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This is an OCR edition without illustrations or index. It may have numerous typos or missing text. However, purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original rare book from GeneralBooksClub.com. You can also preview excerpts from the book there. Purchasers are also entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Original Published by: University press in 1897 in 226 pages; Subjects: Geometry; Mathematics / General; Mathematics / Geometry / General; Mathematics / History & Philosophy; Mathematics / Logic; Philosophy / General; Philosophy / Logic; Philosophy / History & Surveys / Modern; ... Read more

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A biography of the philosopher Bertrand Russell by his daughter Katharine Tait. ... Read more

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A wonderful book!
Writing with some of the clarity of her father and a perhaps a bit more emotional realism, Katharine Tait gives readers a nuanced and intimate look into the personal life of the great philosopher. Despite her anger,ambivalence, and frustrations, she clearly loved her father immensely.Anyone interested in Russell the man will find this book utterly absorbing. ... Read more

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The book has no illustrations or index. Purchasers are entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Subjects: Socialism; Anarchism; Syndicalism; Guild socialism; Anarchism and anarchists; Gild socialism; Anarchists; Philosophy / General; Philosophy / History ... Read more

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Wittgenstein's Tractatus has generated many interpretations since its publication in 1921, but over the years a consensus has developed concerning its criticisms of Russell's philosophy. In Wittgenstein's Apprenticeship with Russell, Gregory Landini draws extensively from his work on Russell's unpublished manuscripts to show that the consensus characterizes Russell with positions he did not hold. Using a careful analysis of Wittgenstein's writings he traces the Doctrine of Showing and the "fundamental idea" of the Tractatus to Russell's logical atomist research program which dissolves philosophical problems by employing variables with structure.

He argues that Russell and his apprentice Wittgenstein were allies in a research program that makes logical analysis and reconstruction the essence of philosophy. His sharp and controversial study will be essential reading for all who are interested in this rich period in the history of analytic philosophy.

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This book comprises a selection of some of the wittiest and most pungent of Russell's writings that will appeal both to the philosopher and the layman. The reader will gain an appreciation of both his serious thought and his humour. ... Read more

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Russell's the best !
This book is a collection of extracts from Bertrand Russell's many books and papers. In about 150 pages, the editor collected some of the wittiest remarks Russell has ever made. They sould be read bearing in mind Russel'sown advice: "I sould not wish to be thought in earnest only when I amsolemn". Indeed, some of the funniest quotes in this book are also thedeepest ones. Add to that the ramarkable eloquence and clarity of Russell'swritings (he won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1950), and you obtain areal treasure.

The contents of Russell's Best cover subjects asreligion, ethics, politics and sex. Many of the views expressed in thisbook are obvious nowadays, but they were considered outrageous filth inconservative circles at the time of writing. Russell was a humanist and apacifist, and he even spent some time in jail for that.

This book is agood opportunity for people without any training in philosophy to getacquainted with the views of a great thinker. The texts are so well-writtenthat the novice can finish and understand the book in only a few hours. Icannot think of any other philosopher who could manage to do that. ... Read more

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Bertrand Russell is considered to be one of the most significant educational innovators of his time. In this influential and controversial work, Russell calls for an education that would liberate the child from unthinking obedience to parental and religious authority. He argues that if the basis of all education is knowledge wielded by love then society can be transformed. One of Bertrand Russell’s most definitive works, the remarkable ideas and arguments in On Education are just as insightful and applicable today as they were on first publication in 1926.

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PORTRAITS FROM MEMORY and Other Essays by BERTRAND RUSSELL SIMON AND SCHUSTER NEW YORK 1956 VI CONTENTS PAGE Mind and Matter 1 45 The Cult of Common Usage 1 66 Knowledge and Wisdom i 7 3 A Philosophy for Our Time 1 78 A Plea for Clear Thinking 1 85 History As m Art 190 How I Write no The Road to Happiness 5 Symptoms of Orwells 1 984 2 2 1 Why 1 Am Not a Communist 229 Marts Peril 233 Steps toward Peace 239 Adaptation An Autobiographical Epitome FOR those who are too young to remember the world be fore 1914, it must be difficult to imagine the contrast for a man of my age between childhood memories and the world of the present day. I try, though with indifferent success, to accustom myself to a world of crumbling empires, Communism, atom bombs, Asian self-assertion, and aristo cratic downfall. In this strange insecure world where no one knows whether he will be alive tomorrow, and where ancient states vanish like morning mists, it is not easy for those who, in youth, were accustomed to ancient solidities to believe that what they are now experiencing is a reality and not a tran sient nightmare. Very little remains of institutions and ways of life that when I was a child appeared as indestructible as granite. I grew up in an atmosphere impregnated with tradi tion. My parents died before I can remember, and I was brought up by my grandparents. My grandfather was born in the early days of the French Revolution and was in Parlia ment while Napoleon was still Emperor. As a Whig who fol lowed Fox, he thought the English hostility to the French Revolution and Napoleon excessive, and he visited the ex iled Emperor in Elba. It was he who, in 1832, introduced the Reform Bill which started England on the road toward de mocracy. He was Prime Minister during the Mexican War and during the revolutions of 1848. In common with the 2 PORTRAITS FROM MEMORY whole Russell family, he inherited the peculiar brand of aris tocratic liberalism which characterized the Revolution of 1688 in which his ancestor played an important part. I was taught a kind of theoretic republicanism which was pre pared to tolerate a monarch so long as he recognized that he was an employee of the people and subject to dismissal if he proved unsatisfactory. My grandfather, who was no respecter of persons, used to explain this point of view to Queen Vic toria, and she was not altogether sympathetic. She did, how ever, give him the house in Richmond Park in which I spent all rny youth. Wjmbibed certain political principles and ex pectations, andp vfe on the whole retained the former in spite of being compelled to reject the latter. fThere was to be ordered progress throughout the world, no revolutions, a gradual cessation of war, and an extension of parliamentary government to all those unfortunate regions which did not yet enjoy it. My grandmother used to laugh about a conver sation she had had with the Russian Ambassador. She said to him, Perhaps some day you will have a parliament in Rus sia, and he replied, God forbid, my dear Lady John. The Russian Ambassador of today might give the same answer if he changed the first word. The hopes of that period seem now a little absurd. There was to be democracy, but it was as sumed that the people would always be ready to follow the advice of wise and experienced aristocrats. There was to be a disappearance of imperialism, but the subject races in Asia and Africa, whom the British would voluntarily cease to gov ern, would have learned the advantage of a bicameral legisla ture composed of Whigs and Tories in about equal numbers, and would reproduce in torrid zones the parliamentary duels of Disraeli and Gladstone which were at their most brilliant I4 HL. at the time whenXnimbibedH dominant political prejudices. The idea of any insecurity to British power never entered AN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL EPITOME 3 anybodys head. Britannia ruled the waves, and that was that... ... Read more

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A definitive biography of one of the century's most brilliant and controversial figures uses unpublished letters and papers and new interviews to present a compelling portrait of the passionate, dedicated, and maddeningly inconsistent Nobel Prize-winning philosopher. ... Read more

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This collection of essays is concerned with different ways of knowing; the particular problems of philosophy; and the ultimate nature of matter. They reveal Russell's lifelong preoccupation: the disentanglement with ever-increasing precision of what is subjective or intellectually cloudy from what is objective or capable of logical demonstration. In them we can see the Russell method in operation: intellectual analysis dissecting a problem to its bare bones. Also included is Bertrand Russel's celebrated essay "A Free Man's Worship". In it he maintains that a new and deeper faith can be constructed, not faith in a theological sense but faith in the power of reason; his faith in man's capacity to create his own world through his own effort. ... Read more

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A mystological sonnet; Russell on the mysticism of Logic !
"Metaphysics, or the attempt to conceive the world as a whole by means of thought, has been developed, from the first, by the union and conflict of two very different human impulses, the one urging men towards mysticism, the other urging them towards science. Some men have achieved greatness through one of these impulses alone, but the greatest men who have been philosophers have felt the need both of science and of mysticism." B. Russell

Knowledge through Mysticism:
"Science needs no mysticism, neither does mysticism need science; but surely man needs both....Mystics explore our universe through meditation. Nuclear physicists explore it through experimentation and hypothesis. Their paths to the truth could not be more different-but the amazing thing is that in their own ways, the mystics and the scientists are discovering the same truths about our world." (F. Capra)
While knowledge is in the field of epistemology classified within two independent fields: intuitive/conceptual knowledge (a priori knowledge), and empirical knowledge (a posteriori knowledge). Mysticism is mainly concerned with knowledge a priori. Complete and valuable knowledge a posteriori cannot be made without the help of this first basic knowledge a priori, a knowledge revealed from a supernatural source.

Logic of Mysticism!
The celebrated author of 'Why I Am Not a Christian' proves again what J. Danielou stated in 'god and the ways of Knowing'; "Emmanuel Berl said recently that he had never met an atheist, only men who believe in God, without knowing exactly what they believe." This applies perfectly to B. Russell, who boasted to being an atheist, a mystical one!
In a poetical sonnet, Russell confesses the mysticism of Logic, "The true spirit of delight, the exaltation, the sense of being more than a man, which is the touchstone of the highest excellence, it is to be found in mathematics as surely in poetry." The meta physicist then compares 'Formal Logic' of pure mathematics, an edifying mysticism as; "the world of pure reason knows no compromise, no practical limitations, no barrier to the creative activity embodying in splendid edifices the passionate aspiration after the perfect from which all great work springs. Remote from human passions, remote even from the pitiful facts of nature, the generations have gradually created an ordered cosmos, where pure thought can dwell as in its natural home." (pp. 63)

A free man's worship:
"The endless praises of the choirs of angels has begun to grow wearisome; for, after all, did He not deserve their praise?" (Dr. Faustus, Mephistopheles)
The opening chapter of this gem, mocking liturgical 'Lex Orandi', is paradoxical, as much as 'Honest to God' came to be half a century later, a revolt against the follies committed in the expressions of nineteenth century Christianity. "Russell's razor-sharp mind has no difficulty in slicing through the old-fashioned arguments of natural theology," declares Colin Brown. He uses sarcasm to make his point.

Russell's Trinity college Milieu:
"There are records of a Moral Sciences Club having been founded in 1874. Present at the meeting were Caldecott, seven other undergraduates of St John's and two of Trinity. Among them were ..., and Alfred Mummery, soon to be appointed Professor of Logic and Metaphysics at King's College London-a post in which he was succeeded by Caldecott... The first meeting of the Club at which a paper was given, took place in the rooms of T. E. Scrutton, Trinity, at PM on Saturday 26 October. The paper, by Caldecott, was "Development Theories of Conscience". About thirty students attended. The attendance is pretty much the same today as is the tone of the Club's minutes." (www.phil.cam.ac.uk)

Earl Russell:
"...resolved to be hard-headed because he knows he cannot be." ( Will Durant)
"He was a mathematical genius, (a Nobel prize winner in literature) who wrote prose that could cut like a razor blade concerning the most abstruse subjects in a manner understandable to most laymen, and was a profound skeptic in re matters religious. This latter got him into all kinds of trouble with women's societies and the like back in the earlier part of the century and actually got him fired from the City College of New York. So he packed his bags and went to teach at Harvard.-You see, he was a British aristocrat (an Earl) and all this rabble rousing by the hoi polloi was really a non-issue for him. In his autobiography, he recounts how his mother always told him, "Never follow a crowd to do Evil." Russell never followed a crowd to do anything!In his day, Russell,a wizened looking professor loaded down with heavyweight tomes on metaphysical systems,was the Mick Jagger of Philosophy, and coeds used to quarrel over who got to bed down with him that night when he came to lecture that the stuff a good proportion of their professors were teaching was, quite literally, nonsense.-And just think, he got away with it all!" DANIEL MYERS



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WHO SAYS THAT PHILOSOPHY HAS TO BE DULL, AND POORLY-WRITTEN?
Not without reason was Bertrand Russell given the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1950; a rather unusual honor for a modern philosopher---and particularly one known for his work in mathematical logic---but then, Russell was not your "typical" philosopher.He actually supported himself by his writing at many periods in his life (such as when he was running a "Free School" with his wife), rather than as a professor of philosophy (whichi is the norm, these days), and so he continually honed and refined his writing style over the years, so that it is always a pleasure to read.Even his self-described "potboilers"---which he admittedly wrote for the money---such as "The Conquest of Happiness" are a pleasure to read, for Russell's delightful prose style.

It should also be noticed that Russell was often FUNNY---at times, devastatingly so, with an acerbic wit combined with a keen philosophical intellect that effectively skewered his target.This collection consists of short (ranging from "one-liners" to several long paragraphs) excerts from the full spectrum of Russell's huge output of books over an enormously long (he died at age 97) and productive career.

Topics include Politics, Ethics, Education, Religion, and of course Sex.It's remarkable to see that Russell's once-horrifyingly controversial comments on such topics as what we would now call "Serial Monogamy" now seem almost genteel.

This collection makes for a marvelous introduction to Russell, and will surely whet one's appetite to read at least some of the books these excerpts were taken from.

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This Halcyon Classics ebook contains four important works by British philosopher and social critic Bertrand Russell, including his influential THE ANALYSIS OF MIND.Russell (1872-1970) led the British "revolt against idealism" in the early 1900s. He is considered one of the founders of analytic philosophy along with his predecessor Frege and his protégé Wittgenstein, and is widely held to be one of the 20th century's premier logicians.He was a prominent anti-war activist, championing free trade between nations and anti-imperialism.Russell was imprisoned for his pacifist activism during World War I, campaigned against Adolf Hitler, criticized Soviet totalitarianism, and the United States' involvement in the Vietnam War, and was an outspoken proponent of nuclear disarmament.Russell was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1950, "in recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought."

This ebook is DRM free and includes an active table of contents for easy navigation.

Contents:

The Analysis of Mind
Political Ideals
The Problems of Philosophy
Proposed Roads to Freedom
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Originally published in 1914.This volume from the Cornell University Library's print collections was scanned on an APT BookScan and converted to JPG 2000 format by Kirtas Technologies.All titles scanned cover to cover and pages may include marks notations and other marginalia present in the original volume. ... Read more

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Book Summary -- Our Knowledge of the External World
"Our Knowledge of the External World" first appeared as a series of lectures delivered by Bertrand Russell while in Boston in the early spring of 1914. Fifteen years passed before Russell published these Lowell Lectures with the goal of introducing his "logical-analytic method" to the wider general public with the express purpose of finding "whatever objective scientific knowledge it is possible to obtain" (v). In writing this book Russell also hoped to stake a future claim for philosophy.

The barrage of scientific and mathematical discoveries during the early 20th century brought into question the future relevancy and legitimacy of philosophy. For Russell, philosophy found itself at a critical juncture, "Philosophy, from the earliest times, has made greater claims, and achieved fewer results, than any other branch of learning," with Russell's position being, "The problems and the method of philosophy have, I believe, been misconceived by all schools, many of its traditional problems being insoluble with our means of knowledge, while other more neglected but not less important problems can, [through Russell's Logical Atomism], be solved with all the precision and certainty to which the most advanced sciences have attained" (11). Russell envisioned a very specific purpose for philosophy, but realized that his brand of "Logical Atomism" would have to first overcome the entrenched "classical tradition" of Immanuel Kant and "evolutionism" of Herbert Spencer that was popular at the time.

Russell wrote that his interpretation of what philosophy should be "is to help us to understand the general aspects of the world and the logical analysis of familiar but complex things" (22). Philosophy's success in achieving these ends may then provide an ancillary boon to the other sciences. Russell writes, "The philosophy, therefore, which is to be genuinely inspired by the scientific spirit, must deal with somewhat dry and abstract maters, and must not hope to find an answer to the practical problems of life" (31).

In Russell's opinion both the classical tradition and evolutionism erred by presuming that either reason or intuition provided the path to truth. Concerning this false demarcation Russell writes,"insight, untested and unsupported, is an insufficient guarantee of truth...insight is what first leads to the beliefs which subsequent reason confirms or confutes(24-25)," and finally "It is neither intellect nor intuition, but sensation, that supplies new data...intellect is much more capable of dealing with [sensations] than intuition" (28). In contrast, Logical Atomism rejected the classical notion of a priori reasoning in favor of a deductive science based raw sense-data.

The basic premise of Logical Atomism is that all knowledge is ultimately reducible to problems of logic. According to Russell we build this stock of "common knowledge" through either acquaintance (i.e. direct experience) or description (i.e. vicarious experience). While he concedes that his Logical Atomism originated in the field of mathematical logic, Russell argues that it has since developed into its own discipline of philosophical logic, quite distinct from its mathematical origins. Russell's philosophical logic is primarily concerned with the misunderstandings that occur as a result of not clearly differentiating between the logical "form" of a sentence and its "constituent" parts. Russell writes, "In order to understand a sentence, it is necessary to have knowledge both of the constituents and of the particular instance of the form" (41). Simply, this is the task of philosophical logic-to realize that all sentences do not conform to the subject-predicate form.

Russell stated his philosophical methodology as follows:

"We start from a body of common knowledge, which constitutes our data. On examination, the data are found to be complex, rather vague, and largely interdependent logically. By analysis we reduce them to propositions which are as nearly as possible simple and precise, and we arrange them in deductive chains, in which a certain number of initial propositions form a logical guarantee for all the rest" (163).

Through this process Russell believed a higher degree of exactitude could be achieved, and the gap between the world of physics and the world of sensation could be bridged. This was the intellectual climate at Cambridge University during the early 20th century that would later influence others, specifically Wittgenstein, to take the "linguistic turn" in philosophy.

Masterpiece
This book is like a sculpture. Think of Russell as a Michelangelo of analytic philosophy and think of this book as one of his sculptures. You will be looking at his work from different angles, from the distance or from close vicinity, and you will appreciate its many aspects, you will go back and notice details that you missed, and, most important of all, when Russell will comment on the limits of his investigation, you will learn to love the imperfection of his masterpiece. This book is clear and well written, but that doesn't come as a surprise, knowing the author. Russell will capture the reader in his thoughts. His main point throughout the book is giving a logically sound account of reality. The three main arguments are about space, time and infinity. I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in reading a logical, accurate, elementary clear and well written account of the reality that surrounds us. Those readers who have, once in their lives, wondered if time exists, if there can be a definition of "number" and if infinity can be described, will think of this book as a treasure. ... Read more

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This is the third volume of Russell's autobiographies. It concerns principally the struggles for world peace and nuclear disarmament. ... Read more

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Russell's post-WW2 postbag, through Jewish filter
About 175 edited letters to Russell, and his edited replies, from 1957 to 1965 mostly - extracted from 'about 25,000'. Interesting and I thought the book could be twice as long - and more - without any diminution in impact.

Sorted roughly into main sections such as religion, philosophy, politics, war; plus 'anekdota' - the latter referring to Whitehead, Tagore, D H Lawrence, Sinclair Lewis, Gissing, Wells, Carpenter, T S Eliot, Vaughan Williams, H J Mackinder... not to mention Shelley, Castlereagh, Tom Paine...

The philosophy section incldues what must be the sharpest put-down of existentialism - '.. pure nonsense, based intellectually upon errors of syntax and emotionally upon exasperation.' There are letters referring readers to his own books - 'Human Knowledge..', 'Power', 'Human Society in Ethics and Politics'

The War and peace section looks at Cuba, Khrushchev etc and nuclear matters - Russell spent a lot of time on 'current nuclear writings'. He states his view on the First World War - it was a disaster and he'd have preferred Germany to win a quick victory - then Communists, Nazis, and Fascists would not have existed. He replies to a pacifist re WW2 to the effect that the correspondent hadn't seen 'innocent Jews herded into gas chambers' - a rather odd justification since the story wasn't made up for some years after the war was started.

Russell is of course a rationalist, though I don't think he ever got the feel of tribal systems, such as modern Judaism and Islam. He has one letter on Islam, replying to someone who disliked the picture (supposedly?) of Mohammed in 'Wisdom of the West'. Most of the religious letters are anti-Christian. This is no doubt where the Jewish editing comes in; most or all the letters promote the Jewish pressure-group attitudes - e.g. there's a pro-immigration into Britain reply to a south African. In fact, one of the editors, Kasrils, ended in the ANC - strangely, the mineral wealth in south Africa appears to remain in Jewish hands.

Anyway - an interesting if too short collection. ... Read more