A Terribly Serious Adventure: Philosophy and War at Oxford, 1900-1960 (2023) by Nikhil Krishnan

 Book Review

A Terribly Serious Adventure: Philosophy and War at Oxford, 1900-1960 (2023)

 by Nikhil Krishnan

  I knew I had to read this book based on the title- how often does one see a personality driven book about the rise of analytic philosophy at Oxford during the early and mid 20th century?  Not often, I'll tell you. Broadly speaking, Oxford was the home of the "linguistic turn" in philosophy in the Anglo-American world.  The "linguistic turn" basically describes a philosophical movement that started in Europe and then migrated into the English speaking world.  The idea was to abandon the philosophical obsession with the unknowable, broadly called "metaphysics" and to replace it with an approach that focused on the relation between, "language, language users and the world." 

  Krishnan tells a modestly entertaining tale about this world.  Prominent figures include J.L. Austin, author of How to Do Things With Words, A.J. Ayer and philosopher turned novelist Iris Murdoch.  Austin assumes an almost heroic stature, both in terms of his achievements in the field and his war-time service, where he played a huge and important role in organizing the D-Day invasion.   It's pretty incredible that he could be both a pragmatic and theoretical thinker, echoing the contribution of scientists like Oppenheimer and Einstein, who most certainly could not have organized the D-Day invasion. 

  As a lawyer, I've always been partial to words and their meaning. It's an irony that the impact of this philosophical movement within the law has been largely conservative- it's hard to imagine the textual approach of the current Supreme Court without the influence of analytic philosophy.