Bertrand Russell biography briefly. Bertrand Russell - biography, information, personal life
Russell Bertrand (May 18, 1872, Trelleck, Wales - February 2, 1970, Penryndydright, Wales), English philosopher, logician, mathematician, public figure. The founder of English neorealism and neopositivism. He developed the deductive-axiomatic construction of logic for the purpose of logical justification of mathematics. Nobel Prize for Literature (1950).
Russell's most popular work in the field of philosophy is A History of Western Philosophy, an exposition of basic philosophical concepts from antiquity to the time of his writing. Without exaggeration, one can call this book one of the most logical and systematically verified presentations of philosophical concepts, which is very useful for the study of philosophy and the history of philosophy.
Books (21)
Foundations of mathematics. Volume 1
Three volumes of this monograph are being published as part of a promising project implemented by Samara State University to completely translate into Russian and comment on this work in order to familiarize the entire scientific community with this outstanding example of creative thought. It is expected that the modern translation into Russian of Principia Mathematica will also fill the existing gap in the literature on mathematical logic and the foundations of mathematics, and will also contribute to the development of formal mathematics in the spirit of its founders.
Foundations of mathematics. Volume 2
The three-volume monograph by A. Whitehead and B. Russell Principia Mathematica occupies a unique place in the world mathematical literature.
Its first English edition was published in 1910-1913. in three volumes, totaling almost 2000 pages. Principia Mathematica is rightfully considered one of the most striking works on the foundations of mathematics and, in a broad sense, an outstanding contribution to the intellectual sphere of the past century. It would not be an exaggeration to say that after almost a century since the first edition of this monograph, interest in it has not waned and Principia Mathematica still continues to have a very significant influence on the development of mathematics and logic.
The second volume of this monograph is being published within the framework of a promising project implemented by Samara State University for a complete translation into Russian and commentary on this work in order to familiarize the entire scientific community with this outstanding example of creative thought. The translation of the first volume was completed in 2004. It is assumed that the modern translation into Russian of Principia Mathematical will also fill the existing gap in the literature on mathematical logic and the foundations of mathematics.
The work of A. Whitehead and B. Russell represents an independent and encyclopedic study of all the most important aspects of the foundations of mathematics for its time. The high scientific and methodological merits of the book allow us to consider it not only as a monograph, but also as a valuable textbook that can be recommended for the initial study of mathematical logic and set theory.
Foundations of mathematics. Volume 3
The three-volume monograph by A. Whitehead and B. Russell Principia Mathematica occupies a unique place in the world mathematical literature.
Its first English edition was published in 1910-1913. in three volumes, totaling almost 2000 pages. Principia Mathematica is rightfully considered one of the most striking works on the foundations of mathematics and, in a broad sense, an outstanding contribution to the intellectual sphere of the past century. It would not be an exaggeration to say that after almost a century since the first edition of this monograph, interest in it has not waned and Principia Mathematica still continues to have a very significant influence on the development of mathematics and logic.
The third volume of this monograph is being published within the framework of a promising project implemented by Samara State University for a complete translation into Russian and commentary on this work in order to familiarize the entire scientific community with this outstanding example of creative thought. The translation of the first volume was completed in 2004, the second in 2005. It is assumed that the modern translation into Russian of Principia Mathematical will also fill the existing gap in the literature on mathematical logic and the foundations of mathematics. The work of A. Whitehead and B. Russell, being a fundamental guide, undoubtedly ranks among the best books in all world literature on the foundations of mathematics, from which one can extract the basic canons of teaching mathematical logic, the theory of formal systems and set theory.
Russell Bertrand Arthur William (1872 – 1970)
Outstanding English mathematician, philosopher, public figure, scientist. Third Earl Russell. Nobel Prize winner in literature, founder of analytical philosophy.
Born in Trelleck (Wales). Grandson of Lord John Russell, 1st Earl Russell, Bertrand Russell inherited the title in 1931. Entered Trinity College, Cambridge University. Subsequently, he was a member of the Royal Society of London, was elected a member of the council of Trinity College, Cambridge University, and lectured on philosophy at a number of universities and colleges.
Essentially important results were obtained by Russell in the field of symbolic logic and its application to philosophical and mathematical problems. Professor Russell is the author of many works in the field of mathematical logic. The most important of them, “Principles of Mathematics” (1910-1913) (co-authored with A. Whitehead), proves the correspondence of the principles of mathematics to the principles of logic and the possibility of defining the basic concepts of mathematics in terms of logic.
Russell's work in the field of philosophy is very significant. Russell believed that philosophy could be made a science by expressing its basic principles in logical terms. Russell's most popular works in philosophy are Our Knowledge of the External World and The History of Western Philosophy. Psychology was also subjected to a detailed analysis (the book “Human Cognition: Its Sphere and Boundaries”).
Russell has always been an active public figure. His analytical mind allowed him to sometimes very accurately characterize the obvious features of social, political, and religious movements. The combination of magnificent irony with the author’s talent gave rise to many interviews, articles, essays, speeches, very relevant both at the time of writing and in our days. The works, “On the Value of Skepticism”, “Free Thought and Official Propaganda” are bright and to the point. Russell wrote many works on religion and the church. His lecture is famous, later published as a separate brochure “Why I am not a Christian.”
During the First World War he was imprisoned for his pacifist activities.
Russell was one of the first members of the Fabian Society, was elected to Parliament and, from 1944, took an active part in the work of the House of Lords. For the outstanding literary merits of his scientific and journalistic works, the philosopher was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1950. In the 50s and 60s. Russell became increasingly involved in discussions of international issues.
Immediately after World War II, he insisted that the West use its then-monopoly on nuclear weapons and force the USSR to cooperate in maintaining world peace. There is a well-known declaration of protest by Russell and Einstein, which led to the organization of the Pugwash movement of scientists.
In 1962, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, he maintained intensive correspondence with J. Kennedy and N.S. Khrushchev, calling for the convening of a conference of heads of state that would avoid a nuclear conflict.
In the last years of his life, Russell fought passionately against US intervention in Vietnam. He also condemned the Soviet and Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. At the end of his long life, Bertrand Russell published his three-volume Autobiography, once again showing the world the brilliance of his outstanding mind.
Bertrand Arthur William Russell(English) Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell ) - English mathematician, philosopher and public figure.
Russell was born on May 18, 1872 in Trelleck, Wales. He studied and later taught at the University of Cambridge, and was repeatedly invited to teach at universities in other countries, primarily the USA. His first book was "German Social Democracy"(1896; Russian translation 1906). While studying at the university, he was influenced by “absolute idealism” (the British version of neo-Hegelianism), but later, together with his colleague D. E. Moore, he became an opponent of idealistic metaphysics, laying the foundation for the tradition of analytical philosophy. After defending his dissertation on the foundations of geometry, Russell wrote a book on the philosophy of Leibniz (1900), where he showed for the first time the modern significance of his logical ideas. He presented the first presentation of his own logicist views on mathematics in the book "Principles of Mathematics"(1903), but the three-volume “Principia Mathematica” (1910-1913), created together with the Cambridge mathematician A. N. Whitehead, brought him real fame. Job "Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy"(1919) was written by him in prison, where he was imprisoned in 1918 for six months for his pacifist activities. His book "Problems of Philosophy"(1912; Russian translation 1914) is still considered in Anglo-Saxon countries the best introduction to philosophy. His books are devoted to issues of language and cognition. "Our knowledge of the external world" (1914 ), "An Inquiry into Meaning and Truth"(1940) and generalizing work "Human cognition: its scope and boundaries"(1948). In 1920-1921 he visited Soviet Russia (the result of this trip was the book “The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism”, 1920) and China. Russell is the author of the famous "History of Western Philosophy"(1945; Russian translation 1959) and the three-volume "Autobiography" (1967-1969). Russell was keenly interested in the problems of marriage and family, education, and took part in pedagogical experiments. He was active in social and political activities; in 1955, together with Einstein, he initiated the Pagoush movement, as well as the campaign for nuclear disarmament (1958). Russell's huge manuscript archive has survived. Bertrand Russell died on February 2, 1970.
Russell's philosophy
Subject of philosophy
In Russell's works one can find several definitions of the subject of philosophy, but the greatest interest is in his early interpretation of philosophy as a correct logical (in-depth) analysis of language (“logic is the essence of philosophy”). The most important quality of philosophy, according to Russell, is the ability to eliminate all kinds of paradoxes. In The History of Western Philosophy, he characterizes philosophy as “a no man's land between science and theology”; in general, it deals with problems that have not yet been mastered by science.
Basic concepts of ontology and theory of knowledge
Russell spoke of his inherent “reality instinct,” which allows for the presence in the world of “sense data,” common sense objects (individual objects), as well as universals (that is, properties and relations), but excludes “unicorns,” “winged horses,” and "round squares". The analytical philosopher must find logical ways to deny dubious entities, of which there are especially many in metaphysics. Fundamentally important for Russell was the distinction between two types of knowledge - “knowledge-acquaintance” and “knowledge by description”. The first is the original and immediate knowledge of sense data and universals. Russell called the elements of language confirmed by “knowledge-acquaintance” “names.” “Knowledge by description” is secondary. It is inferential knowledge about physical objects and the mental states of other people, obtained through the use of “denoting phrases.” The main logical problems and misunderstandings are generated precisely by “denoting phrases,” for example, the phrase “the author of Waverley” in the sentence “Scott is the author of Waverley” does not itself have its own object, that is, it is devoid of meaning. Russell developed a mechanism for analyzing and eliminating ambiguous "denotative phrases." He also discovered problems with proper names: for example, the mythological name Pegasus gives rise to the “paradox of existence” (the thesis about the existence of a non-existent object). Later, he recognized all proper names as ambiguous and came to the conclusion that language “connects” with the world only through demonstrative pronouns (“this” and “that”), which “are logically proper names.”
Mathematical and semantic paradoxes
While studying set theory, Russell discovered a paradox that later received his name. This paradox concerns the special "class of all classes that are not members of themselves." The question is, is such a class a member of itself or not? There is a contradiction in answering this question. This paradox attracted widespread attention from scientists, because at the beginning of the 20th century set theory was considered an exemplary mathematical discipline, consistent and completely formalized. The solution proposed by Russell was called “type theory”: a set (class) and its elements belong to different logical types, the type of a set is higher than the type of its elements, which eliminates the “Russell paradox” (type theory was also used by Russell to solve the famous semantic paradox "Liar" ). Many mathematicians, however, did not accept Russell's solution, believing that it imposed too severe restrictions on mathematical statements.
Logical atomism
Russell sought to establish a correspondence between the elements of language and the world. The elements of reality in his concept correspond to names, atomic and molecular sentences. In atomic sentences (“this is white”, “this is to the left of that”) the possession of some property or the presence of a relation is fixed. There are atomic facts corresponding to such propositions in the world. In molecular sentences, the atomic sentences included in them are connected using linking words “or”, “and”, “if”. The truth or falsity of molecular sentences depends on the truth or falsity of the atomic sentences contained in them. According to Russell, the theory of logical atomism arose under the influence of the ideas of his student - the Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein - and was intended to provide the most complete, economical and accurate description of reality. Russell assumed that in a logically perfect language of science, each sign would correspond to the components of a certain fact, thereby avoiding ambiguities and paradoxes. This point of view was criticized in the 1930s by the “late” Wittgenstein and representatives of linguistic philosophy.
Philosophy of consciousness
In the book "Analysis of Consciousness"(1920) Bertrand Russell, following W. James and representatives of American neorealism, put forward the theory of “neutral monism,” characterizing it as an attempt to combine the materialist position in contemporary psychology (behaviorism) with the idealistic position in physics, “dematerializing matter.” Russell rejects the philosophical division between matter and spirit, criticizes substantialist concepts of consciousness, as well as the idea of intentionality of consciousness. He treats matter as a logical fiction, a convenient designation for the sphere of action of causal laws. In psychology and physics, different causal laws operate, however, since the data of psychology are sensations, the data of the physical sciences are also mental data. In general, Russell's original explanation of what happens in the world is closer to a psychological explanation than to a physical one. In his later works, this tendency to psychologize philosophical and scientific knowledge intensified, which was influenced by the phenomenalism of D. Hume.
May 18, 2012 - 140th anniversary of the birth of Bertrand Arthur William Russell
(English Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell; May 18, 1872 - February 2, 1970) - English mathematician, philosopher and public figure.
Bertrand Russell (1916).
My whole life was permeated by three passions, simple but irresistible in their power: the thirst for love, the thirst for knowledge and painful sympathy for the suffering of humanity. Like mighty winds, they carried me over the abyss of pain, dragging me from side to side and sometimes driving me to despair.
I was looking for love, first of all, because it makes my soul boil with delight, immeasurable delight - for a few such hours it would not be a pity to sacrifice your whole life. I was looking for love also because it drives away loneliness, the terrible loneliness of a trembling consciousness, whose gaze is directed beyond the edge of the Universe, into an incomprehensible lifeless abyss. Finally, I was looking for love also because in the unity of the two I saw, as if on the headpiece of a mysterious manuscript, a prototype of paradise, which was revealed to poets and saints. This is what I was looking for and this is what I finally found, although it resembles a miracle.
With no less passion I strove for knowledge. I longed to penetrate the human heart. I longed to know why the stars shine. He sought to solve the riddle of Pythagoreanism - to understand the power of number over changing nature. And I managed to understand something, albeit quite a bit.
Love and knowledge - when they were given into my hands - drew me upward, to the heavenly heights, but compassion brought me back to earth. The cries of pain echoed in the heart: starving children, victims of violence, helpless old people who became a hated burden for their own children, this whole world where endless loneliness, poverty and pain turn human life into a parody of itself. I so wanted to moderate the evil, but I was unable to, and I myself am suffering.
This was my life. It was worth living, and if I could, I would willingly live it first.
Bertrand Russell. Autobiography. What do I live for?
Russell, like Voltaire, was the "laughing philosopher" of his generation. He had the face of a cheerful, animated elf and a thin, aristocratic body. A mind that was irreverent to any authority and a magnetism of nature were part of his insatiable appetite for life. At the same time, he was, like Voltaire, an unusually passionate person. In some newspaper photographs taken during his violent speeches, he looked like an avenging angel. Throughout his life, Russell sharply criticized traditional views in all areas of human life, from sex, education, religion, to women's rights, politics and the nuclear arms race.
Russell was born into one of the oldest and most famous families in England.
Bertrand Arthur William Russell born in Trelleck (Wales) 18 May 1872. He was left without parents at an early age and was raised by a stern and ascetic Presbyterian grandmother.
John Russell, Viscount Amberley (1842-1876). Father of Bertrand Russell.
He lived in the shadow of his father, the famous statesman Earl Russell. However, he served as a Member of Parliament from 1865 to 1868, when support for the birth control project ended any chance of him continuing in public life. Then he turned to literary activity. He did not have a strong constitution, suffered constantly from bronchitis, and died early from grief after the death of his wife and daughter in 1874 from diphtheria
Lowes Cato Dickinson. John Russell, 1st Earl Russell (8 August 1792 – 28 May 1878). Lord John Russell - grandfather of Bertrand Russell, 1st Earl Russell - British statesman, 32nd and 38th Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1846 to 1852. and from 1865 to 1866, leader of the Whigs. Bertrand remembered his grandfather as a kindly old invalid who spent his days reading Hansard.
Lady Stanley of Alderley. The fearsome Lady Stanley is a lady from the eighteenth century, according to her grandson."
Lady John Russell, Frances Anna Maria Elliot Russell - Bertrand's grandmother.
When I turned fourteen, my grandmother's limited mental horizons began to irritate me, and Puritan views on morality seemed extreme. But in my childhood, I responded to her great affection for me and tireless concern for my well-being with ardent love, and all this together gave me a great sense of security, so necessary for children. I remember lying in bed—I was four, maybe five years old—and the thought of how terrible it would be when my grandmother died kept me awake. But when she actually died - I was already married then - I took it for granted. However, now, looking back, I understand that as I grew older, I increasingly felt how much she influenced my formation. I always credited her fearlessness, concern for the public good, contempt for conventions, indifference to prevailing opinion, they aroused my admiration and desire to imitate them. My grandmother gave me a Bible, on the flyleaf of which she wrote her favorite sayings, including this: “Do not follow the majority for evil.”* Thanks to these words, which were full of special meaning for her, I was never afraid of being among those who remain in the minority
Bertrand Russell. Autobiography
Katharine Russell, Lady Amberley (1842-1874), daughter of Lord Stanley of Alderley, married Viscount Amberley in 1864, having three children between 1865 and 1872, of whom Bertrand was the last. Like her husband, she advocated birth control, religious freedom, and even free love. She died when Bertrand was too young to remember her. Russell described his mother as "energetic, lively, witty, serious, original, and fearless"
"Frank", John Francis Stanley Russell (1865-1931) - older brother of Bertrand Russell and his sister Rachel (1868-1874). In July 1874, Rachel (aged 6) and Bertrand's mother died of diphtheria.
Pembroke Lodge, in Richmond Park - Russell's childhood home was given by Queen Victoria to Lord John Russell and his wife in 1847 as a reward for services to the nation.
Bertrand grew up as a shy and sensitive child and suffered from what he considered to be many “sins.”
Russell in 1876, in which he was left an orphan at the age of four
"Bertie" as recorded in his Aunt Agatha's photo album
At the age of 18, Russell rejected religion and entered Trinity College, Cambridge University in 1890, where he began to study mathematics in order to understand whether “anything in this world could be known.” This turned into his life's work. He met the young George Edward Moore and came under the influence of Alfred North Whitehead, who recommended him to the Cambridge Apostles.
Russell in 1893 as a BA in mathematics at Trinity College, Cambridge
At the age of 20, he fell in love with 15-year-old Alys Pearsall Smith.
Alys Russell (Pearsall Smith) 1892
Alice lived in Philadelphia and was from a prominent Quaker family. Russell decided that he would definitely marry Ellis, and kissed her for the first time 4 months after he proposed to her. His grandmother actively opposed this, calling Alice nothing more than a “child thief” and a “cunning and treacherous woman.” Young people, meanwhile, began to actively discuss the question of how often they would have sex when they became husband and wife. They, however, resisted temptation and did not lose their virginity until their marriage in 1894.
Some sexual problems that arose after marriage were quickly resolved. Alice believed that sex was given to women by God as a punishment, and Russell “didn’t even consider it necessary” to argue on this issue. They both believed in free love, but neither of them practiced it: the first five years of their married life were happy and highly moral.
Bertrand Russell, Alys Russell 1895
Around 1901, however, Russell fell in love with Evelina Whitehead, the gifted wife of his collaborator A. N. Whitehead. Their relationship was purely platonic, but it influenced Russell so much that he revised many of his previous views. During a bicycle ride, which he took completely alone, he suddenly realized that he did not love Alice, and immediately admitted it to her. He later wrote: "I did not want to be cruel to her, but in those days I believed that in intimate life one should always tell the truth." Over the next nine years, Russell and Alice carefully maintained the appearance of a happy family life, but they occupied separate bedrooms and were unusually unhappy. Russell further wrote: "About twice a year I tried to restore our sexual relationship to relieve her suffering, but I was no longer attracted to her and these attempts were unsuccessful."
In 1910, Russell met Lady, the wife of Liberal MP Philip Morrell. Russell described Lady Ottoline as follows: "She was very tall, with a long thin face, a little like a horse's, and she had magnificent hair."
Lady Ottoline Morrell
Lady Ottoline Morrell
They carefully hid their sexual relationship, because Ottoline did not want to leave her husband and did not want to embarrass him. Philip knew about their connection and highly appreciated their prudence and secrecy. Russell left Alice that same year. They met again only in 1950 as “good friends.” Russell later admitted: “Ottoline almost destroyed the Puritan in me.” Despite their frequent violent quarrels, they remained lovers until 1916 and close friends until her death in 1938.
Russell was no longer a Puritan. After 1910, he never again led a monogamous lifestyle into old age, although he was married three more times. His private life was a real chaos of serious romances, light flirting and meaningless sexual relationships, and all this constantly threatened to result in a noisy and stormy scandal. This, fortunately, did not happen. In his letters to Ottoline and his other mistresses, he honestly spoke about the existence of other women in his life. His mistresses, however, were surprisingly calm about both his adventures and each other.
Bertrand Russell was never truly part of the Bloomsbury group. Although he shared her pacifism, atheism, anti-imperialism and general progressive ideas, he despised her apathetic despondency: she in turn rejected him. He thought that Strachey had distorted Moore's Principles to justify homosexuality. If anything, he felt that the book was shoddy. “You don’t like me, do you, Moore?” - he asked. Moore replied, after long and conscientious consideration, “No.” It is noteworthy that Russell, unlike Strachey, actually fought for pacifism during the Great War and went to prison for it. He read “Eminent Victorians” in Brixton prison and laughed “so loudly that the guard came to my cell and told me not to forget that prison is a place of punishment.” But his considered verdict was that the book was superficial, “imbued with the sentimentalism of an old-fashioned girls' school.” With his four marriages, his insatiable philandering, his fifty-six books on the widest range of subjects ever covered by a single author, his incurable desire for active participation, Russell was more hardened than any of the Bloomsbury group.
Bertrand Russell 1894
Russell is the author of many works in the field of mathematical logic. The most important of them - “Principles of Mathematics” (1910-1913) (co-authored with A. Whitehead) - proves the correspondence of the principles of mathematics to the principles of logic and the possibility of defining the basic concepts of mathematics in terms of logic. It has been noted that Russell's contribution to mathematical logic is the most significant and fundamental since Aristotle.
Russell believed that philosophy could be made a science (and he included only technical sciences in this concept) by expressing its basic constructs in terms of logic. A number of his works were devoted to this. Psychology was subjected to the same detailed analysis.
Russell's book Problems of Philosophy (1912) is still considered in Anglo-Saxon countries the best introduction to philosophy.
As a convinced pacifist, Russell became a member and then the leader of the Anti-Mobilization Committee in 1914. His views of those years were reflected in the book “Principles of Social Reconstruction” (1916). In 1918, for his pacifist activities, for calls for refusal to serve in the army, he was imprisoned for six months. At the same time, the famous Russian Bolshevik Maxim Litvinov was in the same prison.
Politically, Russell combined the principles of liberalism with a kind of benevolent, libertarian socialism, similar to but different from Fabianism. During this period of his life, Russell was a member of the Liberal Party and called himself a socialist.
In Roads to Freedom (1917), Russell defined socialism as the establishment of public ownership of land and capital. In his book In Praise of Idleness (1935), he pointed out that the definition of socialism must consist of two parts, political and economic. The economic part presupposes the concentration of exclusive economic power in the hands of the state. The political part lies in the demand for the democratic character of the highest political power.
Russell initially spoke hopefully of the “communist experiment.” In 1920, Russell visited Soviet Russia and met with Lenin and Trotsky. The result of the trip and disappointments was the book “The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism” (1920).
In this book, Russell noted that Bolshevism is not just a political doctrine, but also a religion with its own dogmas and scriptures. In his opinion, Lenin was like a religious fanatic and did not like freedom. In The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism Russell writes:
I came to Russia as a communist, but communication with those who have no doubts strengthened my own doubts a thousandfold - not about communism itself, but about the wisdom of such a reckless adherence to a creed that for the sake of it people are ready to endlessly multiply adversity, suffering, and poverty.
Subsequently, Russell harshly criticized the Stalinist regime and the methods of states proclaiming Marxism and communism. In 1934, he published the article “Why I Am Not a Communist.” He fought against theories preaching the absorption of the individual by the state, opposed fascism and Bolshevism (“The Origin of Fascism” (1935), “Scylla and Charybdis, or Communism and Fascism” (1939)).
Bertrand Russell in 1916
In 1914, during his first lecture tour of America, Russell began an intimate relationship with Helen Dudley, the daughter of a Chicago surgeon. He invited her to come visit him in England. In a letter to Ottoline, Russell, honestly admitting everything, wrote: “Darling, do not think that this means that I began to love you less because of this.” When Helen arrived in England, Russell's passion had already subsided, and he felt "absolute indifference" towards her. By this time, he had already begun an affair with the talented and beautiful Irene Cooper Ullis. Irene, however, was afraid of a scandal, and Russell hated all the precautions she carefully used to disguise the relationship. Russell once told Ottoline: “And the devil pulled me to make love to her.”
In 1916, Russell met Lady by Constance Malleson. She was 21 years old, she was an actress with the stage name Colette O'Neill
Lady Constance Malleson ("Colette O"Niel") (married to the actor Miles Malleson) 1917-1919
Lady Constance Malleson (Colette O'Niel)
Her marriage to actor Miles Malleson was, by mutual agreement, an "open" one. Russell remained her lover until 1920 and often spent his holidays with Constance and her husband. They renewed their love affair three more times over the next 30 years, and Colette always sent him roses on his birthday. Russell wrote to Ottoline: “My feelings for Colette cannot be called even a small shadow of the feelings that I have for you.”
Russell longed to have children. In 1919 he met Dora Black, a feminist who also passionately dreams of having children, but without marriage and forced monogamy. In the midst of his affair with Colette, regularly and honestly telling everything to Ottoline, Russell went to China, where he was offered a position at Peking University. Dora went with him. When they returned to England in August 1921, Dora was nine months pregnant. "We didn't take any precautions from the beginning," Russell told a friend. Russell and Dora decided to enter into a marriage alliance in which each of them was allowed to have love affairs with other partners. They got married a month before the baby was born. Some believe that during this time he had an affair with Vivienne Hay-Wood, T. S. Eliot's first wife.
Vivienne on the left, with Peter Stainer and Mildred Woodruff, photographed by Lady Ottoline Morrell in 1921
In 1927, Russell and Dora founded an experimental school. Beacon Hil
l 
Dora Russell, John Russell, and Katharine Russell
The atmosphere at school was extremely liberal. In it, in particular, the right of all school teachers to free love was defended. Russell also had several affairs with young teachers. While Russell was having fun at his school and during his lecture tours across America, Dora began an affair with the American journalist Griffin Barry and gave birth to two children with him.
Russell clearly did not like this application of his theory in practice. In their marriage contract, in particular, he included the following clause: “If she has a child not from me, this will be followed by a divorce.” Russell and Dora divorced in 1935.
Bertrand Russell, John Russell, Katharine Russell
Russell always believed that he would never know a woman until he slept with her. In his work "Marriage and Morality" he advocated trial and open marriage unions. In 1929, such ideas seemed extremely radical. He believed that he simply “cannot physically like the same woman for more than 7 or 8 years.” Dora wanted to have another child with him, but Russell “considered it impossible.” His affair with Joan Falwell, then 21, was typical of Russell. Many years later, Joan wrote: "After our third dinner together, I began to sleep with him... This continued for more than three years." However, Russell was too old for her and she left him.
After the death of his elder brother Frank, in 1931, Russell became the 3rd Earl of Russell, was elected to Parliament, and from 1944 took an active part in the House of Lords.
In 1930, Russell began a long affair with Patricia Spence, the young governess of his children. They got married in 1936, and the following year a son was born into the family.
Patricia ("Peter") Russell 1935
Bertrand Russell, Patricia Russell, Kate Russell, John Russell.1939.
In ethics and politics, Russell adhered to the position of liberalism, expressed disgust for war and violent, aggressive methods in international politics - in 1925 he signed the “Manifesto against conscription.”
Based on his pacifist convictions, he welcomed the Munich Agreement of 1938.
He partially revised his views with the outbreak of World War II. Believing that any war is a great evil, he admitted the possibility of a situation where it could be the lesser of the evils, referring to Hitler's capture of Europe.
1940
Bertrand Russell, G.E. Moore (1941)
Bertrand Russell, Albert Schweitzer,
Bertrand Russell, Conrad Russell. USA in August 1942
Bertrand Russell, Patricia Russell, Conrad Russell in Cambridge in April 1945.
During the Second World War, the family lived in the USA. Patricia began to feel more and more unhappy. Russell's daughter described their family life this way: "She realized that her marriage did not bring her joy. His passion ... was replaced by courtesy, which could not satisfy the romantically inclined young woman." In 1946, Russell, who was already over 70, began an affair with the young wife of a Cambridge University lecturer. This affair lasted three years. Colette, whom he last met in 1949, wrote him a bitter letter: “I see everything quite clearly now. What a terrible end to all our years spent together... Three times I became part of your life, and three times you threw me into side."
This is a photograph of Bertrand Russell sitting in a hospital bed in Trondheim, Norway after he was rescued from a flying boat crash, Oct. 8, 1948.
Patricia Spence divorced Russell in 1952. That same year he married his old friend Edith Finch, a writer from the USA. Russell finally had the opportunity to cool his “abnormally strong sexual instincts” as he turned 80 years old. His family life with Edith was happy. On his last birthday, he, as always, received a gift from Colette - a bouquet of red roses.
Bertrand Russell, Edith Russell 1950
Bertrand Russell, Edith Russell Russell and Edith at their wedding on December 15, 1952.
Honorary Member of the British Academy (1949). In 1950 he received the Nobel Prize for Literature "...in recognition of the varied and significant works in which he champions humanistic ideals and freedom of thought."
Bertrand Russell posing for the bronze bust made by the famous British sculptor, Jacob Epstein.(1953)
During the 1950s and 1960s, Russell became increasingly involved in international discussions. Immediately after World War II, he insisted that the West use its then-monopoly on nuclear weapons and force the USSR to cooperate in maintaining world peace. However, the unfolding of the Cold War and the proliferation of nuclear weapons convinced him that humanity was under threat of destruction. “It’s better to be red than dead,” this is how this staunch anti-communist now reasoned.
The Russell-Einstein Manifesto led to the organization of the Pugwash Scientists' Movement. Russell joins demonstrations to ban nuclear weapons. Following one of these demonstrations, he was jailed in London (at the age of 89), where he remained for a week.
The Evening Standard cartoon refers to Russell's week-long prison sentence in September 1961.
In 1962, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, Russell maintained intensive correspondence with John F. Kennedy and N. S. Khrushchev, calling for a conference of heads of state to avoid nuclear conflict. These letters, as well as letters to the heads of other states of the world community, were published in the collection “Victory without Arms” (1963).
In the last years of his life, Russell passionately fought against US intervention in Vietnam, in 1963 he created the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation, and in 1966 he organized the International War Crimes Tribunal. He also condemned the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968.
Jack Rosen. Caricature of Bertrand Russell. May 10, 1960.
“I really don’t want to leave this world,” Russell said shortly before he passed away peacefully at the age of 97.
Russell sums up his life in the three-volume Autobiography (1967-1969).
Bust Of Bertrand Russell-Red Lion Square-London
Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell. Born May 18, 1872 - died February 2, 1970. British philosopher, social activist and mathematician.
Russell is known for his work in defense of pacifism, atheism, as well as liberalism and left-wing political movements and made invaluable contributions to mathematical logic, the history of philosophy and the theory of knowledge. Less known are his works on aesthetics, pedagogy and sociology. Russell is considered one of the main founders of English neorealism, as well as neopositivism.
In 1950 he received the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Andre Oesterling, a member of the Swedish Academy, described the scientist as “one of the most brilliant representatives of rationalism and humanism, a fearless fighter for freedom of speech and freedom of thought in the West.”
The American philosopher Irwin Edman highly valued Russell's works, even compared him with Voltaire, emphasizing that he, “like his famous compatriots, the philosophers of old, is a master of English prose.”
The editorial notes to the memorial collection Bertrand Russell - Philosopher of the Century (1967) noted that Russell's contribution to mathematical logic was the most significant and fundamental since Aristotle.
Russell is considered one of the most influential logicians of the 20th century.
Bertrand Arthur William Russell was born in Trelleck (Wales) on May 18, 1872, he belonged to an old aristocratic family of politicians, scientists and intellectuals. This family was famous for its activities in the political life of the country since the 16th century, and the most famous representative of the family after Bertrand Russell himself was his grandfather John Russell, who twice headed the government of Queen Victoria in the 1840s and 1860s.
Bertrand Russell was born to John Russell, Viscount Amberley, and Catherine (Stanley) Russell. By his fourth birthday, Russell became a complete orphan. After the death of both parents, Bertrand and his two older brothers were taken into the care of their grandmother, Countess Russell, who adhered to Puritan views. From an early age, Bertrand showed interest in a wide variety of areas of natural history and loved to spend his free time reading books from the extensive library collected by his grandfather at the Pembroke Lodge estate.
In December 1889, Bertrand Russell entered Trinity College. In the second year of study, at the suggestion of A. Whitehead, Russell was elected to the Apostles debating society. This society included both students and teachers, including J. Moore, J. McTaggart, with whom Russell would collaborate fruitfully in the future.
Russell, the son of a lord of one of the most influential families, is appointed representative of Great Britain, first in Paris, then in Berlin. In Germany, Russell studied virtually the entire range of German philosophy, including the economic works of Marx. In Germany, Russell, who speaks excellent German, communicates with famous socialists of that time: Wilhelm Liebknecht, August Bebel and others. Russell is imbued with the ideas of left reformism, that is, the gradual reorganization of the whole world on the principles of democratic socialism. In 1896, Russell published his first significant work, “German Social Democracy,” where, surprisingly for a relatively young philosopher, he examined the problems and ways of developing left-wing ideas.
This, and some other works, make Russell a famous scientist. Upon arriving home in 1896, Russell was invited to lecture at the London School of Economics, which he did with continued success. Russell also gave a course of lectures at US universities. In 1900, he participated in the World Philosophical Congress in Paris and met a number of famous scientists. Whitehead's book, The Principles of Mathematics (1903), brought him international recognition. It is still considered one of his most famous works (especially in English-speaking countries).
In 1908, the philosopher became a member of the Royal Society.
Also in 1908, he became a member of the Fabian Society, which included Sydney Webb, Beatrice Webb, E. Kennan, George Douglas Howard Cole (1889-1959), Clementine Black, Robert Blatchford, Thomas Balogh, famous writers Bernard Shaw and Herbert Wells, John Maynard Keynes, William Beveridge, Richard Henry Tawney.
The Fabians considered socialism an inevitable result of economic development, but recognized only the evolutionary path and opposed revolution. Russell, however, does not completely share the views of the Fabians, since he was an opponent of state control of social production.
Among other things, the English philosopher proclaims that the existence of the capitalist system is doomed, believes that industries should be managed by working people, and not by entrepreneurs and the state, and tries to prove the autonomy and independence of political institutions from the economic basis of society. He sympathized with anarchism, and considered the power of the state to be the main cause of unhappiness in the modern world.
During the First World War, Bertrand Russell was involved in a range of complex socio-political problems of war and peace, the structure of the state and its administration. While England was preparing for war, Russell became convinced of the fidelity of pacifism, the basis for which was his socialism for Russell. Russell becomes a member of the Anti-Conscription Organization, which was a very brave act at a time when all people talked about in England was “defending the fatherland.” For opposing the authorities, Russell is deprived of his place at Trinity College, but most of all Russell is upset because of quarrels with many friends for whom pacifism was unacceptable in the face of a threat to Great Britain.
In 1916, Russell anonymously published a leaflet, “Two Years of Hard Work for Those Who Refuse to Obey the Dimensions of Conscience,” in which he defended the right of a person to refuse military service for political or religious reasons. After several people were condemned for distributing it, Russell, not afraid of losing his authority, revealed the authorship through the Times newspaper and expressed the idea that political freedom in England was becoming a farce. For this, the authorities are bringing him to trial. Russell said that not only he, but the whole of traditional British freedom was in the dock. As a result of the legal proceedings, Russell was fined £100, his library was confiscated and he was not allowed to travel to the USA to lecture.
In My Political Ideals (1917), Russell argues that the only worthy political goal is to ensure the fullest development of the natural creative potential of every person in society, which ultimately amounts to radical liberal reform and the destruction of the system that divides people into classes and other conservative groups (including religious ones), which makes it possible to classify him as a social democrat. True democracy, according to Russell, must strive towards socialism.
Attempts to curb the convinced pacifist do not yield results, and in the article “The German Peace Offers” (January 3, 1918), Russell speaks out sharply against the wave of slander and falsifications of the policies of the Bolsheviks and Lenin spread by the “patriotic press,” as well as the reluctance of the Entente to join Russia’s peace proposals . Russell also condemns the US entry into the war, emphasizing that American soldiers arriving in England could be hired as strikebreakers. In 1918, Russell was imprisoned in Brixton prison for 6 months. There, prisoner No. 2917 read a lot (from Voltaire to Chekhov) and even wrote “Introduction to the Philosophy of Mathematics” (1919). At the same time, the famous Russian Bolshevik Maxim Litvinov was in the same prison.
R. P. Dutt, a figure in the English and international labor movement and then a member of the Independent Labor Party, who met Russell at a meeting convened by the Socialist Students' Organization at Oxford in the autumn of 1919, wrote that the famous scientist's advocacy of mass opposition to the war “put him in those days in the fighting ranks of the socialists.”
Long before the actual start, and right up until the very end of hostilities, Russell was categorically against war.
After the proclamation of Soviet power in Russia, Russell in 1918. wrote that this event gave hope for future prosperity throughout the world, and even admitted that he admired the Bolsheviks. On May 19, 1920, Russell, as part of the Labor delegation, went to the Soviet Republic and stayed there until June 17, 1920. Russell visits the Kremlin, where he meets with V.I. Lenin and talks with him for more than an hour. During this trip, he also met with Trotsky, Gorky and Blok, and gave lectures at the Petrograd Mathematical Society. Russell was able to meet with representatives of the opposition, as well as ordinary people.
Russell recognized the Soviet model of development as not consistent with truly communist ideas and was largely disillusioned with the Bolsheviks. In his book of memoirs about this trip, The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism (1920), Russell wrote:
If Bolshevism turns out to be the only strong and active competitor to capitalism, then I am convinced that no socialism will be created, but only chaos and destruction will reign.
He who, as I do, regards the free intellect as the chief engine of human progress, cannot fail to oppose Bolshevism as fundamentally as he opposes the Roman Catholic Church.
Bolshevism is not just a political doctrine, it is also a religion with its own dogmas and sacred scriptures. When Lenin wants to prove a point, he quotes Marx and Engels as much as possible.
It is worth noting that Russell did not give up on leftist ideas themselves, and continued to call himself a socialist and even a communist. In the same book, Russell wrote:
I believe that communism is necessary for the world.
I came to Russia as a communist, but communication with those who have no doubts strengthened my own doubts a thousandfold - not about communism itself, but about the wisdom of such reckless adherence to a creed that for the sake of it people are ready to endlessly multiply adversity, suffering, and poverty.
Even under existing conditions in Russia one can still feel the influence of the life-giving spirit of communism, the spirit of creative hope, the search for means to destroy injustice, tyranny, greed - everything that interferes with the growth of the human spirit, the desire to replace personal competition with joint actions, the relationship between master and slave - with free cooperation . This hope helps the best part of the communists to withstand the trials of the harsh years that Russia is going through, this same hope inspires the whole world. This hope is not a chimera, not a fantasy, but it can only be realized through hard work, a more objective study of the facts and, above all, persistent propaganda, which should make the need for the transition to communism obvious to the vast majority of the workers. It is possible that Russian communism will fail and die, but communism as such will not die.
The existing capitalist system is doomed. Its injustice is so glaring that only ignorance and tradition force wage workers to endure it. When ignorance recedes, tradition weakens; the war destroyed the power of tradition over the human mind. Perhaps, under the influence of America, the capitalist system will last about fifty years, but it will gradually weaken and will never regain the positions held in the 19th century. Trying to support it means wasting energy that could be used to build something new.
Another book based on impressions from the trip was the book “Bolshevism and the West” (1924).
At the invitation of the “Society of New Teachings,” organized by the leader of the reform movement Liang Qichao, on October 12, 1920, Russell went to China, where he stayed until June 10, 1921. In China, as a professor at Peking University, Russell taught special courses on mathematics, logic, morality, religion, theory of knowledge, discussed the ways of development of socialism in this country. In his lectures, the thinker advocated for communism, but opposed the dictatorship of the proletariat, arguing that only “enlightenment will help raise the consciousness of the propertied classes and avoid wars and revolutions.” Russell's lectures, which reflected his ideas of free thought and criticism of religion, gave impetus to a new direction of the atheist movement in China. They were published by the Shaonyan Zhongguo publishing house in a special collection “Problems of Religion” (1921). The most significant influence on the Chinese intelligentsia was Russell's thoughts on a democratic version of socialism.
Both before and after his arrival, quite a lot of works by the English thinker on mathematics, logic, and the socio-political development of society were translated in China, which became very popular among Chinese reformers and progressive figures engaged in the search for the future state structure of the country.
As Wang Xingong noted, the philosophy of the English thinker “does not set as its goal the achievement of some kind of wealth or happiness, it is designed to help people understand this simple and at the same time complex world around us.” In 1920, the Bertrand Russell Society was created at Peking University and the Russell Monthly was published (January 1921). The philosophy of Losa, as Russell was called in China, had a strong influence on progressive youth during the anti-imperialist May 4th Movement.
In 1921, Russell married for the second time to Dora Winifred Black, who was his secretary during a trip to Russia. It was she who wrote the chapter “Art and Education” for his book “The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism.” Russell has two children (his first marriage to Alice (sometimes Alice) Whitall Pearsall Smith was childless).
Russell begins to intensively study pedagogy, including innovative methods of education. His views on education are integral to his socio-political liberal views. Russell seeks to protect the free mind from outdated conservative views (which Russell includes any religion). Children, Russell believes, should be raised in kindness, in understanding the usefulness of the moral standards of society, without coercion. Russell believes it is a terrible thing to separate children by their economic background, gender, race and nationality. The purpose of education for Russell is to protect a person’s creative abilities from the influence of chauvinism, bureaucracy, and class stereotypes. Russell sharply criticizes the English system of upbringing and education and proposes its democratization.
The most important results of his work in this area were the books “On Education” (1926), “Marriage and Morality” (1929), “Education and the Social System” (1932). Together with his wife, Russell opens the Beacon Hill School, which was aimed primarily at troubled young children. The school existed until the start of the war.
A peculiar refrain of his ideas in pedagogy was the thesis that if love, supported by knowledge, “became the real basis of education, then the world would be transformed.” Russell repeated this idea in later works.
His ideas on pedagogy, according to experts, were not as progressive as the views of the outstanding English teachers of that time G. Lane and A. S. Neil or the Americans G. Broudy and J. Dewey, but this school allowed and encouraged greater freedom of self-expression for students . Russell wrote that “children should be citizens of the universe,” raised without coercion, without fear. His pedagogical views were in many ways reminiscent of the ideas of the utopian socialists Owen and Fourier, who opposed religious education.
Although many scholars often neglect Russell's contributions to education, more than twenty years later Russell would be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for his book Marriage and Morality (1929).
During the development of totalitarian regimes in the 1930s, Russell struggled to prevent the impending military catastrophe. Some of the many books written during this period were Liberty and Organization, 1814-1914 (1934), The Origin of Fascism (1935), Which Way Leads to Peace? (1936), "Power: a new social analysis" (1938). Russell actively fought against fascism and Bolshevism (“The Origin of Fascism” (1935), “Scylla and Charybdis, or Communism and Fascism” (1939)).
In the late 1930s, Russell traveled to the USA, teaching at the University of Chicago and the University of California.
In 1935, Russell divorced for the second time and married his secretary Patricia Helen Spence. From this marriage he has a second son.
Based on his pacifist beliefs, Russell welcomed the Munich Agreement of 1938.
The approach of war gives rise to strong doubts in Russell about the advisability of pacifism. After Hitler and Stalin captured Poland, Russell abandoned pacifism. Now Russell advocates joint military efforts between England and the United States, which causes the disapproval of American isolationists who hoped to keep the country from entering into a military conflict.
From 1938 to 1944, Russell lectured at the University of Chicago, the University of California, and Harvard University in the USA, the Barnes Foundation, and published two fundamental works: “A Study of Meaning and Truth” (1940) and “The History of Western Philosophy” (1945), the latter of which several times appeared on bestseller lists in the United States and still enjoys the attention of both specialists and ordinary readers.
In 1940, Russell became a professor of philosophy at City College, which attracted strong attacks from the clergy, whom Russell actively fought against, spreading anti-clericalism and atheism.
In 1944, Russell returned to England from the USA and began teaching at the same Trinity College, Cambridge University, from where he was fired for anti-militarist speeches during the First World War.
Despite his advanced age (he turned 70 in 1942), Russell, thanks to his social activities, became one of the most famous Englishmen. Among the great many books he published: “Philosophy and Politics” (1947), “Springs of Human Activity” (1952) and “Human Cognition. Its sphere and boundaries" (1948). Russell gives a series of radio lectures, later collected in the book Power and Personality (1949).
Until 1954, Russell supported the Cold War policy, convinced that it could prevent World War III. Russell very sharply criticizes the USSR, advocates world domination of the United States of America, and even considers it necessary to force the USSR, under the threat of atomic strikes, to submit to the dictates of the United States.
To understand Russell's political views, it is important to understand that the sharp criticism of the theoretical foundations of communism, carried out by him at this time, comes down exclusively to criticism of Marxism; Russell himself remained a supporter of social democracy.
In fact, for promoting the official regime and promoting British views regarding the Cold War, Russell was awarded the Order of Merit on June 9, 1949.
In 1950, 78-year-old Russell was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for his book “Marriage and Morality” (1929) and his journalistic work.
After testing the hydrogen bomb and corresponding with Frederic Joliot-Curie, Russell, using his journalistic talent and enormous authority, begins to decisively oppose nuclear weapons, addresses on the radio (December 24, 1954) to all residents of England and the globe with a “Manifesto for the Struggle for world against nuclear war,” in which he argued that there could be no winner in a future war. The question of the path to lasting peace was also raised with great urgency in the famous statement prepared by Russell and signed by Einstein two days before the death of the latter, and then by other leading figures in science. This document was announced in London at a press conference of scientists around the world against the threat of atomic war (1955) as the “Russell-Einstein Declaration.”
In 1957, after discussion at the first conference of scientists in the Canadian village, Pugwash was adopted as a “Manifesto for the struggle for peace” by all scientists on the planet, which marked the beginning of the Pugwash movement.
In the 1950s and 1960s, when more than ever the world faced the prospect of a third world war with the use of nuclear weapons, the work of Russell, one of the most influential fighters for peace, can hardly be overestimated. Russell was a member of the nuclear disarmament movement (1958) and the Committee of One Hundred (1960). Russell corresponded, communicated, met and discussed with the leaders of the largest countries in the world, his international authority is enormous.
Since 1961, Russell has been defending the concept of an international authoritative forum similar to the UN.
In 1961, an 89-year-old Nobel laureate was sentenced to a long prison term for participating in one of the anti-war actions.
In 1962, during the escalation of the Cuban missile crisis, Russell directly appealed to Kennedy and Khrushchev with a call to immediately enter into negotiations.
In the summer of 1963, work began on creating a fund that was supposed to take on the entire range of issues that had until that time constituted the activities of Russell and his associates. Ralf Schonmann played a special role in the creation of the organization.
Since 1963, Russell begins to protest against American aggression in Vietnam. Together with Jean Paul Sartre, he creates the International Tribunal for the Investigation of War Crimes in Vietnam. From that time on, the West, trying to reduce the respect of the common people for the famous anti-militarist, sanctioned harsh attacks against Russell. Until the end of his days, Russell endures all sorts of hints and direct statements that “the old man is out of his mind.” The reputable New York Times even publishes the offensive article “Corpse on a Horse.” Although the level of his social activity in the last years of his life was no less, if not more, high than in his youth, completely refutes these rumors. For example, having celebrated his 80th birthday (1952), he managed to publish more than two dozen books, including “Portraits from Memory” (1956), “Fact and Fiction” (1962). A year before his death, Russell managed to publish the last, third volume of “Autobiography” (1967-1969), which is still considered one of his most famous works, since in addition to biographical data about life it contains elements of the entire complex evolution of views. Having lived for almost a century, at first due to his origin, Russell from his early youth lived at the epicenter of all world events, thanks to which the Autobiography became a truly great work.
