Bertrand Russell

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Bertrand Russell, Mathematician / Philosopher

Bertrand Russell
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Born: 18 May 1872
Birthplace: Trelleck, Wales
Died: 2 February 1970
Best Known As: The deep-thinking co-author of Principia Mathematica

While teaching mathematics at Cambridge University, Bertrand Russell and Alfred North Whitehead published Principia Mathematica (1910-13), an ambitious attempt to prove that mathematics was grounded in logic. Russell's ideas led to the dominance of analytical logic on western philosophy in the 20th century. An active social reformer, he also wrote on politics, religion and education, and his vocal protests against World War I led to a brief jail sentence in 1918. Although he supported British aims in World War II, later in life Russell became an outspoken advocate of nuclear disarmament. With his graying hair, impish grin, and ubiquitous pipe, Russell also became a 20th-century image of unorthodox genius.

Russell won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1950, "in recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought"... Russell's grandfather, Lord John Russell, was twice Prime Minister of England, from 1846-52 and from 1865-66; he was the first Earl Russell... Bertrand Russell became the third Earl Russell after his brother died in 1931... He was married four times and had a reputation as a ladies' man.

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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia:

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Bertrand (Arthur William) Russell, 3rd Earl Russell

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Bertrand Russell, 1960 (credit: Courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation, London)

(born May 18, 1872, Trelleck, Monmouthshire, Eng. — died Feb. 2, 1970, near Penrhyndeudraeth, Merioneth, Wales) British logician and philosopher. He is best known for his work in mathematical logic and for his advocacy on behalf of a variety of social and political causes, especially pacifism and nuclear disarmament. He was born into the British nobility as the grandson of Earl Russell, who was twice prime minister of Britain in the mid-19th century. He studied mathematics and philosophy at Cambridge University, where he came under the influence of the idealist philosopher J.M.E. McTaggart, though he soon rejected idealism in favour of an extreme Platonic realism. In an early paper, "On Denoting" (1905), he solved a notorious puzzle in the philosophy of language by showing how phrases such as "The present king of France," which have no referents, function logically as general statements rather than as proper names. Russell later regarded this discovery, which came to be known as the "theory of descriptions," as one of his most important contributions to philosophy. In The Principles of Mathematics (1903) and the epochal Principia Mathematica (3 vol., 1910 – 13), which he wrote with Alfred North Whitehead, he sought to demonstrate that the whole of mathematics derives from logic. For his pacifism in World War I he lost his lectureship at Cambridge and was later imprisoned. (He would abandon pacifism in 1939 in the face of Nazi aggression.) Russell's best-developed metaphysical doctrine, logical atomism, strongly influenced the school of logical positivism. His later philosophical works include The Analysis of Mind (1921), The Analysis of Matter (1927), and Human Knowledge: Its Scope and Limits (1948). His A History of Western Philosophy (1945), which he wrote for a popular audience, became a best-seller and was for many years the main source of his income. Among his many works on social and political topics are Roads to Freedom (1918); The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism (1920), a scathing critique of Soviet communism; On Education (1926); and Marriage and Morals (1929). In part because of the controversial views he espoused in the latter work, he was prevented from accepting a teaching position at the City College of New York in 1940. After World War II he became a leader in the worldwide campaign for nuclear disarmament, serving as first president of the international Pugwash Conferences on nuclear weapons and world security and of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. In 1961, at the age of 89, he was imprisoned for a second time for inciting civil disobedience. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1950.

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Scientist:

Bertrand Arthur William Russell, third earl Russell

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British philosopher and mathematician (1872–1970)

Russell, who was born at Trelleck, England, was orphaned at an early age and brought up in the home of his grandfather, the politician Lord John Russell. He was educated privately before attending Cambridge University (1890), from which he graduated (1893) in mathematics. In 1895 he became a fellow and lecturer at Cambridge. His work after 1920 was mainly devoted to the development of his philosophical and political opinions. He became well known for his popularization of many areas of philosophy and also, in works such as The ABC of Atoms (1923) and The ABC of Relativity (1925), of the new trends in scientific thought. For his writings he was awarded the 1950 Nobel Prize for literature. He succeeded his brother to become the 3rd Earl Russell in 1931. Throughout much of his life Russell was an intense advocate of pacifism and during World War I he was imprisoned for expressing these views. Later, in the 1950s and 1960s, he became a central figure in the movements criticizing the use of the atomic bomb, leading demonstrations and mass sit-downs and becoming president of the British Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in 1958.

At Cambridge Russell became interested in the relatively new discipline of mathematical logic in which he was to be a pioneer. With Guiseppe Peano he was one of the few to recognize the genius of Gottlob Frege and his new system of logic. In 1902 he wrote to Frege, presenting what is now known as Russell's paradox, and asking how Frege's system would deal with it. (Unfortunately, as Frege acknowledged, the system could not accommodate it.) The paradox is one of the paradoxes of set theory and rests on the (then ill-defined) notion of a set. Some sets are members of themselves (the set of all sets is an example because it is itself a set; the set of cats is not an example, as it is not itself a cat). Consider the set of all sets that are not members of themselves: is it a member of itself? If it is, it is not and vice versa. To avoid such paradoxes Russell formulated his logical theory of types. In 1903 he began his collaboration with A. N. Whitehead on their ambitious, if not entirely successful, project of placing mathematics on a sound axiomatic footing by deriving it from logic. This culminated in the publication of Principia Mathematica (1910, 1912, 1913), containing major advances in logic and the philosophy of mathematics.

Biography:

Bertrand Arthur William Russell

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The British mathematician, philosopher, and social reformer Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3d Earl Russell (1872-1970), made original and decisive contributions to logic and mathematics and wrote with distinction in all fields of philosophy.

Bertrand Russell was born at Ravenscroft, Monmouthshire, Wales, on May 18, 1872, into an aristocratic family with many distinguished and some eccentric members. By the time he was 4 years old, his parents were dead, and his paternal grandparents, overturning his parents' will specifying that the child be reared by two atheist friends, became his guardians. Russell's grandfather, Lord John Russell, twice prime minister to Queen Victoria, died 3 years later, and young Bertrand was left in the care of his grandmother, a lady of strict puritanical moral views who nevertheless gave him great affection and "that feeling of safety that children need."

Early Life and Education

Russell's early education was provided at home by tutors, and in retrospect he found his childhood a happy one. In adolescence, however, he experienced intense loneliness, relieved by "one of the great events of my life, as dazzling as first love." His brother introduced him to the Elements of Euclid. "I had not imagined there was anything so delicious in the world. From that moment until [Alfred North] Whitehead and I finished Principia Mathematica, when I was 38, mathematics was my chief interest and my chief source of happiness."

At Trinity College

When he was 18 years old, Russell entered Trinity College, Cambridge. Alfred North Whitehead was the first to sense Russell's extraordinary talent, and he quickly undertook to sponsor Russell among the Cambridge literati. In his second year at Cambridge Russell was elected to the Apostles, a weekly discussion group that since 1820 has included among its members many of the people of intellectual eminence at Cambridge. There he met and formed close friendships with, among others, G. Lowes Dickinson, G. E. Moore, and John McTaggart, and a little later with John Maynard Keynes and Lytton Strachey. Of his generation at Cambridge, Russell later wrote, "We believed in ordered progress by means of politics and free discussion."

After graduation Russell stayed on at Cambridge as a fellow of Trinity College and lecturer in philosophy. In 1916 he was dismissed because of a scandal over his conviction and fine for writing about the case of a conscientious objector in World War I. His association with Cambridge meant a great deal to Russell, and he was deeply wounded by its abrupt termination.

First Marriage and Mathematical Writings

In 1894, after overcoming the opposition of his family, Russell married an American girl, Alys Pearsall Smith. The first years of their marriage were largely spent traveling in Europe and in the United States, where Russell gave some lectures. From this period his first book, comprising a set of lectures on German socialism, and his fellowship dissertation, An Essay on the Foundations of Geometry, date. The latter work established Russell's reputation. The year 1900 was another turning point for Russell, for at the International Congress of Philosophy, he met Giuseppe Peano, the Italian mathematical theorist, and immediately saw the significance of Peano's work. Enormously stimulated, he began to rethink his own ideas about the fundamental notions of mathematics, and during the fall of 1900 he finished most of his first major work, The Principles of Mathematics. "Intellectually," he later wrote, "this was the highest point of my life."

A few years later Russell's views on mathematics deepened further, and he became "reluctantly convinced" that mathematics consists of tautologies. With Whitehead he undertook the enormous project of trying to show that mathematics - in particular, arithmetic, but in principle, all mathematics - was an extension of logic, that no underived concepts and no unproved assumptions need be introduced other than those of pure logic. The results were published as Principia Mathematica in three volumes (1910-1913). Russell and Whitehead each had to put up £50 toward publication costs. In spite of mistakes and later improvements, the work remains a landmark in the history of mathematics.

While serving a 6-month prison term in 1918 for writing an article about the British government and the American army that was judged libelous, Russell wrote his Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy. But Russell's interest was deflected from these abstract topics by the "vast suffering" caused by World War I; in the face of this tragedy his earlier work now seemed to him "thin and rather trivial." Increasingly thereafter, Russell's work showed a marked reformist bent. Seldom, indeed, has a philosopher shown such a sense of social responsibility.

Theory of Knowledge and Metaphysics

Russell's views in epistemology and metaphysics, though influential, show less originality than his work on logic and on social questions. His views in these fields constitute, in effect, refinements or further developments in the tradition of British empiricism. Following a principle that he called the supreme maxim in scientific philosophy, "Wherever possible substitute constructions out of known entities for inferences to unknown entities," Russell argued that one's own private sense-data were the things most directly known. In Our Knowledge of the External World Russell tried to show that physical objects are logical constructions out of actual and possible sense-data. In his Analysis of Mind (1921) Russell went still further to argue that from sense-data, regarded as neutral elements, one can construct both mind and matter.

In his Inquiry into Meaning and Truth and Human Knowledge: Its Scope and Limits, Russell offered provocative opinions about the ways truth claims can be assessed, and he outlined a set of principles for use in defending the validity of inductive reasoning.

Travel and Controversy

After World War I Russell visited China and the Soviet Union. Initially sympathetic to the Bolshevik Revolution, he quickly saw its threat to the value he prized above all others - liberty - and he wrote a book, The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism, that proved prophetic regarding the developing course of the Russian Revolution. Russell also stood three times for election to Parliament, each time unsuccessfully.

In 1927, with his second wife, Dora, Russell founded a progressive school at Beacon Hill. There he tested the educational theories propounded in his books Education Especially in Early Childhood and Education and the Social Order (1932).

In the late 1930s Russell lectured frequently in the United States, and in 1940 he was appointed to teach at the College of the City of New York. Immediately he was subjected to a barrage of criticism in the American press by clergymen and city officials. These worthies had been offended by Russell's advocacy, in Marriage and Morals (1929), of temporary marriages for college students. A New York Supreme Court judge voided Russell's appointment on the grounds that he was an alien and an advocate of sexual immorality.

In the wake of this scandal Russell was offered a lectureship by the Barnes Foundation in Merion, Pa. The lectures prepared for this position formed the basis of Russell's History of Western Philosophy (1945), perhaps his most widely circulated book. However, in 1943 Russell was summarily dismissed from his Barnes post under circumstances that enabled him to bring a successful suit for redress of grievances.

Radical Sage

In 1944 Russell returned to England and was reelected a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. Honors began to pour in upon him. He was made an honorary fellow of the British Academy in 1949, and in the same year he received the Order of Merit. In 1950 Russell won the Nobel Prize for literature, being cited for "his many-sided and significant writings, in which he appeared as the champion of humanity and freedom of thought."

Russell had abandoned his pacifism at the outset of World War II, but immediately thereafter he resumed his activities in the peace movement. He led the "Ban the Bomb" fight in England, taking part in a sit-down demonstration at the age of 89, for which he served a 7-day jail sentence. Russell tried to intervene in the Cuban missile crisis, and he vigorously opposed American involvement in Vietnam.

Russell was an essentially shy man, yet brilliant and witty in conversation. He had a remarkable capacity for friendship. Though unhappy in his first three marriages, he finally found, late in life, "ecstasy and peace" in his fourth marriage, to Edith Finch in 1952. Although frail in appearance, he was vigorous and active throughout most of his life, embroiled in social and political controversies to the very end. He died at Penrhyndendraeth, Wales, on Feb. 2, 1970.

Bertrand Russell

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(1872-1970) English philosopher and political activist. Russell's main philosophical achievements are in the areas of logic and mathematics. Nevertheless, he became the best-known philosopher of his time because of the volume and clarity of his writing, and the vigour and prominence of his political activism.

If anybody could be said to be born to Liberalism, Russell could. His grandfather was Lord John Russell, a former Liberal Prime Minister; and his secular ‘godfather’ (a non-Christian appointed by Russell's non-Christian parents) was John Stuart Mill. Many of Russell's political causes (such as support for female suffrage and opposition to the First World War) may be regarded as classically liberal; and so, in a sense, may his leading role in CND in the early 1960s and even his fierce opposition to the American involvement in Vietnam in the late 1960s. Russell was not a lifelong pacifist; for a short period after the Second World War he believed that, rather than allow the Soviet Union to acquire nuclear weapons which could lead to a war in which human life was wiped out or almost so, the United States and its allies should be prepared to go to war, atomic war if need be, against the Soviet Union. As Alan Ryan put it in Bertrand Russell: A Political Life (1988), ‘Russell was not a pacifist, because he was a consequentialist’. This does not debar him from being viewed as the last Victorian Liberal.

British History:

Bertrand Russell

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Russell, Bertrand, 3rd Earl Russell (1872-1970). In his long and complex life, Russell took many roles. After a distinguished mathematics and philosophy course at Trinity College, Cambridge, he was elected to a fellowship. His major early work was Principles of Mathematics, written by 1910 but not published until 1930. During the First World War Russell's pacifist activities resulted in the loss of his fellowship. In the inter-war years he lectured and wrote copiously, and was increasingly tempted to set up as sage. In 1938 he took an academic post in America and stayed there for most of the Second World War. His History of Western Philosophy (1945)sold well and removed his financial troubles. He was given the OM (1949) and the Nobel prize for literature (1950). From 1954 onwards he took a prominent part in the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. His judgement became foolish and he declared that Harold Macmillan was worse than Hitler.

Philosophy Dictionary:

Bertrand Arthur William Russell

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Russell, Bertrand Arthur William (1872-1970) English philosopher. Russell was born into the liberal and aristocratic family descended from the Prime Minister, John Russell, and educated first at home, and then from 1890 at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he read mathematics. From an early age, and especially after meeting the mathematician G. Peano (1848-1932) in 1900, his interests were devoted to the foundations of mathematics. The Principles of Mathematics was published in 1902, a year after the discovery of Russell's paradox. After a period spent wrestling with the problem, Russell propounded the theory of definite descriptions and the theory of types, which were central elements in his own solution. From 1907 to 1910 he worked in collaboration with Whitehead for ten to twelve hours a day for eight months of the year on Principia Mathematica, published in three volumes, 1910-13. During this period he also laid the foundations of his life as a radical, active, liberal intellectual, beginning by standing as a suffragist candidate for Parliament. During the First World War he was imprisoned for six months for publishing the statement that American soldiers would be employed as strike-breakers in Britain, ‘an occupation to which they were accustomed when in their own country’.

After the war, Russell visited Russia and lived for a period in China. During the 1920s his principal philosophical works included The Analysis of Mind (1921) and The Analysis of Matter (1927), although he also published a large number of popular and semi-popular works on social and moral issues. He opened and ran a school, but from 1938 to 1944 taught at a number of American universities, including Chicago and the university of California at Los Angeles. He was however denied employment by the City College of New York, on the grounds that he was morally unsuitable. In a famous ensuing law-suit his works were described as ‘lecherous, libidinous, lustful, venerous, erotomaniac, aphrodisiac, irreverent, narrowminded, untruthful, and bereft of moral fiber’. During the Second World War he wrote the History of Western Philosophy (1945). Human Knowledge's Scope and Limits (1948) is Russell's last important philosophical book, but by this time he was a world-famous symbol of philosophy and its radical potential. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1950, and as the unmistakable patriarch of the liberal academic world spent the rest of his life actively campaigning for nuclear disarmament.

Russell's philosophy is generally felt to have reached its peak in the first two decades of the 20th century. The seminal work on the foundations of mathematics is accompanied by lucid work on truth and its basis in experience; the theory of definite descriptions provided the logical background to an epistemology based on the distinction between knowledge by acquaintance and knowledge by description, although the restricted role that Russell allows to acquaintance is generally thought to be problematic. By the time of Our Knowledge of the External World (1914), Russell was convinced that scientific philosophy required analysing many objects of belief as ‘logical constructions’ or ‘logical fictions’, and the programme of analysis that this inaugurated dominated the subsequent philosophy of logical atomism, and then the work of Carnap and the logical positivists. In The Analysis of Mind, the mind itself is treated, in a fashion reminiscent of Hume, as no more than the collection of neutral perceptions or sense data that make up the flux of conscious experience, and that looked at another way also make up the external world (neutral monism). In his early period Russell is content with extending his realism to universals, but An Inquiry into Meaning and Truth (1940) represents a more empiricist approach to the problem.

In his general philosophical approach Russell was not only a realist, but also, perhaps in continued opposition to the monolithic nature of absolute idealism, a pluralist and foundationalist, intent upon bringing the resources of modern logic to a basic empiricism. He had little sympathy with any movement away from those ideas, as, for instance, it developed from the later work of Wittgenstein. Russell was a gifted raconteur, and as well as his many philosophical works wrote an entertaining three-volume Autobiography (1967-9).

Columbia Encyclopedia:

Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3d Earl Russell

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Russell, Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3d Earl, 1872-1970, British philosopher, mathematician, and social reformer, b. Trelleck, Wales.

Life

The Early Years

Russell had a distinguished background: His grandfather Lord John Russell introduced the Reform Bill of 1832 and was twice prime minister; his parents were both prominent freethinkers; and his informal godfather was John Stuart Mill. Orphaned as a small child, Russell was reared by his paternal grandmother under stern puritanic rule. That experience powerfully affected his thinking on matters of morality and education. Russell studied at Trinity College, Cambridge (1890-94), where later he was a fellow (1895-1901) and a lecturer (1910-16). It was during this time that he published his most important works in philosophy and mathematics, The Principles of Mathematics (1903) and, with A. N. Whitehead, Principia Mathematica (3 vol., 1910-13), and also had as his student Ludwig Wittgenstein.

The Middle Years

World War I had a crucial effect on Russell: until that time he had thought of himself as a philosopher and mathematician. Although he had already embraced pacifism, it was in reaction to the war that he became passionately concerned with social issues. His active pacifism at the time of the war inspired public resentment, caused him to be dismissed from Cambridge, attacked by former associates, and fined by the government (which confiscated and sold his library when he refused to pay), and led finally to a six-month imprisonment in 1918. From 1916 until the late 1930s, Russell held no academic position and supported himself mainly by writing and by public lecturing. In 1927 he and his wife, Dora, founded the experimental Beacon Hill School, which influenced the development of other schools in Britain and America.

He succeeded to the earldom in 1931 and in 1938 began teaching in the United States, first at the Univ. of Chicago and then at the Univ. of California at Los Angeles. In 1941 he went to teach at the Barnes Foundation in Merion, Pa., after his appointment to the College of the City of New York was canceled as a result of a celebrated legal battle occasioned by protest against his liberal views, particularly those on sex. These views, much distorted by his critics, had appeared in Marriage and Morals (1929), where he took liberal positions on divorce, adultery, and homosexuality. In 1944 he was restored to a fellowship at Cambridge. In 1950 he received the Nobel Prize in Literature.

The Later Years

Prior to World War II, in the face of the Nazi threat, Russell abandoned his pacifist stance; but after the war he again became a leading spokesman for pacifism and especially for the unilateral renunciation (by Great Britain) of atomic weapons. In 1961 his activity in mass demonstrations to ban nuclear weapons led once more to his imprisonment. He organized, but was unable to attend, what was called the war crimes tribunal, held in Stockholm in 1967, presided over by Jean-Paul Sartre, and directed against U.S. activities in Vietnam. Almost until his death he was active in social reform.

Philosopher and Mathematician

Throughout his life his dissent had scorned easy popularity with either the right or the left. Untamable, he had profound trust in the ultimate power of rationality, which he voiced with an undogmatic but quenchless zeal. Philosophically and ethically Russell's thought grew in reaction against the extremes he encountered. He answered the idealism of F. H. Bradley and J. M. E. McTaggart with a logical atomism founded on a rigorous empirical base: he was deeply convinced of the logical independence of individual facts and the dependence of knowledge on the data of original experience. His emphasis on logical analysis influenced the course of British philosophy in the 20th cent.

One of his most important notions was that of the logical construct, the realization that an object normally thought of as a unity was actually constructed from various, discrete, simpler empirical observations. The technique of logical constructionism was first employed in his mathematical theory. Under the influence of the symbolic logic of Giuseppe Peano, Russell tried to show that mathematics could be explained by the rules of formal logic. His demonstration involved showing that mathematical entities could be "constructed" from the less problematic entities of logic. Later he applied the technique to concepts such as physical objects and the mind.

Although he came to have misgivings about logical atomism and never assented to all the propositions of empiricism, he never ceased trying to base his thought-mathematical, philosophical, or ethical-not on vague principle but on actual experience. This can be seen in his pacifism as well as in his philosophy: he objected to specific wars in specific circumstances. So, in the circumstances preceding World War II he could abandon pacifism and, following the war, resume it.

Similarly, in ethics he described himself as a relativist. Good and evil he saw to be resolvable in (or constructed from) individual desires. He did distinguish, however, between what he called "personal" and "impersonal" desires, those founded mainly on self-interest and those formed regardless of self-interest. He admitted difficulties with this ethical stance, as well as with his logical atomism. As much as anything, his thought was characterized by a pervasive skepticism, toward his own thought as well as that of others.

Social Reformer

As with his philosophical stance, Russell's positions on social issues developed as a reaction against extremes in his own experience. He believed that cruelty and an admiration for violence grew from inward or outward defects that were largely an outcome of what happened to people when they were very young. Pacifism could not be effected politically; a peaceful and happy world could not be achieved without deep changes in education. "I believe that nine out of ten who have had a conventional upbringing in their early years have become in some degree incapable of a decent and sane attitude toward marriage and sex generally."

His objections to religion were similarly based. What he tried to draw attention to was the destructiveness of accepting propositions on faith-in the absence of, or even in opposition to, evidence. "The important thing is not what you believe, but how you believe it." The person who bases his belief on reason will support it by argument and be ready to abandon the position if the argument fails. Belief based on faith concludes that argument is useless and resorts to "force either in the form of persecution or by stunting and distorting the minds of the young whenever [it] has the power to control their education."

If Russell's logic was not always unassailable, his life showed that ethical relativism could be combined with a passionate social conscience, and that passionate commitment could be stated without dogmatism. In his autobiography (3 vol., 1967-69) Russell summarized his personal philosophy by saying, "Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind."

Bibliography

See American Civil Liberties Union, The Story of the Bertrand Russell Case (1941); J. Dewey and H. M. Kallen, ed., The Bertrand Russell Case (1941, repr. 1972); D. F. Pears, Bertrand Russell and the British Tradition in Philosophy (1967); E. D. Klemke, ed., Essays on Bertrand Russell (1970); J. Watling, Bertrand Russell (1970); A. J. Ayer, Russell and Moore: The Analytic Heritage (1971) and Bertrand Russell (1972); R. Jager, The Development of Bertrand Russell's Philosophy (1972); R. Monk, Bertrand Russell: The Spirit of Solititude, 1872-1921 (1996) and Bertrand Russell: The Ghost of Madness, 1921-1970 (2001).

World of the Mind:

third Earl Russell Bertrand Arthur William Bertrand Arthur William Russell

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(1872–1970)
By general consent the most distinguished philosopher of the 20th century, Bertrand Russell made fundamental contributions to logic, and influenced equally academic and popular philosophy, as well as appreciation of psychological issues and social questions. Starting from a broadly idealist philosophical position (The Problems of Philosophy, 1912), he became a thoroughgoing empiricist, after the manner of John Locke, in later books such as Human Knowledge: Its Scope and Limits (1948). His work on the place of the individual in society included the first of the BBC Reith lectures, Authority and the Individual (1949).

Russell also wrote on the philosophy of physics (The A.B.C. of Relativity, 1935, 1958). His main works on the basis of logic and mathematics are The Principles of Mathematics (1903) and, with A. N. Whitehead, Principia mathematica (1910–13), which attempts to derive mathematics from logic and to resolve Frege's contradictions by means of the celebrated Theory of Types, or Theory of Classes. Among his most important philosophical contributions is his theory of descriptions, given in an article in the philosophical journal Mind (1905), 'On denoting'. This distinguished between the logical and grammatical subject of propositions, and developed a theory of meaning which was able to avoid the hitherto widespread view that the grammatical subjects of all meaningful propositions must refer to objects which in some sense exist. This is fundamental for an account of language that does not populate the world with a bizarre zoo of entities, such as glass mountains, female Popes, and all else that we can speak about, whether true or false.

Russell attempted to base physics on sensory — perceptual — experience. For him sense data (such as sensations of red, hard, extension, and so on) is the basis of all knowledge of the world and the ultimate justification and test for all empirical statements. (It is perhaps unfortunate that he did not consider phenomena of perception in any detail, for if he had, he would surely have concluded that much that we experience perceptually is not given at all directly by the senses of the eyes, the ears, and touch, but is rather itself created, much as we create explanatory concepts.)

Russell will be remembered not only for his own outstanding philosophical achievements but also for the crucially important personal encouragement that he gave to his student Ludwig Wittgenstein, who might very well have abandoned philosophy had not Russell seen the importance of the Tractatus logico-philosophicus, which appeared in 1922 and for which Russell wrote a highly significant introduction. In later life Russell gradually withdrew from his logical studies, and then from his philosophical work, towards political concerns and, especially, dedication to the cause of nuclear disarmament.

Bertrand Russell revelled in and inspired controversy: his Autobiography (3 vols., 1967–9) has the frankness one should expect from a man exulting in all aspects of life and intellect, while totally free of humbug. In spite of his unorthodox views and behaviour he received the highest honours: Fellowship of the Royal Society (1908) and the Order of Merit (1949).

Russell's main works include An Essay on the Foundations of Geometry (1897); The Principles of Mathematics (1903); 'On denoting', Mind, ns 14 (1905); with A. N. Whitehead, Principia mathematica (vol. i, 1910; 2nd edn. 1935); 'Knowledge by acquaintance and knowledge by description', Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, ns 11 (1910–11); The Problems of Philosophy (1912); Our Knowledge of the External World (1914); The Analysis of Mind (1921); The Analysis of Matter (1927); An Outline of Philosophy (1927); An Inquiry into Meaning and Truth (1940); The History of Western Philosophy (1946); Human Knowledge (1948); My Philosophical Development (1959).

(Published 1987)

— Richard L. Gregory

Bibliography

Ayer, A. J. (1972). Bertrand Russell as a Philosopher.
Monk, R. (1996). Bertrand Russell: The Spirit of Solitude.
Pears, D. (1967). Bertrand Russell and the British Tradition in Philosophy.
— — (ed.) (1972). Bertrand Russell.

Quotes By:

Bertrand Russell

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Quotes:

"All human activity is prompted by desire."

"Most people would rather die than think: many do."

"To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead."

"Although this may seem a paradox, all exact science is dominated by the idea of approximation. When a man tells you that he knows the exact truth about anything, you are safe in inferring that he is an inexact man."

"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts."

"In all affairs it's a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted."

See more famous quotes by Bertrand Russell

Wikipedia:

Bertrand Russell

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This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. The specific problem is: please cite each entry in infobox's influences and influenced fields to follow policies WP:V and WP:No original research; please also convert all bareURLs to full templated inline citations. Please improve this article if you can. (September 2009)

Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell
Russell in 1950
Full name	Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell
Born	18 May 1872(1872-05-18) Trellech, Monmouthshire, UK
Died	2 February 1970 (aged 97) Penrhyndeudraeth, Wales, UK
Era	20th century philosophy
Region	Western Philosophy
School	Analytic philosophy Nobel Prize in Literature 1950
Main interests	Ethics, epistemology, logic, mathematics, philosophy of language, philosophy of science, religion
Notable ideas	Analytic philosophy, logical atomism, theory of descriptions, knowledge by acquaintance and knowledge by description, Russell's paradox, Russell's teapot.
Influenced by Euclid · Plato · Leibniz · Hume · Shelley · Moore · Mill · Frege · Wittgenstein · Santayana · A.N. Whitehead · Paine · Peano ·^{[citation needed]}
Influenced Wittgenstein · Ayer · Carnap · Gödel · Popper · Quine · Chomsky · Austin · Kripke · Schlick · Tarski · Waismann · Davidson · Eddington · Turing · Arendt · Vuillemin · McDowell · Kumar · Evans · Chisholm · Narhar Ambadas Kurundkar · Ernest Gellner^{[citation needed]}

Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, OM, FRS (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British^[1] philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, socialist, pacifist and social critic.^[2] Although he spent the majority of his life in England, he was born in Wales, where he also died.^[3]

Russell led the British "revolt against idealism" in the early 1900s. He is considered one of the founders of analytic philosophy along with his protégé Wittgenstein and his elder Frege, and is widely held to be one of the 20th century's premier logicians.^[2] He co-authored, with A. N. Whitehead, Principia Mathematica, an attempt to ground mathematics on logic. His philosophical essay "On Denoting" has been considered a "paradigm of philosophy."^[4] Both works have had a considerable influence on logic, mathematics, set theory, linguistics, and philosophy.

He was a prominent anti-war activist, championing free trade between nations and anti-imperialism.^[5]^[6] Russell was imprisoned for his pacifist activism during World War I, campaigned against Adolf Hitler, for nuclear disarmament, criticised Soviet totalitarianism and the United States of America's involvement in the Vietnam War.^[7]

In 1950, Russell was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, "in recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought."^[8]

Biography

Ancestry

Bertrand Russell was born on 18 May 1872 at Cleddon Hall, Trellech, Monmouthshire, Wales, into a liberal family of the British aristocracy.

His paternal grandfather, John Russell, 1st Earl Russell, was the third son of John Russell, 6th Duke of Bedford, and had twice been asked by Queen Victoria to form a government, serving her as Prime Minister in the 1840s and 1860s.^[9]

Bertrand Russell's father, John Russell, Viscount Amberley

The Russells had been prominent in England for several centuries before this, coming to power and the peerage with the rise of the Tudor dynasty. They established themselves as one of Britain's leading Whig (Liberal) families, and participated in every great political event from the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1536–40 to the Glorious Revolution in 1688–89 to the Great Reform Act in 1832.^[9]^[10]

Russell's mother Katherine Louisa (1844–1874) was the daughter of Edward Stanley, 2nd Baron Stanley of Alderley, and was the sister of Rosalind Howard, Countess of Carlisle.^[7]

Russell's parents were radical for their times. Russell's father, Viscount Amberley, was an atheist and consented to his wife's affair with their children's tutor, the biologist Douglas Spalding. Both were early advocates of birth control at a time when this was considered scandalous.^[11] John Russell's atheism was evident when he asked the philosopher John Stuart Mill to act as Russell's secular godfather.^[12] Mill died the year after Russell's birth, but his writings had a great effect on Russell's life.

Childhood and adolescence

Russell had two siblings: Frank (nearly seven years older than Bertrand), and Rachel (four years older). In June 1874 Russell's mother died of diphtheria, followed shortly by Rachel's death. In January 1876, his father also died after bronchitis following a long period of depression. Frank and Bertrand were placed in the care of their staunchly Victorian grandparents, who lived at Pembroke Lodge in Richmond Park. John Russell, 1st Earl Russell, his grandfather, died in 1878, and was remembered by Russell as a kindly old man in a wheelchair. As a result, his widow, the Countess Russell (née Lady Frances Elliot), was the dominant family figure for the rest of Russell's childhood and youth.^[7]^[11]

The countess was from a Scottish Presbyterian family, and successfully petitioned a British court to set aside a provision in Amberley's will requiring the children to be raised as agnostics. Despite her religious conservatism, she held progressive views in other areas (accepting Darwinism and supporting Irish Home Rule), and her influence on Bertrand Russell's outlook on social justice and standing up for principle remained with him throughout his life — her favourite Bible verse, 'Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil' (Exodus 23:2), became his motto. The atmosphere at Pembroke Lodge was one of frequent prayer, emotional repression and formality; Frank reacted to this with open rebellion, but the young Bertrand learned to hide his feelings.

Russell's adolescence was very lonely, and he often contemplated suicide. He remarked in his autobiography that his keenest interests were in sex, religion and mathematics, and that only the wish to know more mathematics kept him from suicide.^[13] He was educated at home by a series of tutors.^[8] His brother Frank introduced him to the work of Euclid, which transformed Russell's life.^[11]^[14]

Also, during these formative years, he discovered the works of Percy Bysshe Shelley. In his Autobiography, he writes: "I spent all my spare time reading him, and learning him by heart, knowing no one to whom I could speak of what I thought or felt, I used to reflect how wonderful it would have been to know Shelley, and to wonder whether I should meet any live human being with whom I should feel so much sympathy."^[15] Russell claimed that beginning at age 15, he spent considerable time thinking about the validity of Christian religious dogma, and by 18 had decided to discard the last of it.[4]

University and first marriage

Russell won a scholarship to read for the Mathematical Tripos at Trinity College, Cambridge, and commenced his studies there in 1890.^[16] He became acquainted with the younger G.E. Moore and came under the influence of Alfred North Whitehead, who recommended him to the Cambridge Apostles. He quickly distinguished himself in mathematics and philosophy, graduating with a B.A. in the former subject in 1893 and adding a fellowship in the latter in 1895.^[17]^[18]

Russell first met the American Quaker Alys Pearsall Smith when he was seventeen years old. He became a friend of the Pearsall Smith family—they knew him primarily as 'Lord John's grandson' and enjoyed showing him off—and travelled with them to the continent; it was in their company that Russell visited the Paris Exhibition of 1889 and was able to climb the Eiffel Tower soon after it was completed.^[19]

He soon fell in love with the puritanical, high-minded Alys, who was a graduate of Bryn Mawr College near Philadelphia, and, contrary to his grandmother's wishes, he married her on 13 December 1894. Their marriage began to fall apart in 1901 when it occurred to Russell, while he was out on his bicycle, that he no longer loved her. She asked him if he loved her and he replied that he didn't. Russell also disliked Alys's mother, finding her controlling and cruel. It was to be a hollow shell of a marriage and they finally divorced in 1921, after a lengthy period of separation.^[20] During this period, Russell had passionate (and often simultaneous) affairs with a number of women, including Lady Ottoline Morrell and the actress Lady Constance Malleson.^[21]

Early career

Russell began his published work in 1896 with German Social Democracy, a study in politics that was an early indication of a lifelong interest in political and social theory. In 1896, he taught German social democracy at the London School of Economics, where he also lectured on the science of power in the autumn of 1937.^[22] He was also a member of the Coefficients dining club of social reformers set up in 1902 by the Fabian campaigners Sidney and Beatrice Webb.^[23]

Russell in 1907

In 1905 he wrote the essay "On Denoting", which was published in the philosophical journal Mind. Russell became a fellow of the Royal Society in 1908.^[7] The first of three volumes of Principia Mathematica, written with Whitehead, was published in 1910, which, along with the earlier The Principles of Mathematics, soon made Russell world famous in his field. In 1911, he became acquainted with the Austrian engineering student Ludwig Wittgenstein, whom he viewed as a genius and a successor who would continue his work on logic. He spent hours dealing with Wittgenstein's various phobias and his frequent bouts of despair. This was often a drain on Russell's energy, but Russell continued to be fascinated by him and encouraged his academic development, including the publication of Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus in 1922.^[24]

First World War

During the First World War, Russell was one of a very small number of intellectuals engaged in pacifist activities, and, in 1916, he was dismissed from Trinity College following his conviction under the Defence of the Realm Act. A later conviction resulted in six months' imprisonment in Brixton prison (see Bertrand Russell's views on society).^[25] Russell was released from prison in September 1918.

Between the wars, and second marriage

In August 1920, Russell traveled to Russia as part of an official delegation sent by the British government to investigate the effects of the Russian Revolution.^[26] He met Lenin and had an hour-long conversation with him. In his autobiography, he mentions that he found Lenin rather disappointing, and that he sensed an "impish cruelty" in him. He also cruised down the Volga on a steam-ship. Russell's lover Dora Black also visited Russia independently at the same time — she was enthusiastic about the revolution, but Russell's experiences destroyed his previous tentative support for it.

Russell subsequently lectured in Beijing on philosophy for one year, accompanied by Dora. He went there with optimism and hope as China was then on a new path, among other scholars was Rabindranath Tagore, the Indian poet and also a Nobel Laureate.^[8] While in China, Russell became gravely ill with pneumonia, and incorrect reports of his death were published in the Japanese press.^[27] When the couple visited Japan on their return journey, Dora notified the world that "Mr. Bertrand Russell, having died according to the Japanese press, is unable to give interviews to Japanese journalists." The press were not amused and did not appreciate the sarcasm.^[28]

On the couple's return to England on 26 August 1921, Dora was six months pregnant, and Russell arranged a hasty divorce from Alys, marrying Dora six days after the divorce was finalised, on 27 September 1921. Their children were John Conrad Russell, 4th Earl Russell, born on 16 November 1921 and Katharine Jane Russell (now Lady Katharine Tait) born on 29 December 1923. Russell supported himself during this time by writing popular books explaining matters of physics, ethics, and education to the layman. Some have suggested that at this point he had an affair with Vivienne Haigh-Wood, first wife of T. S. Eliot.^[29]

Together with Dora, he also founded the experimental Beacon Hill School in 1927. The school was run from a succession of different locations, including its original premises at the Russell's residence, Telegraph House, near Harting, West Sussex. After he left the school in 1932, Dora continued it until 1943.^[30]^[31]

Upon the death of his elder brother Frank, in 1931, Russell became the 3rd Earl Russell. He once said that his title was primarily useful for securing hotel rooms.

Russell's marriage to Dora grew increasingly tenuous, and it reached a breaking point over her having two children with an American journalist, Griffin Barry.^[31] They separated in 1932 and finally divorced. On 18 January 1936, Russell married his third wife, an Oxford undergraduate named Patricia ("Peter") Spence, who had been his children's governess since the summer of 1930. Russell and Peter had one son, Conrad Sebastian Robert Russell, 5th Earl Russell, who became a prominent historian and one of the leading figures in the Liberal Democrat party.^[7]

Second World War

Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page. (December 2009)

Russell opposed rearmament against Nazi Germany, but in 1940 changed his view that avoiding a full scale world war was more important than defeating Hitler. He came to this conclusion on the basis that Adolf Hitler's potential of taking over all of Europe was a permanent threat to Democracy. In 1943, he adopted a stance toward large-scale warfare, "Relative Political Pacifism": War was always a great evil, but in some particularly extreme circumstances, it may be the lesser of two evils.^{[citation needed]}

Post-Second World War

Before the Second World War, Russell taught at the University of Chicago, later moving on to Los Angeles to lecture at the University of California, Los Angeles. He was appointed professor at the City College of New York in 1940, but after a public outcry, the appointment was annulled by a court judgement: his opinions (especially those relating to sexual morality, detailed in Marriage and Morals ten years earlier) made him "morally unfit" to teach at the college. The protest was started by the mother of a student who would not have been eligible for his graduate-level course in mathematical logic. Many intellectuals, led by John Dewey, protested against his treatment.^[32] Albert Einstein's often-quoted aphorism that "Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds..." originated in his open letter in support of Russell, during this time.^[33] Dewey and Horace M. Kallen edited a collection of articles on the CCNY affair in The Bertrand Russell Case. He soon joined the Barnes Foundation, lecturing to a varied audience on the history of philosophy; these lectures formed the basis of History of Western Philosophy. His relationship with the eccentric Albert C. Barnes soon soured, and he returned to Britain in 1944 to rejoin the faculty of Trinity College.^[34]

Later life

During the 1940s and 1950s, Russell participated in many broadcasts over the BBC, particularly the Third Programme, on various topical and philosophical subjects. By this time Russell was world famous outside of academic circles, frequently the subject or author of magazine and newspaper articles, and was called upon to offer up opinions on a wide variety of subjects, even mundane ones. En route to one of his lectures in Trondheim, Russell was one of 24 survivors (among a total of 43 passengers) in a aeroplane crash in Hommelvik in October 1948.^[35] History of Western Philosophy (1945) became a best-seller, and provided Russell with a steady income for the remainder of his life.

In a speech in 1948 ^[36] Russell said that if the USSR's aggression continued, it would be morally worse to go to war after the USSR possessed an atomic bomb than before they possessed one, because if the USSR had no bomb the West's victory would come more swiftly and with fewer casualties than if there were atom bombs on both sides. At that time, only the USA possessed an atomic bomb, and the USSR was pursuing an extremely aggressive policy towards the countries in Eastern Europe which it was absorbing into its sphere of influence. Many understood Russell's comments to mean that Russell approved of a first strike in a war with the USSR, including Lawson, who was present when Russell spoke. Others, including Griffin who obtained a transcript of the speech, have argued that he was merely explaining the usefulness of America's atomic arsenal in deterring the USSR from continuing its domination of Eastern Europe.

In the King's Birthday Honours of 9 June 1949, Russell was awarded the Order of Merit,^[37] and the following year he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.^[7]^[8] When he was given the Order of Merit, King George VI was affable but slightly embarrassed at decorating a former jailbird, saying that "You have sometimes behaved in a manner that would not do if generally adopted."^[38] Russell merely smiled, but afterwards claimed that the reply "That's right, just like your brother" immediately came to mind.

In 1952, Russell was divorced by Peter, with whom he had been very unhappy. Conrad, Russell's son by Peter, did not see his father between the time of the divorce and 1968 (at which time his decision to meet his father caused a permanent breach with his mother).

Russell married his fourth wife, Edith Finch, soon after the divorce, on 15 December 1952. They had known each other since 1925, and Edith had taught English at Bryn Mawr College near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, sharing a house for twenty years with Russell's old friend Lucy Donnelly. Edith remained with him until his death, and, by all accounts, their marriage was a happy, close, and loving one. Russell's eldest son, John, suffered from serious mental illness, which was the source of ongoing disputes between Russell and John's mother, Russell's former wife, Dora. John's wife Susan was also mentally ill, and eventually Russell and Edith became the legal guardians of their three daughters (two of whom were later found to have schizophrenia).

In 1962, Russell played a public role in the Cuban Missile Crisis: in an exchange of telegrams with the Soviet Union leader Nikita Khrushchev, Khrushchev warned about the imminence of war.^{[citation needed]}

Political causes

Russell spent the 1950s and 1960s engaged in various political causes, primarily related to nuclear disarmament and opposing the Vietnam war (see also Russell Vietnam War Crimes Tribunal). The 1955 Russell-Einstein Manifesto was a document calling for nuclear disarmament and was signed by 11 of the prominent nuclear physicists and intellectuals of the time.^[39] He wrote a great many letters to world leaders during this period. He was in contact with Lionel Rogosin while the latter was filming his anti-war film Good Times, Wonderful Times in the 1960s. He also became a hero to many of the youthful members of the New Left. During the 1960s, in particular, Russell became increasingly vocal about his disapproval of what he felt to be the US government's near-genocidal policies. In 1963 he became the inaugural recipient of the Jerusalem Prize, an award for writers concerned with the freedom of the individual in society.^[40] In October 1965 he tore up his Labour Party card because he feared the party was going to send soldiers to support the USA in the Vietnam War.^[7]

Final years and death

Russell published his three-volume autobiography in 1967, 1968, and 1969. On 23 November 1969 he wrote to The Times newspaper saying that the preparation for show trials in Czechoslovakia was "highly alarming". The same month he appealed to Secretary General U Thant of the United Nations to support an international war crimes commission to investigate alleged torture and genocide by the USA in South Vietnam. The following month, he protested to Alexei Kosygin over the expulsion of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn from the Writers Union.

On 31 January 1970, Russell issued a statement which condemned Israeli aggression in the Middle East and called for Israeli withdrawal from territory occupied in 1967. The statement said that:

The tragedy of the people of Palestine is that their country was "given" by a foreign power to another people for the creation of a new state. The result was that many hundreds of thousands of innocent people were made permanently homeless. With every new conflict their numbers increased. How much longer is the world willing to endure this spectacle of wanton cruelty? It is abundantly clear that the refugees have every right to the homeland from which they were driven, and the denial of this right is at the heart of the continuing conflict. No people anywhere in the world would accept being expelled en masse from their own country; how can anyone require the people of Palestine to accept a punishment which nobody else would tolerate? A permanent just settlement of the refugees in their homeland is an essential ingredient of any genuine settlement in the Middle East. We are frequently told that we must sympathise with Israel because of the suffering of the Jews in Europe at the hands of the Nazis. [...] What Israel is doing today cannot be condoned, and to invoke the horrors of the past to justify those of the present is gross hypocrisy.^[41]

—Bertrand Russell , 31 January 1970

This was Russell's final political statement or act. It was read out at the International Conference of Parliamentarians in Cairo on 3 February 1970, the day after his death.^[42]

Russell died of influenza on 2 February 1970 at his home, Plas Penrhyn, in Penrhyndeudraeth, Merionethshire, Wales. He was cremated in Colwyn Bay on 5 February 1970. In accordance with his will there was no religious ceremony; his ashes were scattered over the Welsh mountains later that year.

Self-assessment and summary of his own life

At the age of 84, Russell added a five-paragraph prologue to a new publication of his autobiography, giving a summary of the work and his life, titled WHAT I HAVE LIVED FOR.^[43]

Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course, over a deep ocean of anguish, reaching to the very verge of despair.
I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy—ecstasy so great that I would often have sacrificed all the rest of life for a few hours of this joy. I have sought it, next, because it relieves loneliness—that terrible loneliness in which one shivering consciousness looks over the rim of the world into the cold unfathomable lifeless abyss. I have sought it, finally, because in the union of love I have seen, in a mystic miniature, the prefiguring vision of the heaven that saints and poets have imagined. This is what I sought, and though it might seem too good for human life, this is what—at last—I have found.
With equal passion I have sought knowledge. I have wished to understand the hearts of men. I have wished to know why the stars shine. And I have tried to apprehend the Pythagorean power by which number holds sway above the flux. A little of this, but not much, I have achieved.
Love and knowledge, so far as they were possible, led upward toward the heavens. But always pity brought me back to earth. Echoes of cries of pain reverberate in my heart. Children in famine, victims tortured by oppressors, helpless old people a hated burden to their sons, and the whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life should be. I long to alleviate the evil, but I cannot, and I too suffer.
This has been my life. I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it again if the chance were offered me.

Titles and honours from birth

Russell held throughout his life the following styles and honours:

from birth until 1908: The Honourable Bertrand Arthur William Russell
from 1908 until 1931: The Honourable Bertrand Arthur William Russell, FRS
from 1931 until 1949: The Right Honourable The Earl Russell, FRS
from 1949 until death: The Right Honourable The Earl Russell, OM, FRS

Views

Bertrand Russell series
Russell in 1907
Bertrand Russell Views on philosophy Views on society Russell's paradox Russell's teapot Theory of Descriptions Logical atomism

Views on philosophy

Main article: Bertrand Russell's views on philosophy

Russell is generally credited with being one of the founders of analytic philosophy. He was deeply impressed by Gottfried Leibniz (1646-1716) and wrote on every major area of philosophy except aesthetics. He was particularly prolific in the field of metaphysics, the logic and the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of language, ethics and epistemology. When Brand Blanshard asked Russell why he didn't write on aesthetics, Russell replied that he didn't know anything about it, "but that is not a very good excuse, for my friends tell me it has not deterred me from writing on other subjects."^[44]

Views on society

Main article: Bertrand Russell's views on society

Political and social activism occupied much of Russell's time for most of his life, which makes his prodigious and seminal writing on a wide range of technical and non-technical subjects all the more remarkable. Russell remained politically active almost to the end of his life, writing to and exhorting world leaders and lending his name to various causes.

Notes

^ Sidney Hook, "Lord Russell and the War Crimes Trial", Bertrand Russell: critical assessments, Volume 1, edited by A. D. Irvine, (New York 1999) page 178
^ ^a ^b Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, "Bertrand Russell", 1 May 2003
^ Hestler, Anna (2001). Wales. Marshall Cavendish. p. 53. ISBN 076141195X.
^ Ludlow, Peter, "Descriptions", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2008 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = [1].
^ Richard Rempel (1979). "From Imperialism to Free Trade: Couturat, Halevy and Russell's First Crusade". Journal of the History of Ideas 40 (3): 423–443. doi:10.2307/2709246.
^ Bertrand Russell (1988) [1917]. Political Ideals. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-10907-8.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g The Bertrand Russell Gallery
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d The Nobel Foundation (1950). Bertrand Russell: The Nobel Prize in Literature 1950. Retrieved on 11 June 2007.
^ ^a ^b Bloy, Marjie, Ph.D.. "Lord John Russell (1792-1878)". http://www.victorianweb.org/history/pms/russell.html. Retrieved 2007-10-28.
^ Cokayne, G.E.; Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors. The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new ed. 13 volumes in 14. 1910–1959. Reprint in 6 volumes, Gloucester, UK: Alan Sutton Publishing, 2000.
^ ^a ^b ^c Paul, Ashley. "Bertrand Russell: The Man and His Ideas.". http://www.oocities.com/vu3ash/index.html. Retrieved 2007-10-28.
^ Russell, Bertrand and Perkins, Ray (ed.) Yours faithfully, Bertrand Russell. Open Court Publishing, 2001, p. 4.
^ The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell, p.38
^ Lenz, John R. (date unknown) (PDF). Bertrand Russell and the Greeks. http://digitalcommons.mcmaster.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1443&context=russelljournal. Retrieved 2007-10-27.
^ The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell, p.35
^ Russell, the Hon. Bertrand Arthur William in Venn, J. & J. A., Alumni Cantabrigienses, Cambridge University Press, 10 vols, 1922–1958.
^ O'Connor, J. J.; E. F. Robertson (October 2003). "Alfred North Whitehead". School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of St Andrews, Scotland. http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Whitehead.html. Retrieved 2007-11-08.
^ Griffin, Nicholas; Albert C. Lewis. "Bertrand Russell's Mathematical Education". Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, Vol. 44, No. 1.. pp. 51–71. http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0035-9149%28199001%2944%3A1%3C51%3ABRME%3E2.0.CO%3B2-Z. Retrieved 2007-11-08. (subscription required)
^ Wallenchinsky et al. (1981), "Famous Marriages Bertrand...Part 1".
^ Wallenchinsky et al. (1981), "Famous Marriages Bertrand...Part 3".
^ Kimball, Roger. "Love, logic & unbearable pity: The private Bertrand Russell". The New Criterion Vol. 11, No. 1, September 1992. The New Criterion. Archived from the original on 2006-12-05. http://web.archive.org/web/20061205032455/newcriterion.com/archive/11/sept92/brussell.htm. Retrieved 2007-11-15.
^ Simkin, John. "London School of Economics". http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/EDlse.htm. Retrieved 2007-11-16.
^ Russell, Bertrand (2001). Ray Perkins. ed. Yours Faithfully, Bertrand Russell: Letters to the Editor 1904-1969. Chicago: Open Court Publishing. p. 16. ISBN 0-8126-9449-X. http://books.google.com/books?id=EayyTTpXL-QC&pg=PA16&lpg=PA16. Retrieved 2007-11-16.
^ Russell on Wittgenstein
^ Vellacott, Jo (1980). Bertrand Russell and the Pacifists in the First World War. Brighton: Harvester Press. ISBN 0855274549.
^ "Bertrand Russell (1872-1970)". Farlex, Inc.. http://russell.thefreelibrary.com/. Retrieved 2007-12-11.
^ ""Bertrand Russell Reported Dead"" (PDF). The New York Times. 21 April 1921. http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9B01E7DB1739E133A25752C2A9629C946095D6CF&oref=slogin. Retrieved 2007-12-11.
^ Russell, Bertrand (2000). Richard A . Rempel. ed. "Uncertain Paths to Freedom: Russia and China, 1919-22". 15. Routledge. lxviii. ISBN 0415094119. http://books.google.com/books?id=qnaqY4gUyrAC&dq=mr+bertrand+russell+having+died+according+to+the+japanese+press.
^ Monk, Ray (2004; online edition, January 2008). "‘Russell, Bertrand Arthur William, third Earl Russell (1872–1970)’". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Pressmonth=September. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/35875. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/35875. Retrieved 2008-03-14. (subscription required)
^ Inside Beacon Hill: Bertrand Russell as Schoolmaster. Jespersen, Shirley ERIC# EJ360344, published 1987
^ ^a ^b ""Dora Russell"". 2007-05-12. http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/TUrussellD.htm. Retrieved 2008-02-17.
^ Leberstein, Stephen (November/December 2001). ""Appointment Denied: The Inquisition of Bertrand Russell"". Academe. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3860/is_200111/ai_n9008065/. Retrieved 2008-02-17.
^ [2] Einstein quotations and sources. Retrieved July 9, 2009.
^ ""Bertrand Russell"". 2006. http://www.philosophyprofessor.com/philosophers/bertrand-russell.php. Retrieved 2008-02-17.
^ Griffin, Nicholas (ed.) (2002). "The Selected Letters of Bertrand Russell". Routledge. p. 660. ISBN 0415260124.
^ A philosopher’s letters | Love, Bertie | Economist.com
^ London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 38628, p. 2796, 3 June 1949. Retrieved on 2008-03-11.
^ Ronald W. Clark, Bertrand Russell and His World, p94. (1981) ISBN 0-500-13070-1
^ Russell, Bertrand; Albert Einstein (1955-07-09). ""Russell Einstein Manifesto"". http://www.ppu.org.uk/learn/texts/doc_russelleinstein_manif.html. Retrieved 2008-02-17.
^ Jerusalem International Book Fair
^ Russell, Bertrand; Perkins, Ray (2002). Yours faithfully, Bertrand Russell: a lifelong fight for peace, justice, and truth in letters to the editor. Chicago: Open Court. ISBN 0-8126-9450-3.
^ Russell's last political speech
^ [3] Accessed July 23, 2009. The prologue for the autobiography was written in July, 1956.
^ Blanshard, in Paul Arthur Schilpp, ed., The Philosophy of Brand Blanshard, Open Court, 1980, p. 88, quoting a private letter from Russell.

References

Bertrand Russell. 1967–1969, The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell, 3 volumes, London: George Allen & Unwin.
Wallechinsky, David & Irving Wallace. 1975-1981, "Famous Marriages Bertrand Russell & Alla Pearsall Smith, Part 1" & "Part 3", on "Alys" Pearsall Smith, webpage content from The People's Almanac, webpages: Part 1 & Part 3 (accessed 2008-11-08).
Russell B, (1944) "My Mental Development", in Schilpp, Paul Arturn "The Philosophy of Betrand Russell", New York, Tudorm 1951, pp 3–20

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Bertrand Russell

Wikisource has original works written by or about: Bertrand Russell

Writings available online

Works by Bertrand Russell at Project Gutenberg
"Mysticism" (1961)
"A Free Man's Worship" (1903)
"Am I an Atheist or an Agnostic?" (1947)
"Has Religion Made Useful Contributions to Civilization?" 1930
"Ideas that Have Harmed Mankind" (1950)
"In Praise of Idleness" (1932)
"What Desires Are Politically Important?" (1950)
Political Ideals (1917)
The Problems of Philosophy
Proposed Roads to Freedom (1918)
"16 Questions on the Assassination" (of President Kennedy)
The Analysis Of Mind
Russell, Bertrand (1953). "What is an Agnostic?". Archived from the original on 2008-02-02. http://web.archive.org/web/20080203104023/http://www.control-z.com/pages/agnosticism.html.
Why I am not a Christian
The War and Non-Resistance—A Rejoinder to Professor Perry
War and Non-Resistance (1915)
The Ethics of War (1915)
Principia Mathematica (1910)
"The Elements of Ethics" (1910)
The Principles of Mathematics (1903)
An essay on the foundations of geometry
From: www.archive.org
- History of Western Philosophy (1946)
- My Philosophical Development (1959)
- Portraits from Memory and Other Essays (1956)
- Unpopular Essays (1950)
- Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy (1920)
- The Scientific Outlook (1954)
- An Outline of Philosophy (1951)
- Common Sense and Nuclear Warfare (1959)
- Our Knowledge of the External World (1914)
- Legitimacy Versus Industrialism 1814-1848 (1935)
- Authority and the Individual (1949)
- Education and the Social Order (1932)
- Nightmares of Eminent Persons and Other Stories (1954)
- Why Men Fight: A Method of Abolishing the International Duel (1917)
- Justice in Wartime (1917)
- Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays (1917)
- The Autobiography Of Bertrand Russell 1872-1914 (1951)
- The Autobiography Of Bertrand Russell 1914-1944 (1956)
- Is There a God? (1952)

Audio

Works by Bertrand Russell in audio format from LibriVox
Bertrand Russell Audio Archive
In Praise of Idleness^{[dead link]} free mp3 recitation of Russell's essay of the same name, from the Audio Anarchy project
Sound clips of Bertrand Russell speaking

Other

Pembroke Lodge — childhood home and museum
The Bertrand Russell Society — a member organisation of the International Humanist and Ethical Union
The Bertrand Russell Society Quarterly
The Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation
Bertrand Russell in Japan
O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Bertrand Russell", MacTutor History of Mathematics archive, University of St Andrews, http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Russell.html .
Biography and quotes of Bertrand Russell
Russell Photo Gallery
Photographs at the National Portrait Gallery
"Bertrand Russell" article by A.D. Irvine in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2003-05-01
The Bertrand Russell Archives
Resource list
The First Reith Lecture given by Russell (Real Audio)
Encyclopaedia Britannica^{[dead link]}
Nobel Prize
Russell immediate family
Lecture about 1905, the philosophical landscale of Einstein in which Russell was central^{[dead link]}
Bertrand Russell at 100 Welsh Heroes
Key Participants: Bertrand Russell - Linus Pauling and the International Peace Movement: A Documentary History

Peerage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Frank Russell	Earl Russell 1931–1970	Succeeded by John Russell

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v • d • e Nobel Laureates in Literature

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Logic

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v • d • e Metaphysics

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Metaphysicians	Parmenides · Plato · Aristotle · Plotinus · John Duns Scotus · Thomas Aquinas · René Descartes · John Locke · David Hume · Immanuel Kant · Isaac Newton · Arthur Schopenhauer · Baruch Spinoza · Georg W. F. Hegel · George Berkeley · Gottfried Leibniz · Henri Bergson · Friedrich Nietzsche · Charles Sanders Peirce · Ludwig Wittgenstein · Martin Heidegger · Alfred N. Whitehead · Bertrand Russell · Dorothy Emmet · George Edward Moore · Jean-Paul Sartre · Gilbert Ryle · Hilary Putnam · P. F. Strawson · R. G. Collingwood · Adolph Stöhr · Rudolf Carnap · Saul Kripke · Willard V. O. Quine · Donald Davidson · more ...

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Persondata
NAME	Russel, Bertrand Arthur William, 3rd Earl Russell
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	philosopher, logician, and mathematician
DATE OF BIRTH	18 May 1872(1872-05-18)
PLACE OF BIRTH	Trellech, Monmouthshire, United Kingdom
DATE OF DEATH	2 February 1970
PLACE OF DEATH	Penrhyndeudraeth, Wales, United Kingdom

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Bertrand Russell

Bertrand Russell, Mathematician / Philosopher

russell

russell

Bertrand Arthur William Russell, third earl Russell

Bertrand Arthur William Russell

Bertrand Russell

Bertrand Russell

Bertrand Arthur William Russell

Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3d Earl Russell

third Earl Russell Bertrand Arthur William Bertrand Arthur William Russell

Bertrand Russell

Bertrand Russell

Biography

Ancestry

Childhood and adolescence

University and first marriage

Early career

First World War

Between the wars, and second marriage

Second World War

Post-Second World War

Later life

Political causes

Final years and death

Self-assessment and summary of his own life

Titles and honours from birth

Views

Views on philosophy

Views on society

Further reading

Selected bibliography of Russell's books

Additional references

Russell

Secondary references

Books about Russell's philosophy

Biographical books

Notes

References

External links

russell