The Man Who Thought Too Fast | The New Yorker

The Man Who Thought Too Fast | The New Yorker

The man who thought too fast

Before his life was cut short at the age of 26, Frank Ramsey made fundamental contributions to economics, mathematics and philosophy. As 17-year-old student at Cambridge University, he would converse as equals with John Maynard Keynes over long walks. Merging ethical considerations with economics, Ramsey wrote that making choices that ignore the interests of future generations is “ethically indefensible and arises merely from the weakness of the imagination”. Keynes called that paper one of the most remarkable ever written. For decades after his death, people spoke of a “Ramsey effect”, writes author Anthony Gottlieb in his review of the full biography of Ramsay, by philosopher Cheryl Misak. “You’d make a thrilling breakthrough only to find that Ramsey had got there first.”

The New Yorker | 12 min read