Bertrand Russell
English philosopher and logician who co-wrote Principia Mathematica, an attempt to ground mathematics in logic Show bio
Bio
Bertrand Russell lost both parents by age four and grew up with his grandmother. He took from her a habit of standing up for principle that never left him. Russell had a lonely adolescence, and he later wrote that only mathematics kept him from suicide.
He won a scholarship to Cambridge and turned from mathematics toward philosophy there. Russell then tried, with his former teacher Alfred North Whitehead, to build mathematics from logic alone.
He helped found analytic philosophy, a school that put careful logical analysis first. Russell went to prison for his First World War pacifism, standing on principle as his grandmother taught.
Books by Bertrand Russell
- The Problems of PhilosophyThe Problems of Philosophy
This short introduction to philosophy asks what we can know about the world around us. It begins with a table whose color and shape seem to change depending on where we stand.
- The Conquest of HappinessThe Conquest of Happiness
This practical guide examines common causes of unhappiness and habits that can make life more enjoyable. Its chapter on boredom argues that a happy life still needs stretches of quiet and routine.