Alice Ambrose

Alice Ambrose Lazerowitz (November 25, 1906 – January 25, 2001) was an American philosopher, logician, and author.

Early life and education Alice Loman Ambrose was born in Lexington, Illinois and orphaned when she was 13 years old. She studied philosophy and mathematics at Millikin University (1924–28). After completing her PhD at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1932, she went to Cambridge University (Newnham College) to study with G. E. Moore and Ludwig Wittgenstein, where she earned a second PhD in 1938.

Wittgenstein

Having become a close disciple of Wittgenstein, Ambrose later related her association with him in Ludwig Wittgenstein: Philosophy and Language (1972), a volume co-edited with her husband Morris Lazerowitz. Along with fellow student Margaret MacDonald she secretly (since he did not allow this) made notes during Wittgenstein's lectures, which were later published. She was one of a select group of students to whom Wittgenstein dictated the so-called Blue and Brown Books, which outline the transition in Wittgenstein's thought between his two major works, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus and Philosophical Investigations. There is also the so-called Yellow Book which consists of notes taken by Ambrose and Margaret Masterman during the intervals between the dictation of the Blue Book.

Wittgenstein terminated their association abruptly in 1935, when Ambrose decided, with encouragement from G. E. Moore, to publish an article entitled "Finitism in Mathematics" in the philosophical journal Mind which was intended to give an account of Wittgenstein's position on the subject.

Career Ambrose began her career at the University of Michigan, when she returned to the United States in 1935. She then took a position in Smith College in 1937, where she remained for the rest of her career. She was awarded the Austin and Sophia Smith chair in Philosophy in 1964 and became professor emeritus in 1972. Between 1953 and 1968, she was editor of the Journal of Symbolic Logic. She worked chiefly in logic and mathematical philosophy, writing a primer on the subject with her husband which became a widely used textbook and was known as "Ambrose and Lazerowitz". She collaborated with her husband on a number of works: Fundamentals of Symbolic Logic (1948), Logic: The Theory of Formal Inference (1961), Philosophical Theories (1976) and Essays in the Unknown Wittgenstein (1984). Even after her retirement she continued to teach and guest lecture at Smith, Hampshire College, the University of Delaware, and other universities around the country until her death.

Ambrose died at the age of 94, on January 25, 2001, in Northampton, Massachusetts.

Publications Books

Essays (1931) "A Critical Discussion of Mind and the World-Order", The Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 28, No. 14 (Jul. 2, 1931), pp. 365-381. (1933) "A Controversy in the Logic of Mathematics", The Philosophical Review, Vol. 42, No. 6 (Nov., 1933), pp. 594-611. (1942) "Moore's "Proof of an External World"", in Paul Schilpp (ed.) The Philosophy of G.E. Moore, Volume 2. (1946) "The Problem of Justifying Inductive Inference", The Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 44, No. 10 (May 8, 1947), pp. 253-272. (1950) "The Problem of Linguistic Inadequacy", in: Black, Max (ed) Essays in Analysis, pp.14–35 (1952) "Linguistic Approaches to Philosophical Problems", The Journal of Philosophy, vol. 49, no. 9, pp. 289–301 (1955) "Wittgenstein on Some Questions in Foundations of Mathematics", The Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 52, No. 8 (Apr. 14, 1955), pp. 197-214. (1960) "Three Aspects of Moore's Philosophy", The Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 57, No. 26 (Dec. 22, 1960), pp. 816-824. (1963) "Austin's 'Philosophical Papers'", Philosophy, Vol. 38, No. 145 (Jul., 1963), pp. 201-216. (1966) “Wittgenstein on Universals” in W. E. Kennick and M. Lazerowitz (eds.) Metaphysics: Readings and Reappraisals, ch. 7. (1967) "On Criteria of Literal Significance", Crítica: Revista Hispanoamericana de Filosofía, Vol. 1, No. 1 (Jan., 1967), pp. 49-76. (1968) "The Revolution in Philosophy: From the Structure of the World to the Structure of Language", The Massachusetts Review, vol. 9, no. 3, pp. 551–64 (1970) "Philosophy, language and illusion" in Hanly, Charles; Lazerowitz, M (ed.) Psychoanalysis and Philosophy pp.14-34 (1972) “Ludwig Wittgenstein: A Portrait”. In Ludwig Wittgenstein: Philosophy and Language, edited by A. Ambrose and M. Lazerowitz, pp. 13-25. (1976) (1977) "The Yellow Book Notes in Relation to "The Blue Book"", Crítica: Revista Hispanoamericana de Filosofía, Vol. 9, No. 26 (Aug. 1977), pp. 3-23. (1982) "Wittgenstein on Mathematical Proof", Mind, Vol. 91, No. 362 (Apr., 1982), pp. 264-272. (1984) "Free Will" (with M. Lazerowitz), Crítica: Revista Hispanoamericana de Filosofía, Vol. 16, No. 48 (Dec., 1984), pp. 3-17. (1989) "Moore and Wittgenstein as Teachers", Teaching Philosophy 12(2): 107–113. .