Bertrand Russel essays

Bertrand Russel essays Bertrand Arthur William Russell was born in Trelleck, Wales on May 18, 1872. He was a descendant of a prominent Whig family. His grandfather was the Lord John Russell, who had twice served as Prime Minister under Queen Victoria. Bertrand was orphaned at the age of three and raised by his grandparents. He was educated in private schools and later at Trinity College, Cambridge. He earned degrees in mathematics and philosophy. Eventually he taught at Cambridge. Russell was a philosopher, logician, essayist, noble prize winner and social critic. He is known as one of the founders of analytic philosophy. He is accredited with being one of the most important logicians of the 20th century. His most influential contributions are his beliefs that mathematics is in some important sense reducible to logic and his theory of definite description and logical atomism. He used first-order logic to show how a broad range of denoting phrases could be changed to predicates and quantified variables. He is also remembered for his emphasis upon the importance of logical form for the resolution of many related philosophical problems. Russell hoped that by applying logical machinery and insights people would be able to resolve difficulties. Throughout his life he made many notable contributions in a wide range of subjects. His writings included topics of education, ethics, politics, history, religion and popular science. He achieved fame with his first major work, The Principles of Mathematics (1902). He worked with the British philosopher and mathematician Alfred North Whitehead for eight years to compose a three volume work called Principia Mathematica (1910-1913). It showed that mathematics can be stated in terms of general logic. His next famous work was, The Problems of Philosophy (1912). After a visit to Russia he expressed his political views against their form of socialism in his book Practice and Theo ...