During the first decades of this century the intellectual atmosphere at Cambridge was exceptionally lively and creative. Thinkers such as the philosophers C. D. Broad, W. E. Johnson, G. E. Moore, Bertrand Russell, Ludwig Wittgenstein and the economist J. M. Keynes have had a decisive impact on modern research and social debate. Their ideas have become generally known from numbers of scholarly essays, books and biographies. But the greatest of them all is scarcely known outside a small circle of specialists. Frank Plumpton Ramsey, who died in 1930 at the age of only 26, in a series of brilliant essays laid the foundations of several new and flourishing theories in philosophy, mathematics and economics. However, not until recently, decades after Ramsey's death, have we gradually realized what unprecedented originality his work contains. When intellectual vigour began to ebb away from Cambridge in the years following his death, his genius did not show to full advantage.

My aim in this book is to give a comprehensive picture of Frank Ramsey's philosophical and scientific research. I have tried to present and discuss as straightforwardly as possible his often difficult ideas and theories, put them into a historical context and demonstrate their importance for modern research. My hope is that the reader who does not have any previous knowledge of the subjects discussed will be able to profit from the book, and that the specialist will also enjoy it.