Literate Lifetime

"Today a reader, tomorrow a leader." -- W. Fusselman
Looking for something great (and free) to read? Enter an author's name and/or a key word from a book title to search for entries in our database of public domain works.


Rhees, Rush

We have 1 book for this author.

Rush Rhees (19 March 1905-22 May 1989) was a philosopher at Swansea University from 1940 to 1966

Rhees is principally known as a student, friend, and literary executor of the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. With G. E. M. Anscombe, he edited Wittgenstein's posthumous Philosophical Investigations (1953), a highly influential work. He was also responsible for bringing out other unpublished writings by Wittgenstein, including "Remarks on the Foundations of Mathematics", "Philosophical Remarks", and "Philosophical Grammar".

Life

He was born in Rochester, New York, the son of Benjamin Rush Rhees, a Baptist minister, author and president of the University of Rochester.

He studied philosophy at the University of Rochester, but was expelled in 1922 for insolent questions. In 1924 he left for Edinburgh where he graduated in 1928. He became a research fellow at Cambridge in 1932.

At Cambridge he impressed G. E. Moore who described him as his ablest student. Most importantly he met Wittgenstein, who became a close personal friend and continued to visit him after his move to Swansea. Rush Rhees’ main claim to fame is as a Wittgenstein exegete and for his influence on his friends, colleague Peter Winch and former student and his literary executor D. Z. Phillips. He gave a religious and ethical understanding of Wittgenstein’s work which is how Wittgenstein himself said he wanted to be understood. Together with G. H. von Wright and G. E. M. Anscombe he was appointed by Wittgenstein as his literary executor.

After the death of his first wife he married again.

Major works

  • Wittgenstein and the Possibility of Discourse (1988)
  • On Religion and Philosophy (1997)
  • Moral Questions (1999)

This biographical information was gathered from the Rush_Rhees page, courtesy of the Wikipedia project.

Books

The Life of Jesus of Nazareth

Pick of the Day



Lists of Interest

Modern Library 100 Best Novels Modern Library 100 Best Novels: In 1998, Modern Library picked the top 100 Novels of the century. This list contains all of the bo ...

Webmaster's Favourites Webmaster's Favourites: These are my selections, humbly presented as books that I particularly enjoyed.



Other ways of browsing