Brian McGuinness (22 October 1927 – 23 December 2019) was a

Wittgenstein Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein ( ; ; 26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) was an Austrian philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. From 1929 to 1947, Witt ...

scholar best known for his translation, with

David Pears __NOTOC__ David Francis Pears, FBA (8 August 1921 – 1 July 2009) was a British philosopher renowned for his work on Ludwig Wittgenstein. An Old Boy of Westminster School,David Pears: philosopher'' (obituary) ''The Times,'' 3 July 2009, Archiv ...

, of the ''Tractatus-Logico-Philosophicus'', 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 Balliol College () is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded in 1263 by nobleman John I de Balliol, it has a claim to be the oldest college in Oxford and the English-speaking world. With a governing body of a master and ar ...

in 1945 where he was tutored by R. M. Hare. McGuinness was a Fellow and Tutor at Queen's College in

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

from 1953 to 1988, and took a post at the

Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study The Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIAS) in Amsterdam, Netherlands, is an independent research institute in the field of the humanities and social and behavioural sciences founded in 1970. The insti ...

. In 1990, he became a professor at the

University of Siena The University of Siena (, abbreviation: UNISI), located in Siena, Tuscany, holds the distinction of being Italy's first publicly funded university as well as one of the oldest, originally established as ''Studium Senese'' in 1240. As of 2022, it ...

, Italy. From 1990 to 1993, he was director of the faculty of philosophy and social sciences of this university. 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 Patrick Joseph McGuinness (born 14 August 1973) is an English comedian, actor, writer, and television presenter. He rose to fame with the help of fellow comedian Peter Kay, who invited him to appear on the television comedy series '' That Peter ...

, is a former British civil servant who was the Deputy National Security Adviser for Intelligence. His daughter, Catherine McGuinness, is a lawyer with a senior position in the

City of London Corporation The City of London Corporation, officially and legally the Mayor and Commonalty and Citizens of the City of London, is the local authority of the City of London, the historic centre of London and the location of much of the United Kingdom's f ...

Select bibliography

Books authored

* ''Wittgenstein: A Life: Young Ludwig, 1889-1921'', Berkeley, California: University of California Press (1988) . 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) *''Approaches to Wittgenstein: Collected Papers'' (2002).

Select papers

"The Mysticism of the Tractatus"
'' Philosophical Review,'' vol. 75 (1966), pp. 305–28.
"Philosophy of Science in the Tractatus"
''Revue Internationale de Philosophie'', vol. 23 (1969), pp. 155–64.
"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 The ''Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus'' (widely abbreviated and Citation, cited as TLP) is the only book-length philosophical work by the Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein that was published during his lifetime. The project had a broad goal ...

'', (1961) *Felix Kaufmann: ''The Infinite in Mathematics: Logico-Mathematical Writings'', (1978) *Hans Hahn: ''Empiricism, Logic and Mathematics: Philosophical Papers'', (1980) *Gottlob Frege: ''Collected Papers on Mathematics, Logic and Philosophy'', (1984) *Ernst Mach: ''Principles of the Theory of Heat: Historically and Critically Elucidated'', (1986) *''Unified science. The Vienna monograph series, originally edited by Otto Neurath, now in an English edition''. (1987) *(with J. Schulte) Friedrich Waismann, Josef Schächter, Moritz Schlick: ''Ethics and the will: Essays'', (1994) *(with Gianluigi Oliveri) ''The Philosophy of Michael Dummett'', (1994) *(with Gianluigi Oliveri) Karl Menger: ''Reminiscences of the Vienna Circle and the Mathematical Colloquium'' (1994). *(with George Henrik von Wright) ''Ludwig Wittgenstein:'' ''Cambridge Letters'', (1995) ** ''Wittgenstein in Cambridge: Letters and Documents 1911-1951'' (2008) *''Language, Logic, and Formalization of Knowledge'': ''Coimbra Lecture and Proceedings of a Symposium Held in Siena in September 1997'', (1998)

References

External links

"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)
November 2017 laudatio
by Josef Mitterer given on the occasion of McGuinness receiving an honorary doctorate from the

University of Innsbruck The University of Innsbruck (; ) is a public research university in Innsbruck, the capital of the Austrian federal state of Tyrol (state), Tyrol, founded on October 15, 1669. It is the largest education facility in the Austrian States of Austria, ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:McGuinness, Brian 1927 births 2019 deaths 20th-century British non-fiction writers 20th-century British philosophers 21st-century British non-fiction writers 21st-century British philosophers Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford Analytic philosophers British male non-fiction writers Fellows of the Queen's College, Oxford Institute for Advanced Study faculty James Tait Black Memorial Prize recipients British philosophers of language British philosophers of logic Philosophers of mathematics British philosophers of science Philosophers of social science Academic staff of the University of Siena Wittgensteinian philosophers