A Philosophical Investigation: A Novel
Reprint 2010
British Author Philip Kerr is probably best known for his Bernard Gunther novels Berlin Noir (March Violets [1989], The Pale Criminal [1990], A German Requiem [1991]), The One From the Other (2006), A Quiet Flame (2008), and If The Dead Rise Not (2009). Kerr has written many other books on various subject like Hitler's Peace (2005) and Dark Matter: The Private Life of Sir Isaac Newton (2003). Kerr has really only come into his own in the latter two Gunther novels and the present A Philosophical Investigation, originally published in 1993, shows a Philip Kerr still in development.
That is not to say that it is not interesting, it is. He does for the crime procedural what Umberto Eco did for the period piece. A Philosophical Investigation occurs in 2013 London (20 years in the future from 1993) pitting New Scotland Yard Chief Inspector Isadora "Jake" Jakowicz against a serial killer given the nom de plume Ludwig Wittgenstein as the result of a neurobiological program call the Lombroso program, which identifies possible future offenders based on the absence of a certain brain structure.
The plot plods but never so slowly to lose interest. Kerr weaves in broad philosophical discussions on semantics, epistemology, and post-modernism into the narrative and provides a succinct history of philosophy in a "lecture" given Inspector Jakowicz by the suspect, who speaks in terms of one philosopher killing those he or she replaces:
Would that Descartes had been killed says Thomas Hobbs was a fine subject for murder. Certainly one might have counted on Leibniz being murdered. Kant narrowly escaped being murdered. And, despite what is commonly held, De Quincy reveals not only the Spinoza met a violent and well deserved end, but also that Bishop Berkeley murdered Pere Malebranche by means of an argument which deranged his liver.
Today it is even more obvious just how much good can result from the murder of one dusty, arid, old philosopher. Both Marx and Freud were murdered by Jaspers. Bertrand Russell and G.E. Moore should have been murdered by Wittgenstein, as Ramsey certainly was. Heidegger died very properly at the hands of A.J. Ayer. It can be argued that Quine may indeed have murdered Strawson, however if he did, it could only have been with the assistance of Skinner. And Chomsky, well Chomsky may turn out to have killed nearly everyone he came into contact with...
Yes, that is much fun. The book is a bit of a push and is anticlimactic. I does offer a slightly dystopian view that may not be too much off the mark considering the present social and political climate. By all means, read the book. Just don't expect a post-war Bernard Gunther.
