19 Facts About Rush Rhees

Rush Rhees is principally known as a student, friend, and literary executor of the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein.

Rush Rhees was born on 19 March 1905 in Rochester, New York.

Rush Rhees was the son of Harriet Chapin nee Seelye and her husband Rush Rhees, a Baptist minister, author and president of the University of Rochester and, via the latter, the great-great-grandson of the radical Welsh-born preacher and pamphleteer Morgan John Rhys.

Rush Rhees began studying philosophy at Rochester, aged 16, in 1922.

Rush Rhees would withdraw from the university and leave for Scotland soon after.

Rush Rhees matriculated at the University of Edinburgh later in 1924 where he was particularly influenced by John Anderson.

Rush Rhees was influenced by Anderson's left-wing social philosophy among other things, a sympathy he maintained for the rest of his life.

Rush Rhees graduated with a first-class honours degree in philosophy there in 1928.

Rush Rhees then studied with Brentano scholar Alfred Kastil at the University of Innsbruck for a year.

Rush Rhees impressed Moore, who once described him as his ablest student, although Rush Rhees proved unable to submit a dissertation.

Rush Rhees returned to Manchester as a temporary Assistant Lecturer in 1937 then left academia to work as a welder in a factory until 1940.

Rush Rhees taught philosophy at Swansea University from 1940 to 1966.

Rush Rhees was responsible for editing but developing the legacy left by Wittgenstein, at times emphasising religious and ethical understandings of Wittgenstein's work, reflecting how Wittgenstein himself sometimes said he wanted to be understood.

Rush Rhees was influential in bringing the work of other philosophers to greater attention, notably for example the French philosopher, Simone Weil.

Rush Rhees returned to Swansea in 1982 after the death of his first wife Jean Henderson.

At Swansea Rush Rhees continued to teach, leading weekly post-graduate seminars from 1983 and, in the Cambridge tradition, welcoming a few students in 'at home' sessions for more detailed discussions of their research work.

Rush Rhees attended weekly meetings of the University's Philosophical Society that he had founded around 1940.

Rush Rhees was self-effacing of his capacities and had to be persuaded to accept an honorary professorship at Swansea where he had previously turned down promotion during his teaching career.

Rush Rhees died on 22 May 1989, and is buried at Oystermouth Cemetery in Mumbles near Swansea.