Alice Ambrose

Alice Ambrose Lazerowitz (November 25,1906 – January 25, 2001) was an American philosopher, logician, and author.

Alice Ambrose was born in Lexington, Illinois and studied philosophy and mathematics at Millikin University. After completing her PhD at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1932, she went to Cambridge University to study with G. E. Moore and Wittgenstein, where she earned a second PhD in 1938. Having become a close disciple of Wittgenstein, she later related her association with him in "Ludwig Wittgenstein: Philosophy and Language" (1972), a volume co-edited with her husband Morris Lazerowitz. She was one of a select group of students to whom Wittgenstein dictated the so-called Blue and Brown Books, which outline the transition in Wittgenstein's thought between his two major works, "Tractatus Logico-philosophicus" and "Philosophical Investigations". Wittgenstein terminated their association abruptly in 1935 when Ambrose decided, with encouragement from Moore, to publish an article entitled "Finitism in Mathematics" in the philosophical journal "Mind" which was intended to give an account of Wittgenstein's position on the subject.

From 1937 Ambrose taught at Smith College, and in 1964 she was appointed to the chair in philosophy there. She worked chiefly in logic and mathematical philosophy, writing a primer on the subject with her husband which became a widely-used textbook and was known as "Ambrose and Lazerowitz". She retired in 1972.