Russell, Bertrand Arthur William (1872–1970)

English philosopher, mathematician, and peace campaigner. He contributed to the development of modern mathematical logic and wrote about social issues. His works include Principia Mathematica (1910–13; with A N Whitehead), in which he attempted to show that mathematics could be reduced to a branch of logic; The Problems of Philosophy (1912); and A History of Western Philosophy (1946). He was an outspoken liberal pacifist. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1950. He was made an Earl in 1931.

Russell was born in Monmouthshire, the grandson of Prime Minister John Russell. He studied mathematics and philosophy at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he became a lecturer in 1910. His pacifist attitude in World War I lost him the lectureship, and he was imprisoned for six months for an article he wrote in a pacifist journal. His Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy (1919) was written in prison. He and his wife ran a progressive school 1927–32. After visits to the USSR and China, he went to the USA in 1938 and taught at many universities. In 1940, a US court disqualified him from teaching at City College of New York because of his liberal moral views. He later returned to England and resumed his fellowship at Trinity College.

From 1949 he advocated nuclear disarmament and until 1963 was on the Committee of 100, an offshoot of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND).

Among his other works are Principles of Mathematics (1903), Principles of Social Reconstruction (1917), Marriage and Morals (1929), An Enquiry into Meaning and Truth (1940), New Hopes for a Changing World (1951), and Autobiography (three volumes 1967–69).