Georg Henrik von Wright
| Georg Henrik von Wright | |
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| File:GHvonWright.jpg
Von Wright in 1972
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| Born | 14 June 1916 Helsinki, Grand Duchy of Finland |
| Died | Script error: The function "death_date_and_age" does not exist. Helsinki, Finland |
| Era | 20th-century philosophy |
| Region | Western philosophy |
| School | Analytic philosophy |
| Institutions | University of Cambridge University of Helsinki Cornell University |
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Main interests
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Modal logic, philosophy of action, philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, philosophy of science |
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Notable ideas
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Deontic logic Myth of Progress |
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Influenced
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Georg Henrik von Wright (Swedish: [ˈjěːɔrj ˈhɛ̌nːrɪk fɔn ˈvrɪkːt];[lower-alpha 1] 14 June 1916 – 16 June 2003) was a Finnish philosopher.
Contents
Biography
G. H. von Wright[3] was born in Helsinki on 14 June 1916 to Tor von Wright and his wife Ragni Elisabeth Alfthan.[4]
On the retirement of Ludwig Wittgenstein as professor at the University of Cambridge in 1948, von Wright was elected to his chair at the age of 32.[4] He published in English, Finnish, German, and Swedish, belonging to the Swedish-speaking minority of Finland. Von Wright was of both Finnish and 17th-century Scottish ancestry,[5] and the family was raised to nobility in 1772.[6]
Work
Von Wright's writings come under two broad categories. The first is analytic philosophy and philosophical logic in the Anglo-American vein. His 1951 books, An Essay in Modal Logic and Deontic Logic, were landmarks in the postwar rise of formal modal logic and its deontic version. He was an authority on Wittgenstein, editing his later works. He was the leading figure in the Finnish philosophy of his time, specializing in philosophical logic, philosophical analysis, philosophy of action, philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, and the close study of Charles Sanders Peirce.
The other vein in von Wright's writings is moralist and pessimist. During the last twenty years of his life, under the influence of Oswald Spengler, Jürgen Habermas and the Frankfurt School's reflections about modern rationality, he wrote prolifically. His best known article from this period is entitled "The Myth of Progress" (1993), and it questions whether our apparent material and technological progress can really be considered "progress" (see Myth of Progress).
Awards
In the last year of his life, among his other honorary degrees, he held an honorary degree at the University of Bergen.[7] He also was awarded the Swedish Academy Finland Prize in 1968.
Publications
- The Logical Problem of Induction, PhD thesis, 31 May 1941[8]
- Den logiska empirismen (Logical Empirism), in Swedish, 1945
- Über Wahrscheinlichkeit (On Chance), in German, 1945
- An Essay in Modal Logic, 1951
- A Treatise on Induction and Probability, 1951
- Deontic Logic, 1951
- Tanke och förkunnelse (Thought and Preaching), in Swedish, 1955
- Logical Studies, 1957
- Logik, filosofi och språk (Logic, philosophy and language), in Swedish, 1957
- The Varieties of Goodness, 1963. (1958-60 Gifford Lectures in the University of St. Andrews[9] He considered this his best and most personal work.
- Norm and Action, 1963 (1958-60 Gifford Lectures, St. Andrews[10]
- The Logic of Preference, 1963
- Essay om naturen, människan och den vetenskaplig-tekniska revolutionen (Essay on Nature, Man and the Scientific-Technological Revolution), in Swedish, 1963
- An Essay in Deontic Logic, 1968
- Time, Change and Contradiction, 1969
- Tieteen filosofian kaksi perinnettä (The Two Traditions of the Philosophy of Science), in Finnish, 1970
- Explanation and Understanding, 1971
- Causality and Determinism, 1974
- Handlung, Norm und Intention (Action, Norm and Intention), in German, 1977
- Humanismen som livshållning (Humanism as an approach to Life), in Swedish, 1978
- Freedom and Determination, 1980
- Wittgenstein, 1982
- Philosophical Papers I-III, 1983–1984
- v. I Practical Reason, v. II Philosophical Logic, v. III Truth, Knowledge, and Modality
- Of Human Freedom, 1984. (1984 Tanner Lectures at the University of Helsinki)
- Filosofisia tutkielmia (Philosophical Dissertations), in Finnish, 1985
- Vetenskapen och förnuftet (Science and Reason), in Swedish, 1986
- Minervan Pöllö (The Owl of Minerva), in Finnish, 1991
- Myten om framsteget (The Myth of Progress), in Swedish, 1993
- The Tree of Knowledge, 1993
- Att förstå sin samtid (To Understand one's own Time), in Swedish, 1994
- Six Essays in Philosophical Logic, 1996
- Viimeisistä ajoista. Ajatusleikki (On the End Times: A Thought Experiment.), in Finnish, 1997
- Logiikka ja humanismi (Logic and Humanism), in Finnish, 1998
- In the Shadow of Descartes, 1998
- Mitt liv som jag minns det (My Life as I Remember it), in Swedish, 2001
Von Wright edited posthumous publications by Wittgenstein, which were published by Blackwell (unless otherwise stated):
- 1961. Notebooks 1914-1916.
- 1967. Zettel (Translated into English as Culture and Value).
- 1969. On Certainty.
- 1971. ProtoTractatus—An Early Version of Tractatus Logico- Philosophicus. Cornell University Press.
- 1973. Letters to C.K. Ogden with Comments on the English Translation of the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus.
- 1974. Letters to Russell, Keynes and Moore.
- 1978 (1956). Remarks on the Foundations of Mathematics.
- 1980. Remarks on the Philosophy of Psychology, Vols 1–2.
- 1980. Culture and Value (English translation of Zettel).
- 1982. Last Writings on the Philosophy of Psychology, Vols. 1–2, 1992.
Von Wright also edited extracts from the diary of David Pinsent, also published by Blackwell:
- 1990. A Portrait of Wittgenstein as a Young Man: From the Diary of David Hume Pinsent 1912–1914. ISBN 0-631-17511-3.
*For more complete publication details see "Bibliography of the Writings of Georg Henrik von Wright" (in Schlipp, 1989) and "The Georg Henrik von Wright-Bibliography" (2005).[11]
Notes
- ↑ His obituarist in The Times claims that von Wright "used to tell British friends that the anglophone pronunciation was correct, since the name derived from a Scotsman" i.e. as rhyming with "bright" not “tricked.”[1] The Institute for the Languages of Finland does however promote the rendering of the Von Wright surname as "fånvrikt".[2]
References
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- ↑ An explanation of the von Wright name is given in "Georg Henrik von Wright: Intellectual Autobiography" (in: Schilpp, 1989): "Around the year 1650, the earliest known members of my family had to leave Scotland because, it is said, they had sided with King Charles against Cromwell. They settled in Narva in Estonia, which was then a province under Swedish rule. Georg(e) Wright there begat Henrik Wright, who fought in the armies of Charles XII and after a long and eventful life died in his home in Finland, another part of the old Swedish realm. Henrik Wright's son Georg Henrik was, together with his three other sons, raised to noble rank after the royal coup d'etat of 1772. This was how the odd combination of 'von' and 'Wright' originated."
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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- ↑ Finlands ridderskaps och adels kalender 1992, p. 670, 672. Esbo 1991. ISBN 951-9417-26-5
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- ↑ Wright, Georg Henrik von. The logical problem of induction. Acta philosophica fennica, vol. 3. Societas Philosophica, Helsinki (Helsingfors) 1941. [second revised edition, 1957]
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Sources
- Von Wright Obituary. The Guardian, 4 July 2003.
- G. H. von Wright. Encyclopædia Britannica. (Archived by Wayback Machine.)
Further reading
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External links
- "G. H. von Wright" obituary by Brian McGuinness in The Independent, 24 June 2003 (Archived by Wayback Machine)
- Georg Henrik Wright in the National Biography of Finland.
- Georg Henrik von Wright in 375 humanists. Faculty of Arts, University of Helsinki, 13 May 2015.
- Articles with short description
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- 1916 births
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- 20th-century essayists
- 20th-century Finnish philosophers
- 21st-century essayists
- 21st-century Finnish philosophers
- 20th-century Finnish nobility
- 21st-century Finnish nobility
- Academics of the University of Cambridge
- Academics of the University of Helsinki
- Action theorists
- Analytic philosophers
- Fellows of the British Academy
- Finnish essayists
- Finnish humanists
- Finnish people of Scottish descent
- Finnish writers in Swedish
- Logicians
- Modal logicians
- Moral philosophers
- People from Uusimaa Province (Grand Duchy of Finland)
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- Rationality theorists
- Selma Lagerlöf Prize winners
- University of Helsinki alumni
- Virtue ethicists
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