Frank Ramsey
by Cheryl Misak · first published 2020
5mentions
1recommended by
4HN commenters
2020–2024first – last mentioned
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When he died in 1930 aged 26, Frank Ramsey had already invented one branch of mathematics and two branches of economics, laying the foundations for decision theory and game theory. Keynes deferred to him; he was the only philosopher whom Wittgenstein treated as an equal. Had he lived he might have been recognized as the most brilliant thinker of the century. This amiable shambling bear of a man was an ardent socialist, a believer in free love, and an intimate of the Bloomsbury set. For the first time Cheryl Misak tells the full story of his extraordinary life.
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Frank Ramsey by Cheryl Misak. Kid only lived till 26 and changed the disciplines of Philosophy, Mathematics, and Economics. Ludwig Wittgenstein was reported to have said Ramsey was his only contemporary.
on “Ask HN: What is the best thing you read in 2024?” ↗This brings to mind the debates between Frank Ramsey and Ludwig Wittgenstein. Episode: https://philosophybites.libsyn.com/cheryl-misak-on-frank-ram... Media: https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/philosophybites/Cheryl_Mis...
on “Tempering Expectations for GPT-3 and OpenAI’s API” ↗…bio. I legit disliked Steve Jobs. I could not put this book down for the week it took to read. Then I became an Issacson junky. He just digs into the minutia and makes it digestible. Currently reading Frank Ramsey by Cheryl Misak. Will appeal to philosophy nerds mostly. Fascinating how a kid of 26 changed the fields of philosophy, mathematics, and economics, but no one really knows of him.
on “Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?” ↗Philosophical popularity waxes and wanes. At the level Monk describes, the brilliant Frank Ramsey -- with notable philosophical contributions in truth theory and probability, as well as in economic theory and mathematics -- seems similarly missing, though he died at a mere 26. Anyway, as Russell once…
on “Why did GE Moore disappear from history?” ↗I've been meaning to read up on Frank Ramsey, an early 20th century philosopher, mathematician, and economist, who first postulated that people's actions are determined by the balance between their expectations and their desires. A world built on…
on “The World is Built on Probability [1988/2023]” ↗