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A B C D ... Z by birthday from the calendar Credits and feedback Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl (1872-1970) British philosopher, mathematician and social critic, one of the most widely read philosophers of the last century. Bertrand Russell was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1950. In his memoirs he mentions that he formed in 1895 a plan to "write one series of books on the philosophy of the sciences from pure mathematics to physiology, and another series of books on social questions. I hoped that the two series might ultimately meet in a synthesis at once scientific and practical." "The belief that fashion alone should dominate opinion has great advantages. It makes thought unnecessary and puts the highest intelligence within the reach of everyone. It is not difficult to learn the correct use of such words as 'complex,' 'sadism,' 'Oedipus,' 'bourgeois,' 'deviation,' 'left'; and nothing more is needed to make a brilliant writer or talker." (from 'On Being Modern-Minded' in Unpopular Essays Bertrand Russell was born in Trelleck, Gwent, the second son of Viscount Amberley. His mother, Katherine, was the daughter of Baron Stanley of Aderley. She died of diphtheria in 1874. Her husband died twenty months later, after a long period of gradually increasing debility. Lord Amberley was a friend of John Stuart Mill - he was "philosophical, studious, unworldly, morose, and priggish," wrote Russell later in his autobiography. Katherine, whom Russell only knew from her diary and her letters, he described as "vigorous, lively, witty, serious, original, and fearless." When she died she was buried without any religious ceremony. At the age of three Russell was an orphan. He was brought up by his grandfather, Lord John Russell, who had been prime minister twice, and his wife Lady John. | |
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