Wittgenstein's poker: the story of a ten-minute argument between two great philosophers

Abstract

Did Wittgenstein violently threaten Karl Popper with a poker on the cold evening of 25 October 1946 at a meeting of Moral Sciences Club in Cambridge? Responding to this question is the wonderful pretext that the authors use to introduce the rich world and characters of mid-twenteith century philosophy. They grab their readers' imaginations by latching onto this concrete, legendary, event - the alleged aggressive weilding of a poker - at what many would have imagined to be an utterly civilised, if not downright dull, philosophical meeting. Through this investigation, they bring to life not only the characters in this drama, both principal and supporting, but they also put flesh on the bones of the historical contexts from which some great philosophical ideas have emerged.

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