Bertrand Russell

Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric. Bertrand Russell

Including 4 marriages, a slew of awards. and controversies--- The life of Bertrand Russell can certainly be described as full and wondrous!

A Brief Timeline
1872
Born in Wales

1874- 1876 1894 1876 Grand Completes

Death of mother, sister & father parents Moral get Sciences custody Tripos (II)

1894 1901

Marries Discovers Alys Russells Fined & Pearsall Paradox imprisoned Smith for anti-war
protests.

19161918

1921
Divorces Alys & marries Dora Black.

1927- 1935- 1940 1943 1949 1950 1931 1936 Appointment Dismiss- Awarded Awarded
Opens experimental school. Becomes Earl

Divorce s Dora. Marries P. Spence.

to NY city college revoked due to public protests.

ed from the Order Nobel Prize Barnes of Merit. for Foundatliterature. ion in PA.

Timeline Continued
1952 1955 1957
Organizes the first Pugwash Conference Divorce from P. Releases RussellSpence and married Einstein Manifesto to Edith Finch.

1958
Becomes the President of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament

1961
Imprisoned for connection to antinuclear protests.

1970
Died February 2nd in Wales.

Who is Bertrand Russell?

Bertrand Russell was a British philosopher, logician, essayist and social critic.

He also did a lot of work in the areas of education, history, political theory and religious studies.

Bertrand: The Philosopher

Along with G.E. Moore, Russell is generally recognized as one of the founders of analytic philosophy.

His most influential contributions include his defense of logicism (the view that mathematics is in some important sense reducible to logic), and his theories of definite descriptions and logical atomism.

Russells Paradox
Russell's paradox is the most famous of the logical paradoxes.

The paradox arises by considering the set of all sets that are not members of themselves. Such a set appears to be a member of itself if and only if it is not a member of itself, hence the paradox.

WHAT?!
To try and explain this theory thats important to many logicians:

Some sets, such as the set of all teacups, are not members of themselves. Other sets, such as the set of all non-teacups, are members of themselves. Call the set of all sets that are not members of themselves "R." If R is a member of itself, then by definition it must not be a member of itself. Similarly, if R is not a member of itself, then by definition it must be a member of itself.

In a statement:
Basically, hes saying that all sentences follow from a contradiction.

Russells Defense of Logicism

Russell states that:

The vocabulary of mathematics is a proper subset of Logic. And! The theorums of mathematics are subsets of logical ones.

Best-Selling Books

Gives Russell's views on philosophical subjects and value of philosophical knowledge.

1912

Best-Selling Books
Arguably outdated, this book gives a general history of philosophy.

1945

Russell: The Activist

Although Bertrand Russell is famous in activist circles for his work against nuclear weapons and Western involvement in the Vietnam War, His social and political activism stretches far beyond that

The Experimental School

Along with his second wife, Russell opened an experimental school. He believed education was key to conveying his social beliefs.

Dora Black

In the part of this universe that we know there is great injustice, and often the good suffer, and often the wicked prosper, and one hardly knows which of those is the more annoying.
Bertrand Russell

The Rebel
Russell was convicted twice and spent 6 months in prison due to his protests.

He was dismissed from one college and had a job offer revoked from another for similar reasons.

Religion
Russell s books are notoriously blasphemous. He implies that religion is a comfort we seek to excuse our terrible acts. His message is that we should take responsibility for our own actions.

So far as I can remember, there is not one word in the Gospels in praise of intelligence.
Bertrand Russell

It has been said that man is a rational animal. All my life I have been searching for evidence which could support this.
Bertrand Russell

Bibliography

http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/B ertrand_Russell http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/russellparadox/ http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/russell/ http://images.search.yahoo.com/

By Barry Briggs Jr. (Bertrand)