone else who feels the same way. I have found only two theses/dissertations (from the 1970’s) on Wisdom and none on Bambrough: a real shame, as I think they are more relevant to philosophy than the naturalists.
Ivan Kelly
University of Saskatchewan, Canada
November 2, 2008 at 10:35 pm
John Wisdom taught at the University of Oregon during the seventies and may have worked with graduate students on their dissertations then.
He was a joy to discuss philosophy with and hear lectures about the greats at Cambridge. The U of O archives may yield more. There must have been other theses/dissertations from his Cambridge years. I was an undergraduate student and had the privilege of working with him during his stay in Oregon. Sometimes in life you manage to be at the right place at the right time.
Obie Simonis
Boston Visual Artist
October 8, 2009 at 10:14 am
This has been a big help in our research in philosophy.