person1872–1970

Bertrand Russell

Disciplines:

Summary

British philosopher and mathematician — author of Principia Mathematica (with Whitehead), The Problems of Philosophy, and A History of Western Philosophy — Nobel Prize in Literature (1950) — who founded analytic philosophy, created Russell's Paradox, and was a prominent peace activist.

Core Contribution

Creates analytic philosophy — Russell's logical analysis method (breaking philosophical problems into their logical components, treating philosophical claims as subject to the same standards as scientific claims) founded the Anglo-American analytic tradition that dominates academic philosophy today.

Key Spikes & Highlights

Was imprisoned for anti-war activism in WWI and used the time to write Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy — the most productive use of a prison term in British intellectual history; he emerged from prison with a completed book
Was supervised as a philosophy student by Whitehead and ended by supervising Wittgenstein — the chain (Whitehead → Russell → Wittgenstein) is the most concentrated 50-year transfer of philosophical influence in the 20th century, and Wittgenstein explicitly repudiated the program he had inherited from Russell

Notable Works & Achievements

The Principles of Mathematics

Principia Mathematica

The Problems of Philosophy

A History of Western Philosophy

Why I Am Not a Christian

Historical Influences

Gottlob Frege G.E. Moore Leibniz

Intellectual Lineage

Ravenscroft, Wales Trinity College Cambridge London Nobel Prize Literature

Contemporaries & Peers

Alfred North Whitehead Ludwig Wittgenstein G.E. Moore

Minds Influenced

Analytic philosophy Wittgenstein

Intellectual Posterity

Analytic philosophy Russell's Paradox Principia Mathematica A History of Western Philosophy Russell as anti-nuclear activist

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