Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) was a British philosopher and mathematician who became one of the founders of modern logic.
Russell addressed a wide variety of philosophical issues. He invented “philosophical logic,” which is not so much an area of philosophy as it is a method or approach to philosophy. He also approached math philosophically by claiming that mathematical truths can be translated into truths of logic. In his book, Principles of Mathematics, Russell argued that mathematics is simply logic.
In regard to epistemology and metaphysics, Russell developed the concept of “logical atomism” in which thought and discourse are analyzed in terms of indivisible parts or atomic propositions. Atomic propositions are true if they correspond with atomic facts. An atomic fact is the most basic kind of fact that can be expressed in a simple sentence with no connectives. An example of an atomic proposition would be “The ball is blue.”
An ardent atheist, Russell set forth his arguments against the existence of God in his essay, “Why I Am Not a Christian.” Russell attempted to refute the “First Cause Argument” (or Cosmological Argument) for God’s existence by stating that if everything needs a cause, what caused God? For Russell, if it must be assumed that at some point something is not caused, why not believe that the world is eternal and not God? Russell also rejected the “Argument from Design” (or Teleological Argument) claiming that the presence of groups like the Ku Klux Klan and Fascists makes it unlikely that a good God created the world.
In his later years, Russell focused more of his efforts on humanitarian issues like nuclear disarmament. In his work Fly and the Fly-Bottle, he declared, “Why waste time on philosophy when mankind is in danger of destroying itself.” Twice he was arrested for his involvement with anti-nuclear protests. Russell was a candidate for Parliament on three occasions but was defeated each time. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1950. His work, A History of Western Philosophy, became a standard text in philosophy courses at universities for several decades. The great philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein studied under Russell at Cambridge University.