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Bertrand Russell

 
Who2 Biography: Bertrand Russell, Mathematician / Philosopher
 
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Bertrand Russell
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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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.

Further Reading

Perhaps the most useful introduction to Russell's work is his Basic Writings, 1903-1959, edited by Robert E. Egner and Lester E. Dennon (1961), and his My Philosophical Development (1959). The most interesting accounts of his life are by Russell himself: a half-dozen earlier autobiographical essays were crowned by his The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell (3 vols., 1967-1969). Biographies include Alan T. Wood, Bertrand Russell: The Passionate Sceptic (1957), and Herbert Gottschalk, Bertrand Russell: A Life (1965). Russell published a great deal, and critical commentary on his work is considerable. An excellent bibliography is in Paul Schilpp, ed., The Philosophy of Bertrand Russell (1944; rev. ed., 2 vols., 1963), which also includes a large number of critical essays by eminent authors together with Russell's replies.

 
Political Dictionary: 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.

 
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Bertrand (Arthur William) Russell, 3rd Earl Russell
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Bertrand Russell, 1960
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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.

For more information on Bertrand (Arthur William) Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, visit Britannica.com.

 
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: 3d Earl Bertrand Arthur William Russell 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)

See also Russell's philosophy of mind: dualism; Russell's philosophy of mind: neutral monism.

— 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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Bertrand Russell
Western Philosophy
20th century philosophy

Russell in 1907
Full name Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell
Birth 18 May 1872(1872-05-18)
Trellech, Monmouthshire, UK
Death 2 February 1970 (aged 97)
Penrhyndeudraeth, Wales, UK
School/tradition 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.

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

Russell led the British "revolt against idealism" in the early 1900s and is considered one of the founders of analytic philosophy along with his protégé Wittgenstein and his elder Frege. 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."[2] Both works have had a considerable influence on logic, mathematics, set theory, linguistics and analytic philosophy.

He was a prominent anti-war activist, championing free trade between nations and anti-imperialism.[3][4] 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.[5]

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."[6]

Contents

Biography

Ancestry

Bertrand Russell was born on 18 May 1872 at Ravenscroft (now Cleddon Hall), Trellech, Monmouthshire.

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.[7]

Bertrand Russell's father, John Russell, Viscount Amberley

The Russells had been prominent in Britain 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.[7][8]

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.[5]

Russell's parents were quite 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.[9]

John Stuart Mill, the Utilitarian philosopher, stood as Russell's godfather. Mill died the year following Russell's birth, but his writings had a great effect upon 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, and in January 1876 his father also died of 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.[5][9]

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 mantra. 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.[10] He was educated at home by a series of tutors.[6]

His brother Frank introduced him to the work of Euclid, which transformed Russell's life.[9][11]

University and first marriage

Russell won a scholarship to read for the Mathematics Tripos at Trinity College, Cambridge, and commenced his studies there in 1890.[12] 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.[13][14]

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.[15]

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.[16] 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.[17]

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.[18] 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.[19]

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.[5] 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. The latter was often a drain on Russell's energy, but he continued to be fascinated by him and encouraged his academic development, including the publication of Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus in 1922.[20]

First World War

During the First World War, Russell 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 Activism below).[21] 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.[22] 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.[6] While in China, Russell became gravely ill with pneumonia, and incorrect reports of his death were published in the Japanese press.[23] 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.[24]

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 Vivien Eliot, wife of T. S. Eliot.[25]

Together with Dora, he also founded the experimental Beacon Hill School in 1927. After he left the school in 1932, Dora continued it until 1943.[26][27]

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.[27] 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.[5]

Second World War

After 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 his treatment.[28] 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.[29] 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.[30]

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 plane crash in Hommelvik in October 1948.[31] 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 [32] 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,[33] and the following year he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.[5][6] 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." [34] 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 diagnosed with schizophrenia).

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.[35] 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 USA 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.[36] 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.[5]

Final years and death

Russell published his three-volume autobiography in 1967, 1968, and 1969. Although he became frail, he remained lucid and clear-thinking up to the day of his death. 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.[37]

—Bertrand Russell, 31 January 1970

This was Russell's final ever 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.[38]

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.

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

Philosophical work

Russell was deeply impressed by Gottfried Leibniz (1646-1716) and produced a body of work that covers logic, the philosophy of mathematics, metaphysics, ethics and epistemology.

Analytic philosophy

Russell is one of the founders of what later became called analytic philosophy. At the beginning of the 20th century, alongside G. E. Moore, Russell was largely responsible for the British "revolt against Idealism," a philosophy greatly influenced by G. W. F. Hegel and his British apostle, F. H. Bradley.[39] This revolt was echoed 30 years later in Vienna by the logical positivists' "revolt against metaphysics". Russell was particularly critical of a doctrine he ascribed to idealism and coherentism, which he dubbed the doctrine of internal relations; this, Russell suggested, held that in order to know any particular thing, we must know all of its relations. Russell argued that this would make space, time, science and the concept of number not fully intelligible. Russell's logical work with Whitehead continued this project.[40]

Russell and Moore strove to eliminate what they saw as meaningless and incoherent assertions in philosophy. They sought clarity and precision in argument by the use of exact language and by breaking down philosophical propositions into their simplest grammatical components. Russell, in particular, saw formal logic and science as the principal tools of the philosopher. Indeed, unlike most philosophers who preceded him and his early contemporaries, Russell did not believe there was a separate method for philosophy. He believed that the main task of the philosopher was to illuminate the most general propositions about the world and to eliminate confusion. In particular, he wanted to end what he saw as the excesses of metaphysics. Russell adopted William of Ockham's principle against multiplying unnecessary entities, Occam's Razor, as a central part of the method of analysis.[41][42]

Logic and philosophy of mathematics

Russell had great influence on modern mathematical logic. The American philosopher and logician Willard Quine said Russell's work represented the greatest influence on his own work.[43][44]

Russell's first mathematical book, An Essay on the Foundations of Geometry, was published in 1897. This work was heavily influenced by Immanuel Kant. Russell later realized that the conception it laid out would make Albert Einstein's schema of space-time impossible. Thenceforth, he rejected the entire Kantian program as it related to mathematics and geometry, and rejected his own earliest work on the subject.[45]

Interested in the definition of number, Russell studied the work of George Boole, Georg Cantor, and Augustus De Morgan. Materials in the Bertrand Russell Archives at McMaster University include notes of his reading in algebraic logic by Charles Sanders Peirce and Ernst Schröder.[46] In 1900 he attended the first International Congress of Philosophy in Paris, where he became familiar with the work of the Italian mathematician, Giuseppe Peano. He mastered Peano's new symbolism and his set of axioms for arithmetic. Peano defined logically all of the terms of these axioms with the exception of 0, number, successor, and the singular term, the, which were the primitives of his system. Russell took it upon himself to find logical definitions for each of these. Between 1897 and 1903 he published several articles applying Peano's notation to the classical Boole-Schröder algebra of relations, among them On the Notion of Order, Sur la logique des relations avec les applications à la théorie des séries, and On Cardinal Numbers. He became convinced that the foundations of mathematics could be derived within what has since come to be called second-order logic which in turn he believed to include some form of unrestricted comprehension axiom.

Russell then discovered that Gottlob Frege had independently arrived at equivalent definitions for 0, successor, and number, and the definition of number is now usually referred to as the Frege-Russell definition.[citation needed] Russell drew attention to Frege's priority in 1903, when he published The Principles of Mathematics (see below).[47] The appendix to this work, however, described a paradox arising from Frege's application of second- and higher-order functions which took first-order functions as their arguments, and Russell offered his first effort to resolve what would henceforth come to be known as the Russell Paradox. Before writing Principles, Russell became aware of Cantor's proof that there was no greatest cardinal number, which Russell believed was mistaken. The Cantor Paradox in turn was shown (for example by Crossley) to be a special case of the Russell Paradox. This caused Russell to analyze classes, for it was known that given any number of elements, the number of classes they result in is greater than their number. This in turn led to the discovery of a very interesting class, namely, the class of all classes. It contains two kinds of classes: those classes that contain themselves, and those that do not. Consideration of this class led him to find a fatal flaw in the so-called principle of comprehension, which had been taken for granted by logicians of the time. He showed that it resulted in a contradiction, whereby Y is a member of Y, if and only if, Y is not a member of Y. This has become known as Russell's paradox, the solution to which he outlined in an appendix to Principles, and which he later developed into a complete theory, the Theory of types. Aside from exposing a major inconsistency in naive set theory, Russell's work led directly to the creation of modern axiomatic set theory. It also crippled Frege's project of reducing arithmetic to logic. The Theory of Types and much of Russell's subsequent work have also found practical applications with computer science and information technology.[47]

Russell continued to defend logicism, the view that mathematics is in some important sense reducible to logic, and along with his former teacher, Alfred North Whitehead, wrote the monumental Principia Mathematica, an axiomatic system on which all of mathematics can be built. The first volume of the Principia was published in 1910, and is largely ascribed to Russell. More than any other single work, it established the specialty of mathematical or symbolic logic. Two more volumes were published, but their original plan to incorporate geometry in a fourth volume was never realized, and Russell never felt up to improving the original works, though he referenced new developments and problems in his preface to the second edition. Upon completing the Principia, three volumes of extraordinarily abstract and complex reasoning, Russell was exhausted, and he felt his intellectual faculties never fully recovered from the effort.[48] Although the Principia did not fall prey to the paradoxes in Frege's approach, it was later proven by Kurt Gödel that neither Principia Mathematica, nor any other consistent system of primitive recursive arithmetic, could, within that system, determine that every proposition that could be formulated within that system was decidable, i.e. could decide whether that proposition or its negation was provable within the system (See: Gödel's incompleteness theorem).

Russell's last significant work in mathematics and logic, Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy, was written while he was in jail for his anti-war activities during World War I. This was largely an explication of his previous work and its philosophical significance.

Philosophy of language

Russell made the use of language a central part of philosophy, and this influenced Ludwig Wittgenstein, Gilbert Ryle, J. L. Austin, and P. F. Strawson, among others; in their own work they used methodology and logic originally developed by Russell. Russell, and GE Moore, argued that clarity of expression is a virtue.

A significant contribution to philosophy of language is Russell's theory of definite descriptions, On Denoting Mind (1905).

Wittgenstein, Russell's student, achieved considerable prominence in the philosophy of language after the posthumous publication of the Philosophical Investigations. In Russell's opinion, Wittgenstein's later work was misguided, and he decried its influence and that of its followers (especially members of the so-called "Oxford school" of ordinary language philosophy, whom he believed were promoting a kind of mysticism). However, Russell still held Wittgenstein and his early work in high regard, he thought of him as, "perhaps the most perfect example I have ever known of genius as traditionally conceived, passionate, profound, intense, and dominating."[49] Russell's position that the task of philosophy is not just examining ordinary language is now widely accepted.

Logical atomism

Perhaps Russell's most systematic, metaphysical treatment of philosophical analysis and his empiricist-centric logicism is evident in what he called logical atomism, which is explicated in a set of lectures, "The Philosophy of Logical Atomism," which he gave in 1918.[50] In these lectures, Russell sets forth his concept of an ideal, isomorphic language, one that would mirror the world, whereby our knowledge can be reduced to terms of atomic propositions and their truth-functional compounds. Logical atomism is a form of radical empiricism, for Russell believed the most important requirement for such an ideal language is that every meaningful proposition must consist of terms referring directly to the objects with which we are acquainted, or that they are defined by other terms referring to objects with which we are acquainted. Russell excluded certain formal, logical terms such as all, the, is, and so forth, from his isomorphic requirement, but he was never entirely satisfied with our understanding of such terms. One of the central themes of Russell's atomism is that the world consists of logically independent facts, a plurality of facts, and that our knowledge depends on the data of our direct experience of them.[50] In his later life, Russell came to doubt aspects of logical atomism, especially his principle of isomorphism, though he continued to believe that the process of philosophy ought to consist of breaking things down into their simplest components, even though we might not ever fully arrive at an ultimate atomic fact.

Epistemology

Russell's epistemology went through many phases. Once he shed neo-Hegelianism in his early years, Russell remained a philosophical realist for the remainder of his life, believing that our direct experiences have primacy in the acquisition of knowledge.[40] While some of his views have lost favour, his influence remains strong in the distinction between two ways in which we can be familiar with objects: "knowledge by acquaintance" and "knowledge by description". For a time, Russell thought that we could only be acquainted with our own sense data—momentary perceptions of colors, sounds, and the like—and that everything else, including the physical objects that these were sense data of, could only be inferred, or reasoned to—i.e. known by description—and not known directly.[51] This distinction has gained much wider application, though Russell eventually rejected the idea of an intermediate sense datum.

In his later philosophy, Russell subscribed to a kind of neutral monism, maintaining that the distinctions between the material and mental worlds, in the final analysis, were arbitrary, and that both can be reduced to a neutral property—a view similar to one held by the American philosopher/psychologist, William James, and one that was first formulated by Baruch Spinoza, whom Russell greatly admired.[52] Instead of James' "pure experience," however, Russell characterised the stuff of our initial states of perception as "events," a stance which is curiously akin to his old teacher Whitehead's process philosophy.

Philosophy of science

Russell claimed that he was more convinced of his method of doing philosophy than of his philosophical conclusions. Science was one of the principal components of analysis. Russell was a believer in the scientific method, that science reaches only tentative answers, that scientific progress is piecemeal, and attempts to find organic unities were largely futile.[53] He believed the same was true of philosophy. Russell held that the ultimate objective of both science and philosophy was to understand reality, not simply to make predictions.

Russell's work contributed to philosophy of science's development into a separate branch of philosophy. Much of Russell's thinking about science is expressed in his 1914 book, Our Knowledge of the External World as a Field for Scientific Method in Philosophy.[53] which influenced the logical positivists.

Russell held that of the physical world we know only its abstract structure except for the intrinsic character of our own brain with which we have direct acquaintance (Russell, 1948). Russell said [54] that he had always assumed copunctuality between percepts and non-percepts, and percepts were also part of the physical world, a part of which we knew its intrinsic character directly, knowledge which goes beyond structure.

Russell wrote several science books, including The ABC of Atoms (1923) and The ABC of Relativity (1925).

Ethics

While Russell wrote a great deal on ethical subject matters, he did not believe that the subject belonged to philosophy or that when he wrote on ethics that he did so in his capacity as a philosopher. In his earlier years, Russell was greatly influenced by G.E. Moore's Principia Ethica. Along with Moore, he then believed that moral facts were objective, but known only through intuition; that they were simple properties of objects, not equivalent (e.g., pleasure is good) to the natural objects to which they are often ascribed (see Naturalistic fallacy); and that these simple, undefinable moral properties cannot be analyzed using the non-moral properties with which they are associated. In time, however, he came to agree with his philosophical hero, David Hume, who believed that ethical terms dealt with subjective values that cannot be verified in the same way as matters of fact.

Coupled with Russell's other doctrines, this influenced the logical positivists, who formulated the theory of emotivism or non-cognitivism, which states that ethical propositions (along with those of metaphysics) were essentially meaningless and nonsensical or, at best, little more than expressions of attitudes and preferences. Notwithstanding his influence on them, Russell himself did not construe ethical propositions as narrowly as the positivists, for he believed that ethical considerations are not only meaningful, but that they are a vital subject matter for civil discourse. Indeed, though Russell was often characterised as the patron saint of rationality, he agreed with Hume, who said that reason ought to be subordinate to ethical considerations.

Religion and theology

For most of his adult life Russell maintained that religion is little more than superstition and, despite any positive effects that religion might have, it is largely harmful to people. He believed religion and the religious outlook (he considered communism and other systematic ideologies to be forms of religion) serve to impede knowledge, foster fear and dependency, and are responsible for much of the war, oppression, and misery that have beset the world.

In his 1949 speech, "Am I an Atheist or an Agnostic?", Russell expressed his difficulty over whether to call himself an atheist or an agnostic:

As a philosopher, if I were speaking to a purely philosophic audience I should say that I ought to describe myself as an Agnostic, because I do not think that there is a conclusive argument by which one can prove that there is not a God. On the other hand, if I am to convey the right impression to the ordinary man in the street I think that I ought to say that I am an Atheist, because, when I say that I cannot prove that there is not a God, I ought to add equally that I cannot prove that there are not the Homeric gods.

—Bertrand Russell, Collected Papers, vol. 11, p. 91

However, in the "1948 BBC Radio Debate" between Bertrand Russell and Frederick Copleston, Russell chose to assume the position of the agnostic, though it seems to have been because he admitted to not being able to prove the non-existence of God:

Copleston: Well, my position is the affirmative position that such a being actually exists, and that His existence can be proved philosophically. Perhaps you would tell me if your position is that of agnosticism or of atheism. I mean, would you say that the non-existence of God can be proved?

Russell: No, I should not say that: my position is agnostic.

—Bertrand Russell v. Fr. Copleston, 1948 BBC Radio Debate on the Existence of God

Though he would later question God's existence, he fully accepted the ontological argument during his undergraduate years:

For two or three years...I was a Hegelian. I remember the exact moment during my fourth year [in 1894] when I became one. I had gone out to buy a tin of tobacco, and was going back with it along Trinity Lane, when I suddenly threw it up in the air and exclaimed: "Great God in Boots! – the ontological argument is sound!"

—Bertrand Russell, Autobiography of Bertrand Russell, pg. 60

This quote has been used by many theologians over the years, such as by Louis Pojman in his Philosophy of Religion, who wish for readers to believe that even a well-known atheist-philosopher supported this particular argument for God's existence. However, elsewhere in his autobiography, Russell also mentions:

About two years later, I became convinced that there is no life after death, but I still believed in God, because the "First Cause" argument appeared to be irrefutable. At the age of eighteen, however, shortly before I went to Cambridge, I read Mill's Autobiography, where I found a sentence to the effect that his father taught him the question "Who made me?" cannot be answered, since it immediately suggests the further question "Who made God?" This led me to abandon the "First Cause" argument, and to become an atheist.

—Bertrand Russell, Autobiography of Bertrand Russell, pg. 36

Russell made an influential analysis of the omphalos hypothesis enunciated by Philip Henry Gosse—that any argument suggesting that the world was created as if it were already in motion could just as easily make it a few minutes old as a few thousand years:

There is no logical impossibility in the hypothesis that the world sprang into being five minutes ago, exactly as it then was, with a population that "remembered" a wholly unreal past. There is no logically necessary connection between events at different times; therefore nothing that is happening now or will happen in the future can disprove the hypothesis that the world began five minutes ago.

—Bertrand Russell, The Analysis of Mind, 1921, pp. 159–60; cf. Philosophy, Norton, 1927, p. 7, where Russell acknowledges Gosse's paternity of this anti-evolutionary argument.

As a young man, Russell had a decidedly religious bent, himself, as is evident in his early Platonism. He longed for eternal truths, as he makes clear in his famous essay, "A Free Man's Worship", widely regarded as a masterpiece of prose, but a work that Russell came to dislike. While he rejected the supernatural, he freely admitted that he yearned for a deeper meaning to life.

Russell's views on religion can be found in his book, Why I Am Not a Christian and Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects. Its title essay was a talk given on 6 March 1927 at Battersea Town Hall, under the auspices of the South London Branch of the National Secular Society, UK, and published later that year as a pamphlet. The book also contains other essays in which Russell considers a number of logical arguments for the existence of God, including the first cause argument, the natural-law argument, the argument from design, and moral arguments. He also discusses specifics about Christian theology.

His conclusion:

Religion is based, I think, primarily and mainly upon fear. It is partly the terror of the unknown and partly, as I have said, the wish to feel that you have a kind of elder brother who will stand by you in all your troubles and disputes. [...] A good world needs knowledge, kindliness, and courage; it does not need a regretful hankering after the past or a fettering of the free intelligence by the words uttered long ago by ignorant men.

—Bertrand Russell, Why I Am Not a Christian and Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects

Influence on philosophy

Russell had a major influence on modern philosophy, especially in the English-speaking world. While others were also influential, notably Frege, Moore, and Wittgenstein, Russell made analysis the dominant methodology of professional philosophy. The various analytic movements throughout the last century all owe something to Russell's earlier works.

Russell's influence on individual philosophers is singular, perhaps most notably in the case of Ludwig Wittgenstein, who was his student between 1911 and 1914.[55]

Wittgenstein's own influence on Russell, for example, in leading him to conclude, much to his regret, that mathematical truths were purely tautological truths, is a matter of debate. What is certain is that in 1901 Russell's own reflections on the issues raised by the paradox that takes his name Russell's Paradox, formalised 30 years later by Kurt Gödel's 'Undecidability' Theorems, led him to doubt the certainty of mathematics. This doubt was perhaps Russell's most important 'influence' on mathematics, and was spread throughout the European universities, even as Russell himself laboured (with Alfred North Whitehead) in a futile attempt to solve the Paradox.

Russell wrote (in Portraits from Memory, 1956) of his reaction to Gödel's 'Theorems of Undecidability':

I wanted certainty in the kind of way in which people want religious faith. I thought that certainty is more likely to be found in mathematics than elsewhere. But I discovered that many mathematical demonstrations, which my teachers wanted me to accept, were full of fallacies ... I was continually reminded of the fable about the elephant and the tortoise. Having constructed an elephant upon which the mathematical world could rest, I found the elephant tottering, and proceeded to construct a tortoise to keep the elephant from falling. But the tortoise was no more secure than the elephant, and after some twenty years of arduous toil, I came to the conclusion that there was nothing more that I could do in the way of making mathematical knowledge indubitable.

Evidence of Russell's influence on Wittgenstein can be seen throughout the Tractatus, which Russell was instrumental in having published. Russell also helped to secure Wittgenstein's doctorate[56] and a faculty position at Cambridge, along with several fellowships along the way.[57] However, as previously stated, he came to disagree with Wittgenstein's later linguistic and analytic approach to philosophy dismissing it as "trivial," while Wittgenstein came to think of Russell as "superficial and glib," particularly in his popular writings. Russell's influence is also evident in the work of Alfred J. Ayer, Rudolf Carnap, Alonzo Church, Kurt Gödel, David Kaplan, Saul Kripke, Karl Popper, W. V. Quine, John R. Searle, the atheist biologist Richard Dawkins and a number of other philosophers and logicians.

Some see Russell's influence as mostly negative,[citation needed] primarily those who have criticized Russell's emphasis on science and logic. Russell often characterized his moral and political writings as lying outside the scope of philosophy, but Russell's admirers and detractors are often more acquainted with his pronouncements on social and political matters, or what some (e.g., biographer Ray Monk) have called his "journalism," than they are with his technical, philosophical work. There is a marked tendency to conflate these matters, and to judge Russell the philosopher on what he himself would certainly consider to be his non-philosophical opinions. Russell often cautioned people to make this distinction. Beginning in the 1920s, Russell wrote frequently for The Nation on changing morals, disarmament and literature. In 1965, he wrote that the magazine "...has been one of the few voices which has been heard on behalf of individual liberty and social justice consistently throughout its existence."[58]

Russell left a large assortment of writing. From his adolescent years, he wrote about 3,000 words a day, with relatively few corrections; his first draft nearly always was his last, even on the most complex, technical matters. His previously unpublished work is an immense treasure trove, and scholars continue to gain new insights into Russell's thought.

Politics

Political and social activism occupied much of Russell's time for most of his life.

Pacifism, war and nuclear weapons

Russell was never a complete pacifist. He resisted specific wars on the grounds that they were contrary to the interests of civilization, and thus immoral. On the other hand, his 1915 article on "The Ethics of War," he defended wars of colonization on the same utilitarian grounds: he felt conquest was justified if the side with the more advanced civilization could put the land to better use.

Russell's activism against British participation in World War I led to fines, a loss of freedom of travel within Britain, and the non-renewal of his fellowship at Trinity College, Cambridge. and he was eventually sentenced to prison in 1918 on the tenuous grounds that he had interfered in British Foreign Policy — he had argued that British workers should be wary of the United States Army, for it had experience in strike-breaking. He was released after serving six months, but was still closely supervised until the end of the war.[21]

In 1943 Russell called his stance towards warfare "relative political pacifism"—he held that war was always a great evil, but in some particularly extreme circumstances (such as when Adolf Hitler threatened to take over Europe) it might be a lesser of multiple evils. In the years leading to World War II, he supported the policy of appeasement; but by 1940 he acknowledged that in order to preserve democracy, Hitler had to be defeated. This same reluctant value compromise was shared by his acquaintance A.A. Milne.[59]

Russell was fairly consistently opposed to the continued existence of nuclear weapons from the time of their first use. However, on 20 November 1948, in a public speech[60] at Westminster School, addressing a gathering arranged by the New Commonwealth, Russell shocked some observers with comments that seemed to suggest a preemptive nuclear strike on the Soviet Union might be justified. Russell apparently argued that the threat of war between the United States and the Soviet Union would enable the United States to force the Soviet Union to accept the Baruch Plan for international atomic energy control. (Earlier in the year he had written in the same vein to Walter W. Marseille.) Russell felt this plan "had very great merits and showed considerable generosity, when it is remembered that America still had an unbroken nuclear monopoly." (Has Man a Future?, 1961). However Nicholas Griffin of McMaster University, in his book The Selected Letters of Bertrand Russell: The Public Years, 1914-1970, has claimed (after obtaining a transcript of the speech) that Russell's wording implies he didn't advocate the actual use of the atom bomb, but merely its diplomatic use as a massive source of leverage over the actions of the Soviets. Griffin's interpretation was disputed by Nigel Lawson, the former British Chancellor, who was present at the speech, claims it was quite clear that Russell was advocating an actual First Strike. Whichever interpretation is correct, Russell later relented, instead arguing for mutual disarmament by the nuclear powers, possibly linked to some form of world government.

In 1955, Russell released the Russell-Einstein Manifesto, co-signed by Albert Einstein and nine other leading scientists and intellectuals, a document which led to the first of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs in 1957. In 1958, Russell became the first president of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. He resigned two years later when the CND would not support civil disobedience, and formed the Committee of 100. In September 1961 he was imprisoned for a week for inciting civil disobedience, when he took part in a huge ban-the-bomb demonstration at the Ministry of Defence but the sentence was quashed on account of his age.

During the Cuban Missile Crisis, Russell sent telegrams to U.S. President John F. Kennedy, Nikita Khrushchev, the UN Secretary-General U Thant and British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan. His telegrams were greatly critical of Kennedy, who he had already singled out earlier as "more dangerous than Hitler", and tolerant of Khrushchev. Khrushchev replied with a long letter, published by the Russian news agency ITAR-TASS, which was mainly addressed to Kennedy and the Western world.[61]

Increasingly concerned about the potential danger to humanity arising from nuclear weapons and other scientific discoveries, he also joined with Einstein, Robert Oppenheimer, Joseph Rotblat and other eminent scientists of the day to establish the World Academy of Art and Science which was formally constituted in 1960.

The Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation and its publishing imprint Spokesman Books[62] began work in 1963 to carry forward Russell's work for peace, human rights and social justice. He began public opposition to US policy in Vietnam with a letter to The New York Times dated 28 March 1963. By the autumn of 1966, he had completed the manuscript War Crimes in Vietnam. Then, using the American justifications for the Nuremberg Trials, Russell, along with Jean-Paul Sartre, organised what he called an international War Crimes Tribunal, the Russell Tribunal.

Russell criticized the official account of the assassination of John F. Kennedy in "16 Questions on the Assassination," 1964.

Communism and socialism

Russell initially expressed great hope in "the Communist experiment." However, when he visited the Soviet Union and met Vladimir Lenin in 1920, he was unimpressed with the system in place. On his return he wrote a critical tract, The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism. He was "infinitely unhappy in this atmosphere—stifled by its utilitarianism, its indifference to love and beauty and the life of impulse." He believed Lenin to be similar to a religious zealot, cold and possessing "no love of liberty."[22][24]

In the 1922 and 1923 general elections Russell stood as a Labour Party candidate in the Chelsea constituency, but only on the basis that he knew he was extremely unlikely to be elected in such a safe Conservative seat, and he was not on either occasion.

He was strongly critical of Stalin's regime, and referred to Marxism as a "system of dogma."[63] Between 1945 and 1947, together with A. J. Ayer and George Orwell, he contributed a series of articles to Polemic, a short-lived British "Magazine of Philosophy, Psychology, and Aesthetics" edited by the ex-Communist Humphrey Slater.[64][65]

Russell was a consistent enthusiast for democracy and world government, and he advocated the establishment of a democratic international government in some of the essays collected in In Praise of Idleness (1935), and also in Has Man a Future? (1961).

One who believes as I do, that free intellect is the chief engine of human progress, cannot but be fundamentally opposed to Bolshevism as much as to the Church of Rome. The hopes which inspire communism are, in the main, as admirable as those instilled by the Sermon on the Mount, but they are held as fanatically and are as likely to do as much harm.

—Bertrand Russell, The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism, 1920, pg. 118

For my part, while I am as convinced a Socialist as the most ardent Marxian, I do not regard Socialism as a gospel of proletarian revenge, nor even, primarily, as a means of securing economic justice. I regard it primarily as an adjustment to machine production demanded by considerations of common sense, and calculated to increase the happiness, not only of proletarians, but of all except a tiny minority of the human race.

—Bertrand Russell, "The Case for Socialism" (In Praise of Idleness, 1935, pg. 81)

Modern methods of production have given us the possibility of ease and security for all; we have chosen, instead, to have overwork for some and starvation for the others. Hitherto we have continued to be as energetic as we were before there were machines; in this we have been foolish, but there is no reason to go on being foolish for ever.

—Bertrand Russell, In Praise of Idleness, 1935, pg. 15

Women's suffrage

As a young man, Russell was a member of the Liberal Party and wrote in favor of women's suffrage. In his 1910 pamphlet, Anti-Suffragist Anxieties, Russell wrote that some men opposed suffrage because they "fear that their liberty to act in ways that are injurious to women will be curtailed." In May 1907 Russell stood for Parliament as a Woman's suffrage candidate in Wimbledon, but was not elected.[66]

Views on sexuality

Russell wrote against Victorian notions of morality. Marriage and Morals (1929) expressed his opinion that sex between a man and woman who are not married to each other is not necessarily immoral if they truly love one another, and advocated "trial marriages" or "companionate marriage," formalized relationships whereby young people could legitimately have sexual intercourse without being expected to remain married in the long term or to have children (an idea first proposed by Judge Ben Lindsey).[67][68] This was enough to raise vigorous protests and denunciations against him during his visit to the United States shortly after the book's publication. Russell was also one of the first intellectuals to advocate open sex education and widespread access to contraception. He also advocated easy divorce, but only if the marriage had produced no children — Russell's view was that parents should remain married but tolerant of each others' sexual infidelity, if they had children. This reflected his life at the time — his second wife Dora was openly having an affair, and would soon become pregnant by another man, but Russell was keen for their children John and Kate to have a "normal" family life.[68]

Russell was also an active supporter of the Homosexual Law Reform Society, being one of the signatories of A.E. Dyson's 1958 letter to The Times calling for a change in the law regarding male homosexual practices, which were partly legalized in 1967, when Russell was still alive.[69]

Race

As with his views on religion, which developed considerably throughout his long life, Russell's views on the matter of race did not remain fixed. By 1951, Russell was a vocal advocate of racial equality and intermarriage; he penned a chapter on "Racial Antagonism" in New Hopes for a Changing World (1951), which read:

It is sometimes maintained that racial mixture is biologically undesirable. There is no evidence whatever for this view. Nor is there, apparently, any reason to think that Negroes are congenitally less intelligent than white people, but as to that it will be difficult to judge until they have equal scope and equally good social conditions.

—Bertrand Russell, New Hopes for a Changing World (London: Allen & Unwin, 1951, p. 108)

Passages in some of his early writings support birth control. On 16 November 1922, for instance, he gave a lecture to the General Meeting of Dr. Marie Stopes's Society for Constructive Birth Control and Racial Progress on "Birth Control and International Relations," in which he described the importance of extending Western birth control worldwide; his remarks anticipated the population control movement of the 1960s and the role of the United Nations.

This policy may last some time, but in the end under it we shall have to give way—we are only putting off the evil day; the one real remedy is birth control, that is getting the people of the world to limit themselves to those numbers which they can keep upon their own soil... I do not see how we can hope permanently to be strong enough to keep the coloured races out; sooner or later they are bound to overflow, so the best we can do is to hope that those nations will see the wisdom of Birth Control.... We need a strong international authority.

—"Lecture by the Hon. Bertrand Russell", Birth Control News, vol 1, no. 8 (December 1922), p.2

Another passage from early editions of his book Marriage and Morals (1929), which Russell later claimed to be referring only to environmental conditioning, and which he significantly modified in later editions, reads:

In extreme cases there can be little doubt of the superiority of one race to another[...] It seems on the whole fair to regard Negroes as on the average inferior to white men, although for work in the tropics they are indispensable, so that their extermination (apart from the question of humanity) would be highly undesirable.[70]

—Bertrand Russell, Marriage and Morals, pg. 266 (1929)

Russell later criticized eugenic programs for their vulnerability to corruption, and, in 1932, he condemned the "unwarranted assumption" that "Negroes are congenitally inferior to white men" (Education and the Social Order, Chap. 3).

Responding in 1964 to a correspondent's inquiry, "Do you still consider the Negroes an inferior race, as you did when you wrote Marriage and Morals?", Russell replied:

I never held Negroes to be inherently inferior. The statement in Marriage and Morals refers to environmental conditioning. I have had it withdrawn from subsequent editions because it is clearly ambiguous.

—Bertrand Russell, letter dated 17 March 1964 in Dear Bertrand Russell... a selection of his correspondence with the general public, 1950-1968. edited by Barry Feinberg and Ronald Kasrils.(London: Allen & Unwin, 1969, p. 146)

Lord Bertrand Russell also wrote in his book The Impact of Science on Society[71] (page 116):

"At present the population of the world is increasing.... War so far has had no great effect on this increase.... I do not pretend that birth control is the only way in which population can be kept from increasing. There are others.... War has hitherto been disappointing in this respect, but perhaps bacteriological war may prove more effective. If a Black Death could be spread throughout the world once in every generation, survivors could procreate freely without making the world too full.... The state of affairs might be somewhat unpleasant, but what of that? Really high-minded people are indifferent to happiness, especially other people's."

—"The Impact of Science on Society" p.116
Logic portal

Further reading

Selected bibliography of Russell's books

This is a selected bibliography of Russell's books in English sorted by year of first publication.

  • 1896, German Social Democracy, London: Longmans, Green.
  • 1897, An Essay on the Foundations of Geometry, Cambridge: At the University Press.
  • 1900, A Critical Exposition of the Philosophy of Leibniz, Cambridge: At the University Press.
  • 1903, The Principles of Mathematics The Principles of Mathematics, Cambridge: At the University Press.
  • 1905 On Denoting, Mind vol. 14, NS, ISSN: 00264425, Basil Blackwell
  • 1910, Philosophical Essays, London: Longmans, Green.
  • 1910–1913, Principia Mathematica (with Alfred North Whitehead), 3 vols., Cambridge: At the University Press.
  • 1912, The Problems of Philosophy, London: Williams and Norgate.
  • 1914, Our Knowledge of the External World as a Field for Scientific Method in Philosophy, Chicago and London: Open CPublishing.
  • 1916, Principles of Social Reconstruction, London: George Allen & Unwin.
  • 1916, Justice in War-time, Chicago: Open Court.
  • 1917, Political Ideals, New York: The Century Co.
  • 1918, Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays, London: Longmans, Green.
  • 1918, Proposed Roads to Freedom: Socialism, Anarchism, and Syndicalism, London: George Allen & Unwin.
  • 1919, Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy, London: George Allen & Unwin, (ISBN 0-415-09604-9 for Routledge paperback) (Copy at Archive.org).
  • 1920, The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism,London: George Allen & Unwin
  • 1921, The Analysis of Mind, London: George Allen & Unwin.
  • 1922, The Problem of China, London: George Allen & Unwin.
  • 1923, The Prospects of Industrial Civilization (in collaboration with Dora Russell), London: George Allen & Unwin.
  • 1923, The ABC of Atoms, London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner.
  • 1924, Icarus, or the Future of Science, London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner.
  • 1925, The ABC of Relativity, London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner.
  • 1925, What I Believe, London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner.
  • 1926, On Education, Especially in Early Childhood, London: George Allen & Unwin.
  • 1927, The Analysis of Matter, London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner.
  • 1927, An Outline of Philosophy, London: George Allen & Unwin.
  • 1927, Why I Am Not a Christian, London: Watts.
  • 1927, Selected Papers of Bertrand Russell, New York: Modern Library.
  • 1928, Sceptical Essays, London: George Allen & Unwin.
  • 1929, Marriage and Morals, London: George Allen & Unwin.
  • 1930, The Conquest of Happiness, London: George Allen & Unwin.
  • 1931, The Scientific Outlook, London: George Allen & Unwin.
  • 1932, Education and the Social Order, London: George Allen & Unwin.
  • 1934, Freedom and Organization, 1814–1914, London: George Allen & Unwin.
  • 1935, In Praise of Idleness, London: George Allen & Unwin.
  • 1935, Religion and Science, London: Thornton Butterworth.
  • 1936, Which Way to Peace?, London: Jonathan Cape.
  • 1937, The Amberley Papers: The Letters and Diaries of Lord and Lady Amberley (with Patricia Russell), 2 vols., London: Leonard & Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press.
  • 1938, Power: A New Social Analysis, London: George Allen & Unwin.
  • 1940, An Inquiry into Meaning and Truth, New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
  • 1945, History of Western Philosophy and Its Connection with Political and Social Circumstances from the Earliest Times to the Present Day, New York: Simon and Schuster.
  • 1948, Human Knowledge: Its Scope and Limits, London: George Allen & Unwin.
  • 1949, Authority and the Individual, London: George Allen & Unwin.
  • 1950, Unpopular Essays, London: George Allen & Unwin.
  • 1951, New Hopes for a Changing World, London: George Allen & Unwin.
  • 1952, The Impact of Science on Society, London: George Allen & Unwin.
  • 1953, Satan in the Suburbs and Other Stories, London: George Allen & Unwin.
  • 1954, Human Society in Ethics and Politics, London: George Allen & Unwin.
  • 1954, Nightmares of Eminent Persons and Other Stories, London: George Allen & Unwin.
  • 1956, Portraits from Memory and Other Essays, London: George Allen & Unwin.
  • 1956, Logic and Knowledge: Essays 1901–1950 (edited by Robert C. Marsh), London: George Allen & Unwin.
  • 1957, Why I Am Not A Christian and Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects (edited by Paul Edwards), London: George Allen & Unwin.
  • 1958, Understanding History and Other Essays, New York: Philosophical Library.
  • 1959, Common Sense and Nuclear Warfare, London: George Allen & Unwin.
  • 1959, My Philosophical Development, London: George Allen & Unwin.
  • 1959, Wisdom of the West ("editor", Paul Foulkes), London: Macdonald.
  • 1960, Bertrand Russell Speaks His Mind, Cleveland and New York: World Publishing Company.
  • 1961, The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell (edited by R.E. Egner and L.E. Denonn), London: George Allen & Unwin.
  • 1961, Fact and Fiction, London: George Allen & Unwin.
  • 1961, Has Man a Future?, London: George Allen & Unwin.
  • 1963, Essays in Skepticism, New York: Philosophical Library.
  • 1963, Unarmed Victory, London: George Allen & Unwin.
  • 1965, On the Philosophy of Science (edited by Charles A. Fritz, Jr.), Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company.
  • 1967, Russell's Peace Appeals (edited by Tsutomu Makino and Kazuteru Hitaka), Japan: Eichosha's New Current Books.
  • 1967, War Crimes in Vietnam, London: George Allen & Unwin.
  • 1967–1969, The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell, 3 vols., London: George Allen & Unwin.
  • 1969, Dear Bertrand Russell... A Selection of his Correspondence with the General Public 1950–1968 (edited by Barry Feinberg and Ronald Kasrils), London: George Allen and Unwin.

Note: This is a mere sampling, for Russell also wrote many pamphlets, introductions, articles and letters to the editor. His works also can be found in any number of anthologies and collections, perhaps most notably The Collected Papers of Bertrand Russell, which McMaster University began publishing in 1983. This collection of his shorter and previously unpublished works is now up to 16 volumes, and many more are forthcoming. An additional three volumes catalogue just his bibliography. The Russell Archives at McMaster University also have more than 30,000 letters that he wrote.

Additional references

Russell

  • 1900, Sur la logique des relations avec des applications à la théorie des séries, Rivista di matematica 7: 115-148.
  • 1901, On the Notion of Order, Mind (n.s.) 10: 35-51.
  • 1902, (with Alfred North Whitehead), On Cardinal Numbers, American Journal of Mathematics 23: 367-384.

Secondary references

  • John Newsome Crossley. A Note on Cantor's Theorem and Russell's Paradox, Australian Journal of Philosophy 51: 70-71.
  • Ivor Grattan-Guinness, 2000. The Search for Mathematical Roots 1870-1940. Princeton University Press.

Books about Russell's philosophy

  • Bertrand Russell: Critical Assessments, edited by A. D. Irvine, 4 volumes, London: Routledge, 1999. Consists of essays on Russell's work by many distinguished philosophers.
  • Bertrand Russell, by John Slater, Bristol: Thoemmes Press, 1994.
  • Bertrand Russell's Ethics. by Michael K. Potter, Bristol: Thoemmes Continuum, 2006. A clear and accessible explanation of Russell's moral philosophy.
  • The Philosophy of Bertrand Russell, edited by P.A. Schilpp, Evanston and Chicago: Northwestern University, 1944.
  • Russell, by A. J. Ayer, London: Fontana, 1972. ISBN 0-00-632965-9. A lucid summary exposition of Russell's thought.
  • The Lost Cause: Causation and the Mind-Body Problem, by Celia Green. Oxford: Oxford Forum, 2003. ISBN 0-9536772-1-4 Contains a sympathetic analysis of Russell's views on causality.
  • The Ethical Philosophy of Bertrand Russell by Dr. Ramendra, New York: Vantage Press,1993. ISBN 0-533-09424-0
  • Some Reflections on Ethics by Dr. Ramendra

Biographical books

Notes

  1. ^ Hestler, Anna (2001). Wales. Marshall Cavendish. pp. 53. ISBN 076141195X. 
  2. ^ Ludlow, Peter, "Descriptions", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2008 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = [1].
  3. ^ 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. 
  4. ^ Bertrand Russell (1988) [1917]. Political Ideals. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-10907-8. 
  5. ^ a b c d The Nobel Foundation (1950). Bertrand Russell: The Nobel Prize in Literature 1950. Retrieved on 11 June 2007.
  6. ^ a b Bloy, Marjie, Ph.D.. "Lord John Russell (1792-1878)". http://www.victorianweb.org/history/pms/russell.html. Retrieved on 2007-10-28. 
  7. ^ 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.
  8. ^ a b c Paul, Ashley. "Bertrand Russell: The Man and His Ideas.". http://www.geocities.com/vu3ash/index.html. Retrieved on 2007-10-28. 
  9. ^ The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell, p.38
  10. ^ Lenz, John R. (date unknown) (PDF). Bertrand Russell and the Greeks. http://digitalcommons.mcmaster.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1443&context=russelljournal. Retrieved on 2007-10-27. 
  11. ^ Russell, the Hon. Bertrand Arthur William in Venn, J. & J. A., Alumni Cantabrigienses, Cambridge University Press, 10 vols, 1922–1958.
  12. ^ 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 on 2007-11-08. 
  13. ^ Griffin, Nicholas; Albert C. Lewis. "Bertrand Russell's Mathematical Education". Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, Vol. 44, No. 1.. 51-71. http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0035-9149%28199001%2944%3A1%3C51%3ABRME%3E2.0.CO%3B2-Z. Retrieved on 2007-11-08. 
  14. ^ Wallenchinsky et al. (1981), "Famous Marriages Bertrand...Part 1".
  15. ^ Wallenchinsky et al. (1981), "Famous Marriages Bertrand...Part 3".
  16. ^ Kimball, Roger. "Love, logic & unbearable pity: The private Bertrand Russell". The New Criterion Vol. 11, No. 1, September 1992. The New Criterion. http://newcriterion.com:81/archive/11/sept92/brussell.htm. Retrieved on 2007-11-15. 
  17. ^ Simkin, John. "London School of Economics". http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/EDlse.htm. Retrieved on 2007-11-16. 
  18. ^ Russell, Bertrand (2001). Ray Perkins. ed. Yours Faithfully, Bertrand Russell: Letters to the Editor 1904-1969. Chicago: Open Court Publishing. pp. 16. ISBN 0-8126-9449-X. http://books.google.com/books?id=EayyTTpXL-QC&pg=PA16&lpg=PA16. Retrieved on 2007-11-16. 
  19. ^ Russell on Wittgenstein
  20. ^ a b Vellacott, Jo (1980). Bertrand Russell and the Pacifists in the First World War. Brighton: Harvester Press. ISBN 0855274549. 
  21. ^ a b "Bertrand Russell (1872-1970)". Farlex, Inc.. http://russell.thefreelibrary.com/. Retrieved on 2007-12-11. 
  22. ^ ""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 on 2007-12-11. 
  23. ^ a b 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. 
  24. ^ 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 on 2008-03-14. 
  25. ^ Inside Beacon Hill: Bertrand Russell as Schoolmaster. Jespersen, Shirley ERIC# EJ360344, published 1987
  26. ^ a b ""Dora Russell"". 2007-05-12. http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/TUrussellD.htm. Retrieved on 2008-02-17. 
  27. ^ 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 on 2008-02-17. 
  28. ^ [2] Einstein quotations and sources. Accessed July 9, 2009
  29. ^ ""Bertrand Russell"". 2006. http://www.philosophyprofessor.com/philosophers/bertrand-russell.php. Retrieved on 2008-02-17. 
  30. ^ Griffin, Nicholas (ed.) (2002). "The Selected Letters of Bertrand Russell". Routledge. pp. 660. ISBN 0415260124. 
  31. ^ A philosopher’s letters | Love, Bertie | Economist.com
  32. ^ London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 38628, p. 2796, 3 June 1949. Retrieved on 2008-03-11.
  33. ^ Ronald W. Clark, Bertrand Russell and His World, p94. (1981) ISBN 0-500-13070-1
  34. ^ Russell, Bertrand; Albert Einstein (1955-07-09). ""Russell Einstein Manifesto"". http://www.ppu.org.uk/learn/texts/doc_russelleinstein_manif.html. Retrieved on 2008-02-17. 
  35. ^ Jerusalem International Book Fair
  36. ^ 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. 
  37. ^ Russell's last political speech
  38. ^ Copleston, Frederick Charles (1975). "History of Philosophy". Paulist Press. 577. http://books.google.com/books?id=Di_Thwi7xM8C. Retrieved on 2008-02-20. 
  39. ^ a b Irvine, A. D. (2003-05-01). "Bertrand Russell". Stanford University. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/russell/. Retrieved on 2008-02-20. 
  40. ^ Russell, Bertrand (1992). The Analysis of Matter. London: Routledge. pp. 424. ISBN 0-415-08297-8. 
  41. ^ Baird, Forrest E.; Walter Kaufmann (2008). From Plato to Derrida. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall. ISBN 0-13-158591-6. 
  42. ^ Parsons, Charles (November 2001). "Willard Van Orman Quine, 1908-2000". Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association 75 (2): 121–124. http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0065-972X(200111)75%3A2%3C121%3AWVOQ1%3E2.0.CO%3B2-3. 
  43. ^ "Quine, Willard Van Orman." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2008. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Accessed 23 February 2008.
  44. ^ Monk, Ray (January 1999). "Cambridge Philosophers IX: Bertrand Russell". Philosophy (Cambridge University Press) 74 (01): 105–117. doi:10.1017/S0031819199001072. 
  45. ^ Bertrand Russell Archives at McMaster University
  46. ^ a b Russell's The Principles of Mathematics
  47. ^ The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell, the Early Years, p. 202.
  48. ^ The Autobio. of B. Russell, pg. 329.
  49. ^ a b Klement, Kevin (2005-10-24). "Russell's Logical Atomism". Stanford University. http://www.science.uva.nl/~seop/entries/logical-atomism/. Retrieved on 2008-02-23. 
  50. ^ Fumerton, Richard (2004-01-19). "Knowledge by Acquaintance vs. Description". Stanford University. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/knowledge-acquaindescrip/. Retrieved on 2008-02-23. 
  51. ^ Stubenberg, Leopold (2005-02-03). "Neutral Monism". Stanford University. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/neutral-monism/. Retrieved on 2008-02-23. 
  52. ^ a b Russell, Bertrand (1993). Our Knowledge of the External World as a Field for Scientific Method in Philosophy. Routledge. pp. 251. ISBN 0415096057. http://books.google.com/books?id=SsY9g_DDA9MC. 
  53. ^ in a lettera letter to Newman which has been reprinted in Russell's autobiography)
  54. ^ Biletzki, Anat (2006-11-17). "Ludwig Wittgenstein". Metaphysics Research Lab, CSLI, Stanford University. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/wittgenstein/. Retrieved on 2008-02-27. 
  55. ^ The Autobio. of B. Russell, pgs. 435-440.
  56. ^ The Autobio. of B. Russell, pgs. 351-353.
  57. ^ Katrina Vanden Heuvel The Nation 1865-1990, p. 136, Thunder's Mouth Press, 1990 ISBN 1-56025-001`-1
  58. ^ Rempel, Richard A. (December 1978). "The Dilemmas of British Pacifists During World War II". The Journal of Modern History 50 (4): D1213–D1229. doi:10.1086/241842. http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0022-2801%28197812%2950%3A4%3CD1213%3ATDOBPD%3E2.0.CO%3B2-4. 
  59. ^ [3]
  60. ^ Horst-Eberhard Richter (2006). Die Krise der Männlichkeit in der unerwachsenen Gesellschaft. Psychosozial-Verlag. ISBN 3898065707. 
  61. ^ http://www.spokesmanbooks.com
  62. ^ Bertrand Russell, Unpopular Essays (1950), p.19, Simon and Schuster
  63. ^ [4]Art-Historical Notes: "Where are the Hirsts of the 1930s now?" The Independent, Nov 13, 1998 by David Buckman
  64. ^ [5] Absent Minds: Intellectuals in Britain by Stefan Collini Oxford University Press, 2006 ISBN 0199291055, 9780199291052
  65. ^ Crawford, Elizabeth (2001). The Women's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide, 1866-1928. Routledge. pp. 785. ISBN 0415239265. http://books.google.com/books?id=eIzLissZmscC. 
  66. ^ Hauerwas, Stanley (1978-04-19). ""Sex and Politics: Bertrand Russell and Human Sexuality'"". Christian Century. http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=1797. Retrieved on 2008-02-17. 
  67. ^ a b Haeberle, Erwin J. (1983). ""Pioneers of Sex Education"". The Continuum Publishing Company. http://www2.hu-berlin.de/sexology/ATLAS_EN/html/pioneers_of_sex_education.html. Retrieved on 2008-02-17. 
  68. ^ Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association (1997-11-02). "Lesbian and Gay Rights: The Humanist and Religious Stances". http://www.galha.org/briefing/lgb_rights.html. Retrieved on 2008-02-17. 
  69. ^ See Proctor, Robert. Racial Hygiene: Medicine Under the Nazis (Cambridge, Mass. Harvard University Press, 1988): page 179.
  70. ^ http://books.google.com/books?id=IZ3miaHwjdUC&pg=PA86&dq=%22The+Impact+of+Science+on+Society%22+War+has&ei=wj4XSta4EZ_AzATc0dD0Cg#PPA115,M1

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

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Peerage of the United Kingdom
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1931–1970		 Succeeded by
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From Today's Highlights
September 20, 2005

Italy, and the spring and first love all together should suffice to make the gloomiest person happy.
- Bertrand Russell

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