He completed his secondary education in Pittsburgh and studied at Harvard University between 1952 and 1956, graduating with a BA degree in philosophy.

Parts of his dissertation, Limits of Rationality: A Critical Study of Some Logical Problems of Contemporary Pragmatism and Related Movements, were subsequently published as The Retreat to Commitment in the same year.

[7] The book contained a relatively brief, 4–5 page treatment of Wittgenstein's homosexuality, relying mainly on reportage from the philosopher's friends and acquaintances.

This matter caused enormous controversy in intellectual and philosophical circles; many perceived it as a posthumous "attack" on Wittgenstein.

[8] For example one review by Reuben Goodstein criticized what he called Bartley's "vicious and unsubstantiated charge of promiscuity....written in language which is calculated to give the maximum offence both to Wittgenstein's family and to the many who knew and admired him".

He adds that "Bartley's claim to have met in the parks and bars of Vienna men who remembered chance encounters with Wittgenstein more than fifty years ago is as mischievously irresponsible as his pretence to support the charge by quotations from letters which in fact do not at all support the construction Bartley places upon them".

PCR attempts to work around the problem of ultimate commitment or infinite regress by decoupling criticism and justification.

[13] A pancritical rationalist holds all positions open to criticism, including PCR, and never resorts to authority for justification.

[15] Bartley died of bladder cancer on February 5, 1990, at his home in Oakland, California, after having been diagnosed with the disease in the middle of the preceding year.