Cheryl Misak.
cheryl misak: FRANK RAMSEY BIOGRAPHY
FRANK RAMSEY: A SHEER EXCESS OF POWERS (2020)
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Frank Ramsey (born 1903) was an extraordinarily gifted Cambridge mathematician, who achieved great distinction before his tragically early death at the age of 26. In his short career he invented one branch of mathematics and two branches of economics, laying down the basis of decision theory and game theory. Ramsey was brought up in Cambridge where his father, Arthur Ramsey, also a mathematician, was President of Magdalene College. He went to school at Winchester College, returning to undertake his degree at Trinity College, Cambridge. He obtained a first class degree in mathematics, coming top of his class. In 1926 he became a university lecturer in mathematics, and later Director of Studies in Mathematics at King’s College, Cambridge. He befriended Ludwig Wittgenstein and, while an undergraduate, translated some of Wittgenstein’s work into English. Together with John Maynard Keynes, Ramsey persuaded Wittgenstein to return to Cambridge, where he had been a student before the First World War. It is thought that Ramsey’s early death may have been caused by his chronic liver problems and an infection caught while swimming in the River Cam.
In its review of the book, the Wall Street Journal wrote: ‘Cheryl Misak persuades us, in “Frank Ramsey: A Sheer Excess of Powers,” that it should be coupled with those of other Cambridge men, such as Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin and John Maynard Keynes.’
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Cheryl Misak (born 1961) is a professor in philosophy at the University of Toronto. She has particular interests in the history of analytic philosophy and in bioethics. She obtained her BA from the University of Lethbridge, her MA from Columbia University and her DPhil from Oxford University.
