Bertrand Arthur William Russell was born in Trelleck, Wales on May 18, 1872. He was a descendant of a prominent Whig family. His grandfather was the Lord John Russell, who had twice served as Prime Minister under Queen Victoria. Bertrand was orphaned at the age of three and raised by his grandparents. He was educated in private schools and later at Trinity College, Cambridge. He earned degrees in mathematics and philosophy. Eventually he taught at Cambridge.
Russell was a philosopher, logician, essayist, noble prize winner and social critic. He is known as one of the founders of analytic philosophy. He is accredited with being one of the most important logicians of the 20th century. His most influential contributions are his beliefs that mathematics is in some important sense reducible to logic and his theory of definite description and logical atomism.
He used first-order logic to show how a broad range of denoting phrases could be changed to predicates and quantified variables. He is also remembered for his
Russell was also famous for his many anti-war and anti-nuclear protests. In 1916 he was convicted and fined for his protests and anti-war activities. Consequently he was dismissed from his teaching position at Trinity College, Cambridge. Two years later he was convicted a second time. This time he spent six months in prison. While in prison he wrote Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy (1919). He continued his protests and was an active opponent of nuclear weapons. He released the Russell-Einstein Manifesto in 1955, calling for the reduction of nuclear weapons. In 1957, he was a prime organizer of the first Pugwash Conference, an organization made up of scientist concerned about the spread of nuclear war. He became the founding president of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in 1958 and was once again imprisoned, this time because of an anti-nuclear protests in 1961. At the age of 89 he was imprisoned after another anti-nuclear demonstration.
When his brother died in 1931 he became the 3rd Earl of the Russell family. In 194
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