Yorick Smythies
Yorick Smythies (1917–1980) was a pupil of philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. He worked as a librarian.
Life
Smythies studied Moral Sciences at King's College, Cambridge from 1935–39, gaining a 1st Class degree. He took notes of Max Newman's 1934 lecture course on logic there.[1]
Smythies was one of few students Wittgenstein allowed to take lecture notes: at times the only one.[2] Those notes became key sources for reconstruction of those lectures. Smythies and Wittgenstein also conducted intense written correspondence, but most of this is lost. He was at Wittgenstein's bedside around the time of his death, with a few other former students.
Prescribed amphetamines for depression, Smythies became dependent on them.[3] Munz denies Ray Monk's claim that Smythies suffered from schizophrenia.[4] Smythies worked as a librarian at the University of Oxford.[4] He wrote philosophy of his own, some intended for publication, but published almost nothing during his lifetime. He became a Catholic convert,[5] and married Peg Bovey, an architectural lecturer, who after his death married Rush Rhees.[6]
In literature
Smythies was the basis for the character Hugo Belfounder in the novel Under the Net by Iris Murdoch.[7]
References
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