Broad on Wittgenstein, redux

From p.54 of of "The Local Historical Background of Contemporary Cambridge Philosophy", in C. A. Mace (ed.) (1957) British Philosophy in the Mid-Century (London: G. Allen and Unwin) pp. 13-61. (The editor notes that the lectures that the book collects "included one of the last public utterances of C.D. Broad as the Knightbridge Professor of Moral Philosophy.")

"I shall devote only a few lines to him, because several of my younger colleagues, who will be lecturing in this course, have attended his lectures and discussion-classes and have been profoundly influenced by him, whilst I have neither done the former nor suffered the latter."

Broad on Ward

From p.35 of "The Local Historical Background of Contemporary Cambridge Philosophy", in C. A. Mace (ed.) (1957) British Philosophy in the Mid-Century (London: G. Allen and Unwin) pp. 13-61.

On James Ward (Professor of Logic and Mental Philosophy at Cambridge between 1897 and 1925), Broad writes:

"Throughout his life he remained a convinced theist and a stern puritan. A sincerely good and deeply religious man, with a melancholy disposition, a dyspeptic stomach, and a sharp tongue, he had all those virtues which have tended to make virtue so unpopular."

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.'"

Broad on Russell

From Critical notice of P. A. Schilpp, The philosophy of Bertrand Russell, Mind, vol. 56, no. 224 (October, 1947), pp. 355-364 (pdf here).

"Professor Laird, at the end of his essay, pays an eloquent tribute to the intellectual stimulus which he derived, as an undergraduate at Trinity, from Lord Russell, and the generosity with which Lord Russell gave his time to personal discussions with his pupils. I was an undergraduate at Trinity along with Laird, and I can most heartily confirm on my own behalf all that he says. There is no one philosopher to whom I owe so much as to Lord Russell, and I recall with delight and gratitude the many hours which I spent in his company, his invariable kindness and hospitality, and the wit and charm of his conversation. No man that I know has altered so little for the worse with increasing years. When I meet him and talk to him now, I can shut my eyes and think myself back in bis room in Nevile's Court in those days before 1914, ' the happiness of which it is difficult for those born later to imagine '."