Ambrose, Alice (1906—)

American philosopher and author of the "Blue and Yellow Books" based on Wittgenstein's lectures. Name variations: Alice Lazerowitz. Born on November 26, 1906; graduated, B.A., Millikin University (1928); M.A., University of Wisconsin (1929), Ph.D. (1932); attended Cambridge University, 1932–1935; awarded Millikin University Honorary L.L.D., 1958; married Morris Lazerowitz.

Smith College assistant professor (1943–51); professor (1951–64); Sophia and Austin Smith professor of philosophy (1964–72); professor emeritus (1972—). Edited Journal of Symbolic Logic (1953–68).

Selected works:

among the contributors of notes from the lectures of Ludwig Wittgenstein called "The Blue and Yellow Books" (sometimes "The Blue and Brown Books") that are published as Wittgenstein's Lectures, Cambridge 1932–35; (with Morris Lazerowitz) Fundamentals of Symbolic Logic (1948); Logic: The Theory of Formal Inference (1961); (ed., with Morris Lazerowitz) Essays in Analysis (1966); G.E. Moore: Essays in Retrospect (1970); Ludwig Wittgenstein: Philosophy and Language (1972); (with Morris Lazerowitz) Philosophical Theories (1976); (with Morris Lazerowitz) Essays in the Unknown Wittgenstein (1984); and many articles in philosophical journals.

Alice Ambrose belongs to the tradition of analytic philosophy that has predominated in North America and England in the 20th century. In contrast with continental philosophy, which tries to characterize ways of being, this tradition is concerned with providing philosophical analyses of the problems of knowledge, language, logic, and the mind. After receiving her undergraduate and graduate education in the United States, culminating in a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin in 1932, Ambrose went to study with G.E. Moore and Ludwig Wittgenstein at Cambridge University from 1932–35. Her work has been influenced by both of these great philosophers. She adopts the problems of Moore, concerned with the clarity of philosophical issues, and uses the approach advocated by Wittgenstein, the analysis of ordinary language.

Ambrose has published many books and articles in the analytic tradition, some with her husband Morris Lazerowitz, and she edited the Journal of Symbolic Logic for 15 years. She is also noted historically for her part in the production of "The Blue and Yellow Books," or "The Blue and Brown Books," so called because they are based on notebooks hidden under the blue and yellow (or brown) skirts of Ambrose and her fellow student, Margaret MacDonald , during Wittgenstein's lectures. Professor Wittgenstein had prohibited the taking of notes during lectures, but Ambrose and MacDonald were defiant, scribbling down his thoughts during class breaks. Eventually, they persuaded him that the lectures should be recorded, so he allowed them to notate in the open, then publish their notes. The notebooks were widely distributed, then edited by Ambrose and published in 1958 as Wittgenstein's Lectures, Cambridge 1932–35. Wittgenstein's later philosophy opposed the views that he had published as the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, which had been very influential, and Ambrose's notes helped spread awareness of the details of Wittgenstein's new thought, as yet unpublished. Eager to receive reports of his nascent theories, philosophers in the analytic tradition took the "Blue and Yellow Books" to be more reliable than word-of-mouth.

Catherine Hundleby , M.A. Philosophy, University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada