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Bertrand Russell

Bertrand Russell

Image: Detail of Bertrand Russell walking past Royce Quad to teach a class with students at UCLA, c. 1940.

" ... mathematics is only the art of saying the same thing in different words." [Bertrand Russell, The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell (1967–1969), Vol. III, 1944–1967: Postscript, p. 701]

Russell had great influence on modern mathematical logic. He coauthored Principia Mathematica with A. N. Whitehead (not to be confused with Isaac Newton's Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica), which attempted to use symbolic logic to derive mathematics from basic axioms (1+1=2 is famously proved in Volume II). The scholarly, historical, and philosophical interest in PM (Principia Mathematica) is great and ongoing: for example, the Modern Library placed it 23rd in a list of the top 100 English-language nonfiction books of the twentieth century.

Created by Dale Pond. Last Modification: Sunday May 8, 2022 04:20:16 MDT by Dale Pond.