Wittgenstein - anyone met him?

[redrubyindigo]

I met a wonderful woman the other day. She was in her nineties and her husband was a Professor of Philosophy and was a student of Wittgenstein.

Two degrees of separation.

I am still a bit awed by that.

I would be a bit awed too.

I saw Derrida give a talk at my uni which was amazing - an actual living philosopher!

I have also met a woman who studied under AJP Taylor and met Tolkien.

I wonder what the lectures of Wittgenstein were like? She still has her DH's lecture notes.

On a much more modest level, I was reading iris Murdoch's biography and my great aunt's husband was mentioned several times. They were in the same 1950s oxford academic social circle. I was very fond of my great aunt, and if I d known that before she died, I'd have pumped her for information and gossip!

Not a philosopher but Neil Armstrong was at my Dh's graduation ceremony, he gave a speech and I think Dh is still starstruck after all these years.

Dame Cicely Saunders (involved in founding the modern day hospice movement) & Mary Robinson (then 1st female President of Ireland) were both at my graduation ceremony. It was refreshing to have influential women at the graduation giving the speeches rather than men.

Wrong Mary! It was Mary McAleese, the second female Irish President!

I saw Derrida too, CultureSucks. At the ICA. Did you see Derrida during the 'He's not a real philosopher, so can only speak under the auspices of the Literature Department' furore?

My English teacher used to talk about his experiences of Tolkien, who he said was 'distracted'.

This makes a change from my usual: 'The time I met Bono' anecdote.:-)

Sorry for 3rd post but wanted to say: tell us more, RedRubyIndigo. Did you get to look at the lecture notes?

This is like Erdos numbers for mathematicians, isn't it?

I don't think I've ever met a philosopher (well, Laurie Taylor, does he count?)

Oh yes, lecture notes would be fascinating.

I don't know if Derrida was in the middle of the not a proper philosopher furore, but we had a large dept of modern continental philosophy specialists at my uni, so he was a very popular speaker. He filled the biggest lecture hall, and people were sitting in the aisles and huddled at the back as well.

I must admit though that I barely understood the point of anything he was saying! It was interesting though, and he was a very watchable and energetic speaker.

CSDW You won't be the only one not to understand a word he was saying! I stop at Bourdieu, and Foucault if i am prepared to read every sentence 5 times. After that it might as well be written in JavaScript. Still, gotta love postmodern French philosophers.