Analytic & pragmatist · 1872–1970
Bertrand Russell
Logician, public intellectual and Nobel laureate; lectured in China 1920–21
Logical analysis reveals what our sentences really assert, as in his theory of descriptions; he tried to found mathematics on logic and discovered the paradox that undermined Frege’s system.
Life and thought
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970), grandson of a British prime minister, was orphaned young and raised by his grandmother. At Cambridge in 1898 he and G. E. Moore broke with the idealism then dominant, and with Alfred North Whitehead he wrote Principia Mathematica (1910–13), an attempt to derive mathematics from logic. He campaigned all his life: he was jailed in 1918 for opposing the First World War, lectured in China in 1920–21, won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1950, and in his eighties led the campaign against nuclear weapons.
Russell’s method was analysis: grammar can hide the logical form of what we say. In “On Denoting” (1905) he asked what “the present King of France is bald” is about, since there is no such king. His answer: the sentence really says that there is exactly one King of France and that he is bald, so it is simply false, and no strange non-existent object is needed. The paradox he found in Frege’s system, the set of all sets that are not members of themselves, reshaped the foundations of mathematics.
Works
Shaped by
1848–1925Gottlob FregeIn 1902 Russell wrote to Frege about the paradox that broke Frege’s system, while adopting much of his logic.1873–1958G. E. MooreRussell dated their revolt against Kant and Hegel to late 1898: “Moore led the way, but I followed closely in his footsteps.”Students
1889–1951Ludwig WittgensteinWittgenstein studied with Russell at Cambridge from 1911; within two years Russell felt the pupil had surpassed him.Shaped
1891–1970Rudolf CarnapVienna Circle’s great system-builder, later in Chicago and Los Angeles1910–1989A. J. AyerOxford philosopher who brought logical positivism to English readersArgued against
1770–1831Georg Wilhelm Friedrich HegelGerman philosopher of spirit, history and dialecticMeanwhile, in other traditions
1863–1902Swami VivekanandaMonk who introduced Vedānta and yoga to the West1869–1948Mohandas K. GandhiLeader of Indian independence and theorist of non-violent resistance1870–1945Nishida KitarōFounder of the Kyoto School1872–1950Sri AurobindoNationalist revolutionary turned philosopher of spiritual evolution1885–1962Tanabe HajimeKyoto School philosopher and Nishida’s critic1885–1968Xiong ShiliFounder of New Confucian metaphysicsOn the record
The note quoted Russell as following Moore’s rebellion against idealism “with a sense of emancipation”.
That wording could not be found in Russell’s writings. His account in My Philosophical Development dates the revolt against Kant and Hegel to late 1898: “Moore led the way, but I followed closely in his footsteps.” The note now quotes this.