Ray Monk
Ray Monk | |
|---|---|
| Born | 15 February 1957 |
| Education | |
| Education | University of York (M.A., 1979) University of Oxford (MLitt) |
| Philosophical work | |
| Era | Contemporary philosophy |
| Region | Western philosophy |
| Analytic philosophy, postanalytic philosophy | |
| Institutions | University of Southampton |
Main interests | Philosophical biography, history of analytic philosophy, philosophy of mathematics, veganism |
Ray Monk FRSL (born 15 February 1957) is a British biographer who is renowned for his biographies of Ludwig Wittgenstein, Bertrand Russell, and J. Robert Oppenheimer. He is emeritus professor of philosophy at the University of Southampton, where he taught in various capacities from 1992 to 2018.[1][2][3]
Biography
[edit]Monk graduated with an M.A. in Philosophy from the University of York in 1979. Later he obtained an MLitt from the University of Oxford.[2]
He won the 1990 John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and the 1991 Duff Cooper Prize for his acclaimed biography of Ludwig Wittgenstein, Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Duty of Genius. His two-volume biography of Bertrand Russell appeared in 1996 and 2001. His biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer was published in 2012.
Since 2012 he has occasionally written for the New Statesman, contributing articles on philosophers and on veganism.[4][5]
In 2015 he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.[6]
Works
[edit]- Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Duty of Genius. New York, NY: Penguin Books. 1991. ISBN 978-0-14-015995-0.[7]
- Bertrand Russell: The Spirit of Solitude 1872–1921. London: Vintage Books, 1996.
- Russell. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1997.
- Bertrand Russell: The Ghost of Madness 1921–1970. London: Vintage Books, 2001.
- How to Read Wittgenstein. London: Granta, 2005.
- Robert Oppenheimer: A Life Inside the Center. New York; Toronto: Doubleday. 2012. ISBN 978-0-385-50407-2.
- Robert Oppenheimer: A Life Inside the Center. London: Jonathan Cape/Random House. 2012. ISBN 978-0224-062626.
- Inside the Centre: The Life of J. Robert Oppenheimer. London: Jonathan Cape, 2012; Robert Oppenheimer: A Life Inside the Center. New York: Doubleday, 2013.
- Robert Oppenheimer: A Life Inside the Center (First Anchor books ed.). New York: Anchor Books. 2014. ISBN 978-0385722049.[8]
- "Ludwig Wittgenstein: A Sketch of His Life" (chapter in A Companion to Wittgenstein, edited by Hans-Johann Glock and John Hyman. Wiley-Blackwell, 2017)
References
[edit]- ↑ "Professor Ray Monk | Philosophy | University of Southampton". www.southampton.ac.uk.
- 1 2 "An Interview with Ray Monk". Cogito. 6 (2): 57–61. 1 July 1992. doi:10.5840/cogito19926228 – via www.pdcnet.org.
- ↑ "x.com".
- ↑ "Writers". www.newstatesman.com. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
- ↑ "Ray Monk on veganism in the New Statesman". University of Southampton.
- ↑ "Ray Monk". Royal Society of Literature. September 2023.
- ↑ "Ray Monk's Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Duty of Genius". 2 August 2021.
- ↑ Maslin, Janet (27 May 2013). "Rough-Edged Atomic Pioneer". The New York Times. Retrieved 23 July 2023.
External links
[edit]- Home page
- Philosophy Bites podcast interview with Ray Monk on Philosophy and Biography
- WGBY audio recording of lecture "Philosophy Circa 1905"
- Leading, contemporary biographers Hermione Lee & Ray Monk and director Stephen Frears debate whether all biographies are fiction
- Monk, Ray (31 August 2008). Ray Monk on Philosophy and Biography (with transcript) (mp3). Philosophy Bites (podcast). Episode #73. Interviewed by Warburton, Nigel. Retrieved 27 February 2026.
- Appearances on C-SPAN
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- 1957 births
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- Alumni of the University of York
- British biographers
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- Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature
- John Llewellyn Rhys Prize winners
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