Cambridge University Moral Sciences Club
Encyclopedia
The Cambridge University Moral Sciences Club, founded in October 1878, is a philosophy
discussion group that meets weekly at Cambridge during term time. Speakers are invited to give a 30-minute paper, after which discussion is thrown open for several hours.
The club has been highly influential in analytic philosophy
because of the concentration of philosophers at Cambridge. Members have included many of British philosophy's top names, such as Henry Sidgwick
, J.M.E. McTaggart, Bertrand Russell
, G.E. Moore, and Ludwig Wittgenstein
, and several papers regarded as founding documents of various schools of thoughts had their first airing at a club meeting. Moore's "The Nature of Judgment" was first read to the club on 21 October 1898. Frank P. Ramsey
's "Knowledge by acquaintance and knowledge by description" was presented to a meeting in 1911, and in 1926 became Truth and Probability. Russell's "Limits of Empiricism" was read in the Michaelmas term of 1935, and Moore's paradox
was first read in Michaelmas 1944. Almost every major anglophone philosopher since the Second World War has delivered a paper to the club.
It was during a meeting of the Moral Sciences Club in October 1946 that Wittgenstein famously waved a poker
at Sir Karl Popper
during a heated discussion about whether philosophical problems are real or just linguistic games
.
, later founder of the Jewish Historical Society and a friend of George Eliot
; and Alfred Momerie, who also became a professor of logic at King's College London. It was decided that meetings would take place each Saturday in term time at nine in the evening, with membership restricted to those who had taken or were reading for the moral sciences tripos
. The first recorded club paper was "Development Theories of Conscience," read by T.E. Scrutton
of Trinity College on 26 October that year.
was president, which allowed the Apostles to attend club meetings, and vice versa. Sidgwick was already an Apostle and J.M.E. McTaggart became both club secretary and an Apostle in 1886. Several other Apostles joined the club over the years—including Bertrand Russell
, John Maynard Keynes
, A.N. Whitehead, G. Lowes Dickinson, G.H. Hardy, Crompton Llewelyn Davies, C.P. Sanger, A.E.A.W. Smyth, and H.T. Norton—and several Apostles after Sidgwick and McTaggart became officers of the club, including G.E. Moore and Ludwig Wittgenstein
.
, a women's college. The first woman to read a paper was Emily Elizabeth Constance Jones
, who spoke about James Ward
's Naturalism and Agnosticism on 1 December 1899 in McTaggart's rooms. Sidgwick was in the chair, which Jack Pitt writes was significant, because he had been at the forefront of the campaign to admit women to the university, and his wife, Eleanor Mildred Balfour
, had become president of Newnham College, another women's college, in 1892.
In 1906, the club minutes make clear that women were still not fully accepted: "after the lady visitors departed the following were elected members of the Club," and no women were among those listed. There were five women members from Newnham in 1908 and in 1912 six from Newnham and five from Girton. Miss Dorothy Wrinch read a paper on 7 December 1917 about "Mr Russell's Theory of Judgment," which Pitt writes was probably the same paper she had published in Mind in 1919 as On the Nature of Judgment. By 1926, there were woman officers, including Miss E.W. Whetnall, the club secretary, and later G.E.M. (Elizabeth) Anscombe, who continued to speak to the club until at least the 1980s.
He left Cambridge in 1913, but returned in January 1929 and started attended meetings again, but he was an intense man and was accused of dominating discussion, which led him to break off his relationship with the club for a few years in 1931. Another member, Fania Pascal, wrote that he was the disturbing centre of the evenings. "He would talk for long periods without interruption, using similes and allegories, stalking about the room and gesticulating. He cast a spell."
His dominance of the Moral Sciences Club reached its height in October 1946 during a meeting that is now legendary among philosophers. It was on 25 October in Richard Braithwaite
's rooms in the Gibbs building at King's
(room three on the first floor of staircase H). A confrontation arose between Wittgenstein, who was chairing the meeting, and the evening's guest speaker, Karl Popper
, Reader in Logic and Scientific Method at the London School of Economics. The meeting had been organized by Wasfi Hijab, the club secretary, and was attended by 30 philosophers—dons and students—including Peter Geach
, Peter Gray-Lucas, Georg Kreisel
, Peter Munz
, Stephen Plaister, Bertrand Russell
, Stephen Toulmin
, John Vinelott
, and Michael Wolff. It was reportedly the only time Popper, Russell, and Wittgenstein—three of the world's most eminent philosophers—were ever together.
Popper was reading "Are there philosophical problems?" and an argument broke out about the nature of philosophy: whether philosophical problems were real, which was Popper's position, or just linguistic puzzles, which was Wittgenstein's. The pair almost came to blows, with Wittgenstein pointing Braithwaite's reportedly red-hot poker
at Popper, demanding that he give an example of a moral rule. Popper offered one: "Not to threaten visiting speakers with pokers," at which point Wittgenstein stormed out in a huff. The minutes make no mention of the poker incident, recording only that, "The meeting was charged to an unusual degree with a spirit of controversy":
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
discussion group that meets weekly at Cambridge during term time. Speakers are invited to give a 30-minute paper, after which discussion is thrown open for several hours.
The club has been highly influential in analytic philosophy
Analytic philosophy
Analytic philosophy is a generic term for a style of philosophy that came to dominate English-speaking countries in the 20th century...
because of the concentration of philosophers at Cambridge. Members have included many of British philosophy's top names, such as Henry Sidgwick
Henry Sidgwick
Henry Sidgwick was an English utilitarian philosopher and economist. He was one of the founders and first president of the Society for Psychical Research, a member of the Metaphysical Society, and promoted the higher education of women...
, J.M.E. McTaggart, Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, OM, FRS was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, and social critic. At various points in his life he considered himself a liberal, a socialist, and a pacifist, but he also admitted that he had never been any of these things...
, G.E. Moore, and Ludwig Wittgenstein
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein was an Austrian philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. He was professor in philosophy at the University of Cambridge from 1939 until 1947...
, and several papers regarded as founding documents of various schools of thoughts had their first airing at a club meeting. Moore's "The Nature of Judgment" was first read to the club on 21 October 1898. Frank P. Ramsey
Frank P. Ramsey
Frank Plumpton Ramsey was a British mathematician who, in addition to mathematics, made significant and precocious contributions in philosophy and economics before his death at the age of 26...
's "Knowledge by acquaintance and knowledge by description" was presented to a meeting in 1911, and in 1926 became Truth and Probability. Russell's "Limits of Empiricism" was read in the Michaelmas term of 1935, and Moore's paradox
Moore's paradox
Moore's paradox concerns the putative absurdity involved in asserting a first-person present-tense sentence such as 'It's raining but I don't believe that it is raining' or 'It's raining but I believe that it is not raining'. The first author to note this apparent absurdity was G.E. Moore...
was first read in Michaelmas 1944. Almost every major anglophone philosopher since the Second World War has delivered a paper to the club.
It was during a meeting of the Moral Sciences Club in October 1946 that Wittgenstein famously waved a poker
Fire iron
A fire iron is any metal instrument for tending to a fire.-Types of fire irons:There are three types of tools commonly used to tend a small fire, such as an indoor fireplace fire, or yule log: the spade, the tongs and the poker itself...
at Sir Karl Popper
Karl Popper
Sir Karl Raimund Popper, CH FRS FBA was an Austro-British philosopher and a professor at the London School of Economics...
during a heated discussion about whether philosophical problems are real or just linguistic games
Linguistic philosophy
Linguistic philosophy describes the view that philosophical problems are problems which may be solved either by reforming language, or by understanding more about the language we presently use. The former position is that of ideal language philosophy, the latter the position of ordinary language...
.
Origins
The club originally emerged out of the Grote Society in 1874, but it lasted only two years. In 1878, another group decided to revive it, led by Alfred Caldecott—later professor of logic and mental philosophy at King's College London—when he was a third-year undergraduate at John's. They used the same name, and regular meetings began on 19 October 1878, consisting of Caldecott; Joseph JacobsJoseph Jacobs
Joseph Jacobs was a folklorist, literary critic and historian. His works included contributions to the Jewish Encyclopaedia, translations of European works, and critical editions of early English literature...
, later founder of the Jewish Historical Society and a friend of George Eliot
George Eliot
Mary Anne Evans , better known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, journalist and translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era...
; and Alfred Momerie, who also became a professor of logic at King's College London. It was decided that meetings would take place each Saturday in term time at nine in the evening, with membership restricted to those who had taken or were reading for the moral sciences tripos
Tripos
The University of Cambridge, England, divides the different kinds of honours bachelor's degree by Tripos , plural Triposes. The word has an obscure etymology, but may be traced to the three-legged stool candidates once used to sit on when taking oral examinations...
. The first recorded club paper was "Development Theories of Conscience," read by T.E. Scrutton
Thomas Edward Scrutton
Sir Thomas Edward Scrutton was an English legal text-writer and judge.-Biography:Thomas Edward Scrutton was born in London, UK. He studied as a scholar at Trinity College, Cambridge, then at University College London...
of Trinity College on 26 October that year.
Cambridge Apostles
Jack Pitt infers from the decision to meet on Saturdays that none of the original members were Apostles, the secret Cambridge debating society that had been meeting on Saturdays since it was formed in 1820. The day of the club meeting was changed to Friday in 1885, when Henry SidgwickHenry Sidgwick
Henry Sidgwick was an English utilitarian philosopher and economist. He was one of the founders and first president of the Society for Psychical Research, a member of the Metaphysical Society, and promoted the higher education of women...
was president, which allowed the Apostles to attend club meetings, and vice versa. Sidgwick was already an Apostle and J.M.E. McTaggart became both club secretary and an Apostle in 1886. Several other Apostles joined the club over the years—including Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, OM, FRS was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, and social critic. At various points in his life he considered himself a liberal, a socialist, and a pacifist, but he also admitted that he had never been any of these things...
, John Maynard Keynes
John Maynard Keynes
John Maynard Keynes, Baron Keynes of Tilton, CB FBA , was a British economist whose ideas have profoundly affected the theory and practice of modern macroeconomics, as well as the economic policies of governments...
, A.N. Whitehead, G. Lowes Dickinson, G.H. Hardy, Crompton Llewelyn Davies, C.P. Sanger, A.E.A.W. Smyth, and H.T. Norton—and several Apostles after Sidgwick and McTaggart became officers of the club, including G.E. Moore and Ludwig Wittgenstein
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein was an Austrian philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. He was professor in philosophy at the University of Cambridge from 1939 until 1947...
.
Women
Women were never formally restricted from membership, but because women were not allowed to take the tripos examinations until 1881, and were not granted full membership of the university with the right to obtain degrees until 1947, the club was mostly a male affair in its early days. The first record of women even listening to papers was in Michaelmas 1894, when Sidney Webb read "The Economic Basis of Trade Unionism," and the audience included his wife and two women from Girton CollegeGirton College, Cambridge
Girton College is one of the 31 constituent colleges of the University of Cambridge. It was England's first residential women's college, established in 1869 by Emily Davies and Barbara Bodichon. The full college status was only received in 1948 and marked the official admittance of women to the...
, a women's college. The first woman to read a paper was Emily Elizabeth Constance Jones
Emily Elizabeth Constance Jones
Emily Elizabeth Constance Jones was an English educator and writer on logic and ethics, and Mistress of Girton College, Cambridge, from 1903 until 1916....
, who spoke about James Ward
James Ward (psychologist)
James Ward was an English psychologist and philosopher. He was born in Kingston upon Hull, the eldest of nine children. His father was an unsuccessful merchant...
's Naturalism and Agnosticism on 1 December 1899 in McTaggart's rooms. Sidgwick was in the chair, which Jack Pitt writes was significant, because he had been at the forefront of the campaign to admit women to the university, and his wife, Eleanor Mildred Balfour
Eleanor Mildred Sidgwick
Eleanor Mildred Sidgwick, née Balfour was an activist for the higher education of women, Principal of Newnham College and a leading figure in the Society for Psychical Research.-Biography:...
, had become president of Newnham College, another women's college, in 1892.
In 1906, the club minutes make clear that women were still not fully accepted: "after the lady visitors departed the following were elected members of the Club," and no women were among those listed. There were five women members from Newnham in 1908 and in 1912 six from Newnham and five from Girton. Miss Dorothy Wrinch read a paper on 7 December 1917 about "Mr Russell's Theory of Judgment," which Pitt writes was probably the same paper she had published in Mind in 1919 as On the Nature of Judgment. By 1926, there were woman officers, including Miss E.W. Whetnall, the club secretary, and later G.E.M. (Elizabeth) Anscombe, who continued to speak to the club until at least the 1980s.
Wittgenstein
Wittgenstein arrived in Cambridge in 1911 and became a member of the club in 1912, when he suggested that no paper last more than seven minutes, a rule adopted on 15 November 1912, though soon abandoned. He gave his first paper on 29 November that year, called "What is philosophy?", at a meeting in his rooms at Trinity. Fifteen members were present, including G.E. Moore. The minutes record:Mr Wittgenstein ... read a paper entitled "What is Philosophy?" The paper lasted only about 4 minutes, thus cutting the previous record established by Mr Tye by nearly two minutes. Philosophy was defined as all those primitive propositions which are assumed as true without proof by the various sciences. This defn. was much discussed but there was no general disposition to adopt it. The discussion was kept very well to the point, and the Chairman did not find it necessary to intervene much.
He left Cambridge in 1913, but returned in January 1929 and started attended meetings again, but he was an intense man and was accused of dominating discussion, which led him to break off his relationship with the club for a few years in 1931. Another member, Fania Pascal, wrote that he was the disturbing centre of the evenings. "He would talk for long periods without interruption, using similes and allegories, stalking about the room and gesticulating. He cast a spell."
His dominance of the Moral Sciences Club reached its height in October 1946 during a meeting that is now legendary among philosophers. It was on 25 October in Richard Braithwaite
R. B. Braithwaite
Richard Bevan Braithwaite was an English philosopher who specialized in the philosophy of science, ethics, and the philosophy of religion. He was a lecturer in moral science at the University of Cambridge from 1934 to 1953, then Knightbridge Professor of Moral Philosophy there from 1953 to 1967...
's rooms in the Gibbs building at King's
King's College, Cambridge
King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college's full name is "The King's College of our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge", but it is usually referred to simply as "King's" within the University....
(room three on the first floor of staircase H). A confrontation arose between Wittgenstein, who was chairing the meeting, and the evening's guest speaker, Karl Popper
Karl Popper
Sir Karl Raimund Popper, CH FRS FBA was an Austro-British philosopher and a professor at the London School of Economics...
, Reader in Logic and Scientific Method at the London School of Economics. The meeting had been organized by Wasfi Hijab, the club secretary, and was attended by 30 philosophers—dons and students—including Peter Geach
Peter Geach
Peter Thomas Geach is a British philosopher. His areas of interest are the history of philosophy, philosophical logic, and the theory of identity.He was educated at Balliol College, Oxford...
, Peter Gray-Lucas, Georg Kreisel
Georg Kreisel
Georg Kreisel FRS is an Austrian-born mathematical logician who has studied and worked in Great Britain and America. Kreisel came from a Jewish background; his family sent him to England before the Anschluss, where he studied mathematics at Trinity College, Cambridge and then, during World War...
, Peter Munz
Peter Munz
Peter Munz was a philosopher and historian, Professor of the Victoria University of Wellington; among the major influences on his work were Karl Popper and Ludwig Wittgenstein.-Major works:...
, Stephen Plaister, Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, OM, FRS was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, and social critic. At various points in his life he considered himself a liberal, a socialist, and a pacifist, but he also admitted that he had never been any of these things...
, Stephen Toulmin
Stephen Toulmin
Stephen Edelston Toulmin was a British philosopher, author, and educator. Influenced by Ludwig Wittgenstein, Toulmin devoted his works to the analysis of moral reasoning. Throughout his writings, he sought to develop practical arguments which can be used effectively in evaluating the ethics behind...
, John Vinelott
John Vinelott
Sir John Evelyn Vincent Vinelott was a leading barrister at the Chancery bar and an English High Court judge in the Chancery Division from 1978 to 1994....
, and Michael Wolff. It was reportedly the only time Popper, Russell, and Wittgenstein—three of the world's most eminent philosophers—were ever together.
Popper was reading "Are there philosophical problems?" and an argument broke out about the nature of philosophy: whether philosophical problems were real, which was Popper's position, or just linguistic puzzles, which was Wittgenstein's. The pair almost came to blows, with Wittgenstein pointing Braithwaite's reportedly red-hot poker
Fire iron
A fire iron is any metal instrument for tending to a fire.-Types of fire irons:There are three types of tools commonly used to tend a small fire, such as an indoor fireplace fire, or yule log: the spade, the tongs and the poker itself...
at Popper, demanding that he give an example of a moral rule. Popper offered one: "Not to threaten visiting speakers with pokers," at which point Wittgenstein stormed out in a huff. The minutes make no mention of the poker incident, recording only that, "The meeting was charged to an unusual degree with a spirit of controversy":
Further reading
- Holt, Jim. "Ludwig Has Left the Building", The New York Times, 30 December 2001.
- Popper, Karl. Unended Quest. Routledge, 2002, p. 141; first published 1974.