In “A Terribly Serious Adventure: Philosophy and War at Oxford, 1900-1960,” Nikhil Krishnan, a philosophy professor at Cambridge, delves into the affiliations, conflicts, and intellectual disputes of prominent philosophers at Oxford during the mid-20th century. These influential thinkers, such as Gilbert Ryle, J.L. Austin, and Elizabeth Anscombe, focused on linguistic philosophy, analyzing the words we use to understand the world. Krishnan admires these philosophers as intellectual heroes and exemplars, emphasizing their virtues of humility, self-awareness, collegiality, restraint, elegance, concision, and directness. The book explores the wit and ferociousness of these philosophers in their discussions and highlights the contributions they made to both philosophy and wartime intelligence efforts.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2024/01/19/oxford-philosophy-history-book-krishnan/