DD 191-195.999 (Tony) Wittgenstein's Poker by David Edmonds & John Eidinow (192 EDM)

The Story of a Ten-Minute Argument Between Two Great Philosophers- Copy. 2001

At 300+ pages, this book is more than a recount of a 10 minute long argument between 2 philosophers. Alot more.
The real core of this book is the role of Jewish Philsophers in pre/mid/and post Nazi Occupation in Austria and central Europe. In fact, that aspect of the book is 1 million times more interesting that the argument and what the argument was about.
(for those who care- that argument has something to do with puzzles)
That said, the two philosophers, Ludwig Wittgenstein and Karl Popper, whom the book is about, are really more linguists and Lit. majors. They keep discussing semantics, and it really detracts from the book (Almost as much as spending several paragraphs talking about how one of the arguments witnesses had the habit of A. Being female, B. Going Commando, and C. liked to changed leg positions alot.) This book is a mess!
That's realy why I's focus more on the whole Jewish/ Nazi Occupation chapters of the book as being really what the book is about. The use of the arguement is more like an egg put in a meatloaf in order to help things stick together- as opposed to it being the meat. Ten minutes do not a book meet.
For me, the best chapther is "Little Luki" in which Wittgenstein's early life is explored and the Nuremburg Laws explained at length. The next best chapther deals with Popper's Jewish upbringing and how it was affected by Hitler's rise to power. Sadly, LW is focused on more than KP, and I think he's just as interesting, if not more than the prior. But, again, just much like all that is made of what did or didn't happen in the meeting is unclear and unbalanced in it's report,not much else about this book is fairly angled!
I'm really glad to have read this book- if only for the fact that I am now done with the 100's in the Dewey Decimal system. I have now graduated from Philosophy and am ready for my next degree. That's not to say that this book does not have merit. If I was taking a class on Nazi German history, this would be an excellent book to learn more about the victims of Hitler's self-loathing. It's also a valuable look at British reconstruction after the war.
But for being a text on philsophy- it's not. My journey into Dewey's offerings in Philosophy had much better books than this- many which I haven't a clue what they are about. Be sure to check your libraries catalog of books in the levels of 100-199.999. Until then- see you in the stacks.