Russell, Bertrand Arthur William, 3rd Earl

views updated May 17 2018

Russell, Bertrand Arthur William, 3rd Earl (1872–1970) Welsh philosopher, mathematician, and social reformer. A fellow at Trinity College, Cambridge, his pupils included Ludwig Wittgenstein. Russell's most influential work, the monumental Principia Mathematica (1910–13), written in collaboration with A. N. Whitehead, set out to show how mathematics was grounded in logic. In Our Knowledge of the External World (1914), he developed a novel approach to problems in epistemology. Russell's commitment to pacifism led to his imprisonment in 1918. He supported, however, the anti-fascist aims of World War II. Russell's History of Western Philosophy (1946) was a popular bestseller. In 1950, he received the Nobel Prize in literature. In 1961, Russell was arrested in a demonstration on behalf of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND).

More From encyclopedia.com

About this article

Bertrand Arthur William Russell 3d Earl Russell

All Sources -
Updated Aug 24 2016 About encyclopedia.com content Print Topic

You Might Also Like