A Terribly Serious Adventure

Philosophy and War at Oxford, 1900-1960

By: Nikhil Krishnan

Narrated by: Kieran Hodgson

“Teeming with Oxford characters [and] lively storytelling . . . [recasts] the history of philosophy at Oxford in the mid-twentieth century by conveying not only what made it influential in its time but also what might make it vital in ours.”—The New York Times Book Review (Editors’ Choice)

“Ordinary Language can hardly convey how much I loved this book.”—Tom Stoppard, Times Literary Supplement (“Books of the Year 2023”)

A NEW YORK TIMES BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

What are the limits of language? How can philosophy be brought closer to everyday life? What is a good human being?

These were among the questions that philosophers wrestled with in mid-twentieth-century Britain, a period shadowed by war and the rise of fascism. In response to these events, thinkers such as Philippa Foot (originator of the famous trolley problem), Isaiah Berlin, Iris Murdoch, Elizabeth Anscombe, Gilbert Ryle, and J. L. Austin aspired to a new level of watchfulness and self-awareness about language as a way of keeping philosophy true to everyday experience.

A Terribly Serious Adventure traces the friendships and the rivalries, the shared preoccupations and the passionate disagreements of some of Oxford’s most innovative thinkers. Far from being stuck in their ivory towers, the Oxford philosophers lived. They were codebreakers, diplomats, and soldiers in both World Wars, and they often drew on their real-world experience in creating their greatest works, masterpieces of British modernism original in both thought and style.

Steeped in the dramatic history of the twentieth century, A Terribly Serious Adventure is an eye-opening look inside the rooms that changed how we think about our world. Shedding light on the lives and intellectual achievements of a large and spirited cast of characters, Cambridge academic Nikhil Krishnan shows us how much we can still learn from the Oxford philosophers. In our fractious, post-truth world, their acute sense of responsibility for their words, their passionate desire to get the little things right, stands as an inspiring example.

©2023 Nikhil Krishnan (P)2023 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“A Terribly Serious Adventure does something similarly subtle yet also, in a sneaky way, quite profound. . . . Only when we actually understand what others are saying can we begin to respond instead of simply react. As Krishnan puts it toward the end of the book: ‘Let no one join this conversation who is unwilling to be vulnerable.’” —The New York Times Book Review

“An entertaining family biography of Oxford philosophy from 1900 to 1960 . . . [Krishnan] has traced the connections, legacies, and disagreements among the philosophers. . . . A short review cannot do justice to the wealth of interesting detail Krishnan has collected, resulting in an engaging peek into the lives of people known mainly through their books.” —Australian Book Review

“An engrossing history of ideas. . . . delightfully bring[ing] to life the genteel atmosphere of the classic tutorial—the sweaters worn under coarse wool jackets, the spectacles, the fumbling preliminaries in elaborate British courtesy, a tray and two cups of tea, our tutor stirring tea in his cup while contemplating an undergraduate’s desperate attempt at respectability, a forgotten cigarette burning away in an ashtray, the pregnant pause, and then the interrogation.” —City Journal

It is accurate

It is always difficult to imitate accents. Getting a native speaker might help. Overall pleasant informative and well-written.

Excellent

As a graduate student in philosophy at Oxford, I found this an immersive and engaging overview of such a fascinating period in history.

Superlative history of a key era in philosophy!

This book is without doubt the liveliest evocation of past philosophical discussions I’ve ever encountered, a marvel of clarity and authentic reproduction of a key era in the history of philosophy. Although Oxford analytical philosophy is the focus, the author draws in, as contrastive material, contrary voices from other philosophers at the time (e.g., Wittgenstein, Anscombe, Ernst Gellner, Iris Murdoch, Phillipa Foote, Peter Strawson). The effect is to show both how brilliantly innovative “ordinary language” philosophy was at the time and how ultimately limited it was to a particular moment at a specific institution. Those Oxford guys thought that they had banished forever high-concept imaginings about metaphysics and moral philosophy. They may have done so successfully for a while, until the eternal return of those very same questions came to haunt the discipline once again, thanks to alternative thinkers who cast doubt on their standard analytical approach. (Ordinary language is but one phenomenon in this complex world; and there’s no reason to think that it has the final answer to everything.) The audio book is read, superlatively, by Kieran Hodgson, who has the ability to channel the King’s English, as is often needed, along with Austrian German, on occasion, and even American English, when required. In general, his reading is an exceptional bit of performative art, making the text live as though it were breaking news today. One couldn't recommend a book more highly, as might have been said back in the day.

Brilliant in every way!

Having been an undergraduate philosophy major in the early 1960s in a department heavily oriented toward the Oxford and Cambridge philosophers of the period, I looked forward to this release after reading its favorable NY Times review. What a wonderful book, brilliantly written and brilliantly narrated! I binged the audiobook over two days, and felt as though I'd been reunited with long-gone friends, both the individuals (though I'd personally been taught by only a couple of the philosophers who appear in the book) and their ideas. The descriptions of the characters' personalities are vivid, and the accounts of their ideas clear and compelling. A must read for anyone with the remotest interest in the subject.