Thursday 20 October 2016

Broad on Wittgenstein

Two quotes today.

First, from his (1959) "Review of Norman Malcolm, Ludwig Wittgenstein: A Memoir" Universities Quarterly, vol. 13 (May 13) pp. 304-306.
"My impression is that there was for Wittgenstein little or no region intermediate between a state of high and concentrated seriousness and rather simple and sometimes almost crudely "low-brow" interludes. I suspect that this, rather than the alleged "artificiality" of the conversation at the High Table of Trinity, made the latter so distasteful to Wittgenstein. That conversation is the talk of men, all fairly eminent in their respective subjects, relaxing after a fairly tiring day's work. It presupposes common traditions, going back to undergraduate days, and habitual "family" jokes and allusions, and it moves in a sphere equally remote from high seriousness and from horseplay. A major prophet may be an excellent fellow, but he will hardly make an excellent Fellow. And, to pass from the general to the particular, one for whom philosophy is a way of life will find it difficult to associate on easy terms with those (like myself) for whom it is primarily a means of livelihood."
Second, from p.61 his  (1959) "Autobiography", in Paul A. Schilpp (ed.) The Philosophy of C. D. Broad, (New York: Tudor Publishing Company) pp. 3-68.
"The one duty which I wittingly neglected was to attend the weekly meetings of the Moral Science Club. I am not quick-witted nor quick-tongued enough to take a useful part in philosophical discussion by word of mouth; and I was not prepared to spend hours every week in a thick atmosphere of cigarette-smoke, while Wittgenstein punctually went through his hoops, and the faithful as punctually 'wondered with a foolish face of praise.'"