Maurice O'Connor Drury was among Wittgenstein's first students after his return to Cambridge in 1929. The subsequent course of Drury's life and thought was to be enormously influenced by his teacher, from his decision to become a doctor to his later work in psychiatry.

The Selected Writings of Maurice O'Connor Drury brings together the best of his lectures, conversations, and letters on philosophy, religion and medicine. Central to the collection is the Danger of Words, the 1973 text described by Ray Monk as 'the most truly Wittgensteinian book published by any of Wittgenstein's students'. Through notes on conversations with Wittgenstein, letters to a student of philosophy and correspondence of almost 30 years with Rush Rhees, Drury gives shape to what he had learned from Wittgenstein. Whether discussing methods of philosophy, Simone Weil or the power of hypnosis, he makes fascinating excursions into the bearing of Wittgenstein's thought on philosophy and the practice of medicine and psychiatry.

With an introduction presenting a new biography of Drury, analysing the relationship between him and Wittgenstein, The Selected Writings of Maurice O'Connor Drury features previously unpublished archival sources. Beautifully written and carefully selected, each piece reveals the impact of Wittgenstein's teachings, shedding light on the friendship and thinking of one of the most important philosophers of the 20th century.

John Hayes is Professor of Philosophy and Dean of the Faculty of Arts at Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick, Ireland.

Paul Drury is Maurice O' Connor Drury's son and a freelance newspaper columnist and commentator. He has served as Editor of various national newspaper titles in Ireland and Managing Editor of Associated Newspapers in Ireland.

Foreword (tbc Brian McGuinness; Ray Monk; Peter Hacker; Anthony Kenny)
Introduction: Wittgenstein and Drury-Soul Mates, John Hayes

Part I. Drury's Wittgenstein
Introduction
Conversations with Wittgenstein
'A Symposium' Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Man and his Philosophy BBC Third Programme broadcast 13 January 1960 in K.T. Fann
Part II. Drury on Philosophy
Introduction
1935 Lecture: 'The Method of Philosophy'
'Lectures to a Student of Philosophy' in Desmond Lee (ed.), Philosophical Investigations, vol 6 (1983), pp. 76-102; 159-74
UCD Lecture (1967)
Selected Letters
'Fact & Hypothesis', Human World (1974)
Letters to Rhees: 2 March 1959; 28 March 1959 & May 1966.
Part III. Drury on Religion
Introduction
Letters to Rhees: e.g 16 September 1966; 8 December 1966; 25 January 1967; 5 February 1967; 5 May 1967; 10 July 1968; 15 June 1971 etc.le).
Part IV. Drury on Medicine & Psychiatry
Introduction
Danger of Words
Introductory Lectures on Hypnosis
Letters to Rhees: 11 September 1961; 10 July 1968
Brief Biographies: Anscombe; Broad; Drury Family; Frege; Lee; Malcolm; MacIver; Moore; von Wright; Rhees; Russell; Skinner; Smythies; Townsend.

Bibliography
Index