02/04/2025

Folha: 'Russell, mathematician, philosopher, intellectual and activist'

Reproduction of Marcelo Viana's column in Folha de S. Paulo.

It is a rare, probably unique case of an important mathematician being awarded the Nobel Prize … in literature . I initially encountered his ideas from a different angle: as the author of "A History of Western Philosophy," a magnificent three-volume work that I read and reread exhaustively during my university years and which certainly influenced my worldview.

Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) was born into the British aristocracy and, although he was the youngest in his family, he would inherit the titles of Earl Russell and Viscount Amberley, which gave him a seat in the House of Lords.

His lonely adolescence led him to contemplate suicide, from which he was saved, according to him, by books and the desire to learn more mathematics . It was also during this time that he began questioning religious dogmas, which he would later consolidate in the book "Why I Am Not a Christian," one of his most controversial works, which I came across when I was a teenager.

Around 1900, Russell began to take an interest in the problem of the foundations of mathematics. This effort resulted in "Principles of Mathematics," a three-volume work that he published between 1910 and 1913 in collaboration with his colleague Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947).

Based on the logicist thesis, according to which mathematics and logic are the same thing, the book represents a monumental effort to formulate all of mathematics rigorously in purely logical terms, with the aim of eliminating the paradoxes of Cantor's set theory, including Russell's paradox, which I discussed here last week .

But despite having made both famous, it is now generally agreed that it did not achieve that goal. To make matters worse, the text is so dry that the joke (probably correct) quickly circulated that nobody had read the whole thing, not even the authors themselves.

Russell also distinguished himself as a public figure, particularly in his advocacy of pacifism, which led to his imprisonment several times. He also actively supported the campaign for reform of British laws relating to male homosexuality, which achieved partial success through legislation passed in 1967, while he was still alive.

There are several anecdotes about his time in prison. Although they are probably apocryphal, they say a lot about what his contemporaries thought of him. In one of them, while filling out the prison registration form, he supposedly came across the field "race." Without hesitation, Russell wrote "human."

In another version, the registration question is about "religion." Russell answers "atheist," and the understanding jailer observes that "it's natural for everyone to have their own religion; what really matters is that we all believe in God."

To read the full article, visit the newspaper's website.