O. K. Bouwsma, one of America's foremost Wittgensteinians, was also an extraordinarily dedicated and effective teacher. The present collection, assembled posthumously from his papers, includes twelve essays, all but one previously unpublishedand all characterized by the humor, common sense, and wisdom that marked his classroom lectures.

Ranging in subject matter from topics in Wittgenstein to Descartes to aesthetics, the pieces all show the influence of Wittgenstein. Some of the questions they raise deal with the traditional and historical background of twentieth-century philosophy "Am I...

In Without Proof or Evidence O. K. Bouwsma weaves through the central topics of Western religion: the rationality of religious belief, the nature of Christianity, the promise of eternal life, the definition of faith, and proofs of the existence of God. When he works with the problems of Descartes or Moore or Wittgenstein, surveying the marketplace of language in which we all have commerce, he has the familiarity of an experienced trader. But in his work with the problems of Anselm or Nietzsche or Kierkegaard, in which the Scriptures move between background and foreground, there is...