Bertrand Russell

One of the most important thinkers and intellectuals who lived in the 20th century was Bertrand Russell . He is considered one of the founders and fathers of analytical philosophy , a different way of doing philosophy. He dedicated most of his life to political activism , philosophy and mathematics and revolutionized many theories and positions that helped man to live according to reason.

Bertrand Russell biography

Bertrand Russell was born in the city of Trelleck located in Wales a May 18 of the year 1872 . His mother was named Katrine Louisa Stanley and his father was Viscount Amberley . His mother passed away when he was 6 years old and his father shortly after, for this reason, his grandparents, Lord John and Lady Russell took over his education. At the age of 11 he began studying Euclidean geometry and took several mathematics courses at Trinity College located in Cambridge.

When World War I began , Bertrand Russell was always in disagreement and for this reason he was imprisoned as he dedicated himself to defending conscientious objectors. While incarcerated, he wrote one of his books, An Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy . After the war, he traveled to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and was against the socialist current .

He worked as a teacher in China , at Peking University and returned to his country where he also worked as an educator at a private school called Beacon Hill School . He taught several classes in the United States until the New York Supreme Court censured his work because they considered that his thinking attacked religion and defended sexual freedom . In 1944, he decided to return to England and was forced to support the cause of World War II.

He married Alys Pearsall Smith , whom he married on December 13, 1932 and later separated in 1936. Then he began a relationship that ended in marriage with Patricia Spence with whom he had a son named Sebastian Conrad Robert Rusell. He was divorced again and married Edith Finch , who was by his side until the day he died , on February 2, 1970 in his house.

Thought

Bertrand Russell’s thought was influential in the twentieth century and was based on issues related to relativity, the love , the marriage , the peace and the rights of women . His way of thinking made the topics he dealt with controversial and his way of thinking expressed it through many ironies , metaphor and sarcasm . His way of thinking focused on using clarity and precision in his argumentation to prove his philosophical points.

Bertrand Russell theories

These were the theories created by Bertrand Russell.

Theory of knowledge

This theory is a branch of philosophy that is responsible for studying all nature , the origin and the limits that knowledge has, in other words, it studies knowledge in general . For Bertrand Russell, experiences that occur directly play an extremely important role in acquiring knowledge.

Ethics

He did not consider ethics to be part of philosophy, he believed that all moral facts were completely objective and that they could also be known through intuition.

Logical atomism

This theory exposes a concept about the ideal language that reflects the world in which knowledge can be reduced and where the function of truth occurs, which is known as mathematical logic. For Bertrand Russell, the world was a set of pure independent and logical facts, plural and dependent on the data provided by direct experience with them.

Logic and Philosophy in Mathematics

With his theory, he establishes that the concept that had been imposed on the scheme of space and time by Albert Einstein was impossible. For him, the true foundation of mathematics was logic.

Philosophy of language

He suggested that language was important in order to understand the world. In this field he also established his theories of descriptions in which he established the importance of making an adequate analysis in sentences , which also had to include defined descriptions and not isolated terms.

Bertrand Russell contributions

One of his great contributions was made to the field of mathematics , specifically in the field of geometry and mathematical logic, since he managed to verify that pure mathematics is based on pure logical premises. Thanks to his thoughts, it was possible to deduce that all mathematical concepts are a kind of logical and pure notion. In addition, he was a man who worked hard to be able to dissuade humanity from the use of nuclear weapons with the aim of being able to avoid an atomic war, in fact, he is considered as the organizer and as the main leader of the denuclearization movement of the United Kingdom.

Importance

Bertrand Russell was important because of the wide variety of topics that influenced the field of mathematics , women’s rights , peace, and the relativity of marriage . His work, Principia Mathematica , is one of the most influential books in which the basic notions of logic can be found . He also managed to contribute in the field of philosophy, giving alerts about the possible pitfalls of language, thus establishing analytical philosophy .

Plays

Among the most important works of Bertrand Russell are mentioned the following:

• Principles of mathematics : this book was launched in 1902 and in it, the author sought a way to translate mathematics into the field of logical philosophy in order to give them a more scientific and precise framework.
• Principia Mathematica : its name in Spanish is Mathematical Principles and it has three different volumes in which it carries out the approach that says that the matter can be raised from the general logical point of view .
• The Problems of Philosophy : he used sciences such as mathematics, psychology, sociology and physics to be able to contradict all the doctrines related to idealism .
• Practice and Theory of Bolshevism : it was published in 1920 and in this book, the author shows his disagreement with the way in which socialism was practiced , this because he never agreed with the ways used to achieve a communist system .
• History of western philosophy , What I believe and Manners and Morales , are other of his recognized works.

Phrases

Among the most recognized phrases that were mentioned by Bertrand Rusell we mention the following:

• The intelligent use of leisure is a protocol of civilization and helps education.
• Among all the forms of caution, the caution of love is probably the most lethal in achieving true happiness.
• A generation that does not tolerate boredom will always be a generation with little value.
• The world needs more open minds and hearts and these cannot come from rigid systems that are new or old.
• Most of the difficulties the world faces are caused because the ignorant are absolutely safe and the intelligent live in doubt.
• To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already half dead.