Brian McGuinness

{{Infobox person

| name = Brian McGuinness

| birth_name = Bernard Francis McGuinness

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1927|10|22|df=y}}

| birth_place = Wrexham, Wales

| death_date = {{Death date and age|2019|12|23|1927|10|22|df=y}}

| death_place = Florence, Italy

}}

Brian McGuinness (22 October 1927 – 23 December 2019) was a Wittgenstein scholar best known for his translation, with David Pears, of the Tractatus-Logico-Philosophicus,{{Cite web|title=Brian McGuinness, – A MESSAGE FROM THE BWS PRESIDENT {{!}}|url=https://www.britishwittgensteinsociety.org/brian-mcguinness-a-message-from-the-bws-president|access-date=2021-03-14|language=en-GB}} and for his biography of the first half of Wittgenstein's life.

He was christened with the forenames "Bernard Francis" but changed his name to "Brian" in his youth. He commonly published, and was cited, as B. F. McGuinness.

He went up to Balliol College in 1945 where he was tutored by R. M. Hare.{{Cite news|last=Obituaries|first=Telegraph|date=2020-01-09|title=Brian McGuinness, world-renowned expert on Ludwig Wittgenstein – obituary|language=en-GB|work=The Telegraph|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2020/01/09/brian-mcguinness-world-renowned-expert-ludwig-wittgenstein/|url-status=live|access-date=2021-03-13|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200111050415/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2020/01/09/brian-mcguinness-world-renowned-expert-ludwig-wittgenstein/|archive-date=11 Jan 2020|issn=0307-1235}} McGuinness was a Fellow and Tutor at Queen's College in Oxford University from 1953 to 1988, and took a post at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study. In 1990, he became a professor at the University of Siena, Italy. From 1990 to 1993, he was director of the faculty of philosophy and social sciences of this university.{{Cite web|title=Curriculum e pubblicazioni|url=http://intra.lett.unisi.it/innovazione/curricula/mcguinness.htm|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120310145309/http://intra.lett.unisi.it/innovazione/curricula/mcguinness.htm|archive-date=2012-03-10|access-date=2016-10-09|website=intra.lett.unisi.it}} During his time at Queen's, he was an invited speaker at the Oxford Socratic Club, speaking with J. D. Mabbott on "The Problem of Free Will" on 14 November 1955.

Family

His son, Paddy McGuinness, is a former British civil servant who was the Deputy National Security Adviser for Intelligence.{{Cite web |date=1 December 2023 |title=McGuinness, Patrick Joseph, (born 27 April 1963), Founder and Director, Hudhud Associates Ltd, since 2018 |url=https://www.ukwhoswho.com/display/10.1093/ww/9780199540884.001.0001/ww-9780199540884-e-282052 |url-access=subscription |access-date=2024-07-29 |website=WHO'S WHO & WHO WAS WHO |language=en}} His daughter, Catherine McGuinness, is a lawyer with a senior position in the City of London Corporation.{{cite news |date=1 December 2017 |title=Meet Catherine McGuinness: The City of London Corporation's policy chairman |url=https://www.standard.co.uk/business/meet-catherine-mcguinness-the-city-of-london-corporations-policy-chairman-a3707296.html |work=Evening Standard}}

Select bibliography

= Books authored =

Wittgenstein: A Life: Young Ludwig, 1889-1921, Berkeley, California: University of California Press (1988) {{ISBN|0-520-06451-8}}. Subsequently published with a new preface as Young Ludwig: Wittgenstein's Life, 1889-1921. New York: Clarendon Press (2005).
(with Guido Frongia) Wittgenstein: A Bibliographical Guide (1990) {{ISBN|0-631-13765-3}}
Approaches to Wittgenstein: Collected Papers (2002). {{ISBN|0-415-03261-X}}

= Select papers =

[https://www.jstor.org/stable/2183144 "The Mysticism of the Tractatus"], Philosophical Review, vol. 75 (1966), pp. 305–28.
[https://www.jstor.org/stable/23940749 "Philosophy of Science in the Tractatus"], Revue Internationale de Philosophie, vol. 23 (1969), pp. 155–64.
[https://www.jstor.org/stable/23943255 "Bertrand Russell and Ludwig Wittgenstein's Notes on Logic"], Revue Internationale de Philosophie, vol. 26 (1972), pp. 444–60.

= Works edited/translated =

(with David Pears) Ludwig Wittgenstein: Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, (1961) {{ISBN|0-415-25408-6}} {{Cite journal |last=Jarvis |first=Judith |author-link=Judith Jarvis Thomson |date=1962 |title=Review of Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2022906 |journal=The Journal of Philosophy |volume=59 |issue=12 |pages=332–335 |doi=10.2307/2022906 |issn=0022-362X |jstor=2022906 |url-access=subscription}}
Felix Kaufmann: The Infinite in Mathematics: Logico-Mathematical Writings, (1978) {{ISBN|978-90-277-0847-2}}
Hans Hahn: Empiricism, Logic and Mathematics: Philosophical Papers, (1980) {{ISBN|90-277-1065-1}}
Gottlob Frege: Collected Papers on Mathematics, Logic and Philosophy, (1984) {{ISBN|0-631-12728-3}}
Ernst Mach: Principles of the Theory of Heat: Historically and Critically Elucidated, (1986) {{ISBN|90-277-2206-4}}
Unified science. The Vienna monograph series, originally edited by Otto Neurath, now in an English edition. (1987) {{ISBN|90-277-2484-9}}
(with J. Schulte) Friedrich Waismann, Josef Schächter, Moritz Schlick: Ethics and the will: Essays, (1994) {{ISBN|0-7923-2674-1}}
(with Gianluigi Oliveri) The Philosophy of Michael Dummett, (1994) {{ISBN|0-7923-2804-3}}
(with Gianluigi Oliveri) Karl Menger: Reminiscences of the Vienna Circle and the Mathematical Colloquium (1994). {{ISBN|0-7923-2711-X}}
(with George Henrik von Wright) Ludwig Wittgenstein: Cambridge Letters, (1995) {{ISBN|1-4051-4701-6}}
Wittgenstein in Cambridge: Letters and Documents 1911-1951 (2008) {{ISBN|9781405147019}} {{Cite web|last=Hsu|first=Andrew|date=2008|title=Wittgenstein in Cambridge: Letters and Documents 1911-1951|url=https://ndpr.nd.edu/reviews/wittgenstein-in-cambridge-letters-and-documents-1911-1951/|access-date=2021-03-14|website=Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews|language=en}}
Language, Logic, and Formalization of Knowledge: Coimbra Lecture and Proceedings of a Symposium Held in Siena in September 1997, (1998) {{ISBN|88-87106-07-X}}

References

External links

[https://www.nordicwittgensteinreview.com/article/view/3465/4153 "A Tapestry: Susan Edwards-McKie Interviews Professor Dr B. F. McGuinness on the Occasion of His 90th Birthday"] Susan Edwards-McKie & Brian McGuinness, Nordic Wittgenstein Review 6 (2):85-90 (2017)
[https://www.alws.at/alws/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/ALWS_Brian-McGuinness-Laudatio_Mitterer.pdf November 2017 laudatio] by Josef Mitterer given on the occasion of McGuinness receiving an honorary doctorate from the University of Innsbruck.

Category:1927 births

Category:2019 deaths

Category:20th-century British non-fiction writers

Category:20th-century British philosophers

Category:21st-century British non-fiction writers

Category:21st-century British philosophers

Category:Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford

Category:Analytic philosophers

Category:British male non-fiction writers

Category:Fellows of the Queen's College, Oxford

Category:Institute for Advanced Study faculty

Category:James Tait Black Memorial Prize recipients