Book Description
This set reprints key critical writings on Russell's work on logic, mathematics, language, knowledge, the world, history of philosophy, ethics, education, religion and politics, and on his life and influence. ... Read more

Amazon.com
Volume I of Ray Monk's life of Bertrand Russell is a penetrating and highly critical portrait of one of this century's most influential intellectual figures.Monk's talents as a writer and his knowledge of philosophy produce clear and lucid prose that is sophisticated in its understanding, yet doesn't shy away from the dishy details that make the book compelling.This initial volume takes us through the first fifty years of Russell's private, public, and intellectual life.We follow Russell through his boyhood and schooling, his two marriages and countless love affairs, his friendships with eminent intellectuals such as Joseph Conrad, T. S. Eliot(plus an affair with Eliot's wife Vivien), and the members of the Bloomsbury Group, up to the birth of Russell's son in 1921.The inner Russell is tumultuous, fighting off fears of madness, and full of insatiable longings.We also see Russell's public life: his outspoken commitment to pacifism which ultimately led to his imprisonment, as well as his early advocacy and later disillusionment with socialism.Ray Monk is particularly adept at explicating Russell's philosophy: his desire to bring an end to interminable philosophical debates by developing new techniques for the logical analysis of philosophical problems.In Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Duty of Genius, Monk demonstrated that cracking good stories exist in the arcana of academic philosophy and in the lives of philosophers. The vastness of Russell's life and the breadth of his interests, in addition to the brilliance of his mind, makes Monk's story all the more captivating. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Reaching an overwhelming sense of the man
This is simply amazing. Not only did BR write a thorough journal, but his friends, lovers, and associates, and their friends, lovers, and associates did too. And letters from all to all practically! We come to a sense of understanding BR et al better than they knew themselves. More: this has everything to do with the philosophy of BR. I wouldn't have believed it and often I feel wonderment about why we needed to know "that", good grief, when low and behold, there is the connection with the work. Had it not been for the life BR lived we would not have his work. It is enough to make you certain that our paradigm - learn the history of the man to understand him - is certainly a winning paradigm because of what it shows. It also encourages me to reflect on my own life. How can one read so intensely into the life of another without it having such an effect? Thoughts like: remember this! It was just so. BR expresses it so well. And Ray Monk does such a good job making it accessible, certainly having found it reliving the life of BR from the philosophers point of view as well as the lovers and students. Since I have also read Wittgenstein, I loved the cross over and the record of the various steps in their relationship felt the richer for having read both. Life is great when you have great books like this on a beautiful summer evening.

An idealist mathematician turned sceptic
The first part of Ray Monk's outstanding biography of Bertrand Russell centres more on his love life than on his philosophical or political evolution.
It shows us a restless Russell, fearing (hereditary) madness and becoming a real womanizer after the break-up of his first marriage.
The number of letters which Russell wrote to his (ex-)lovers is truly amazing and Ray Monk quotes profusely from them.
The reactions of the husband of Ottoline Morrell, Russell's lifelong friend and most important mistress, shows that apparently promiscuity in the British High Society was not a problem.
On the philosophical front, Ray Monk doesn't explain very clearly Russell's essential logical discoveries (see B. Magee - Confessions of a philosopher). On the other hand, the importance of Peano's work, his clashes with Wittgenstein (who torpedoed a big part of Russell's work) and D.H. Lawrence (for Russell, a fascist) as well as his questioning of G. Frege (whose work was annihilated by one question by Russell) are very well documented.
Politically, Russell became a utopian socialist (no private property, which was the source of all evil) and later a real liberal fighting for universal suffrage also for women.
A key event in his life was the outbreak of WWI. It shattered definitively his trust in mankind. He became a sceptic and a convinced pacifist for the rest of his life.

Although I found that there were too many love letter excerpts in this book, it remains a fascinating read.

One of the most brilliantly significantbooks Ever written!
This is one of the most stimulating, dazzling, intellectually satisfying, strangely comforting books that I have ever read.

As an academic myself, devoted to the lonely quest for truth, this book was strangely comforting, as I could empathise with some of the struggles Bertrand Russell endured.

This book (along with Lance Armstrong's "It's not about the Bike" and Dag Hammarskjold's "Markings") is very important to me. By reading the many excerpts it includes of Russell's letters and diaries, I have come across many stunningly phrased morsels of eloquence - yes, Russell's behaviour is sometimes horrifying, yet rather than this make the book unpleasant, it actually made it a learning experience. I learnt things about humanity that were meaningful to me, and I experienced (and learnt from) the many exquisite phrases.

Any negativity concerning Russell's character was, from my perspective, *completely* eclipsed by the rewarding, educating and intellectually and emotionally intense experience of reading this remarkable book.
I do not that often discover books that are very meaningful and brilliant; I would be very happy if over the next few years I accidentally stumble upon a *handful* of books that measure up to the standards that my current favourites have achieved. Until then I will just have to re-read my favourites.

(I found this book so dense with insight that I actually started a file on my computer where I type notes from this biography concerning ideas and phrases that were particularly interesting/beautiful.)

A biography the size of the Bertrand Russell
Strange as it may seem, I began to read this book after reading its sequel, but got the same good impression of it all, because what counts most is both the stature of Bertrand Russel and the way it is portrayed by Ray Monk.
"The Spirit of Solitude" is simply fascinating, covering the years Russell dedicated to the philosophy of Mathematics, a subject that is so complex, that completely absorved him, causing his first marriage to collapse amidst great personnal pain to his wife, making Russell to seek love comfort with women who could fulfill the maternal absence to a man who lost both his parents when a child. The pressure exerted upon him by his grandmother is also elucidative on the ways he chose to mantain his personall life amid a curtain of secrecy, something instrumental in his future evolution as a philosopher.
The apex of his career was hit when he published, along with Whithehead, the voluminous Principia Mathematica, a 4.500 pages book, which took some 10 years of his best efforts, and which was dedicated to the foundations of philosophical thinking in Mathematics. It was such a difficult book to read that even Russell expected that no more than a handfull of great mathematicians could read and understand what was there meant.
This book is a must for everyone interested in Philosophy and the philosophy of mathematical thinking.

The Best Russell Bio To Date
Question: How would Ray Monk follow his wildly successful biography of Ludwig Wittgenstein? Answer: He takes on the life of Wittgenstein's teacher, and the most public philosopher of the 20th century, Bertrand Russell.

There are a myriad of biographies of Russell in and out of print; even the most ardent Russell admirer could easily admit burnout on this score. Russell himself penned an autobiography that lends itself more to literature than fact. Why should one spend money and time on yet another biography?

Two reasons should suffice, I hope. Monk is a thorough biographer, but not an adoring one. Although some others have also been critical, none brings to the subject the background in analytical philosophy that Monk does, and this is an important factor when discussing the life and thought of a philosopher, for both are obviously and subtly interwined in the subject.

Secondly, Russell was more than an academic philosopher, he was a public figure who was more well known than his philosophy. His life was lived in the pages of the press and made great fodder for the newshounds. Whether it was his many love affairs (including a disastrous one with poet T.S. Eliot's unstable wife Vivian) or his peace campaign during the first World War that led to his jailing by the English government, Russell always made good copy. Monk takes the reader behind the headlines to the events and forces that shaped the young Russell's life and philosophy. His partnership with Alfred North Whitehead in the co-authorship of Principia Mathematica is expertly handled, as is Russell's later dalliance with the Bloomsbury Group.

This is the first of two projected volumes and I can't wait to read Part Two. ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (1)

A contradictory sort of fellow
Will Durant, in his congenial The Story of Philosophy, describes Bertrand Russell as "...resolved to be hard-headed because he knows he can not be."-This is a bit unfair, as it doesn't really take into account Russell's philosophy, merely the man.But the two are so hard to separate!-Basically, Russell believes that mysticism "is the inspirer of what is best in man."But that it is absolutely muddle-headed and has lead mankind down numerous philosophic blind alleys in the past thousand or so years(I think anyone who has read Kant or Hegel can't help but come to this conclusion).-University professors (especially those of Philosophy) are excepted from the previous parenthetical remark! -But I don't guess Russell (a Nobel prize winner in literature, by the way) matters so much anymore: This book I'm reviewing is out of print, nobody else has reviewed it and I haven't heard his name mentioned in highbrow discussions for many a year.He was a mathematical genius, wrote prose that could cut like a razor blade concerning the most abstruse subjects in a manner understandable to most laymen, and was a profound skeptic in re matters religious.This latter got him into all kinds of trouble with women's societies and the like back in the earlier part of the century and actually got him fired from the City College of New York. So he packed his bags and went to teach at Harvard.-You see, he was a British aristocrat (an Earl) and all this rabble rousing by the hoi polloi was really a non-issue for him.In his autobiography, he recounts how his mother always told him, "Never follow a crowd to do Evil."Russell never followed a crowd to do anything!-All this biographical elaboration is to help readers understand the man who wrote this book which, in a nutshell, praises the mystical impulse in its pure, unadulterated form while deploring the aforementioned philosophical muddles to which it leads, and, on the other hand, glorifies (justly) the English schools of empirical logic and the scientific progress to which they have lead.One can hardly look at this computer screen and deny this claim.All this in a lucid and thoroughly enjoyable prose.Yes, Russell has seen his days of celebrity come and go (as well as his days in general, one might add,) but if you chance by a wizened looking professor loaded down with heavyweight tomes on metaphysical systems, you might get a rather surprising response if you mention Bertie Russell. - In his day, Russell was the Mick Jagger of Philosophy, and coeds used to quarrel over who got to bed down with him that night when he came to lecture that the stuff a good proportion of their professors were teaching was, quite literally, nonsense.-And just think, he got away with it all!What fun! ... Read more

Book Description
Philosophy, from the earliest times, has made greater claims, and achieved fewer results, than any other branch of learning. In Our Knowledge of the External World, Bertrand Russell illustrates instances where the claims of philosophers have been excessive, and examines why their achievements have not been greater. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Book Summary -- Our Knowledge of the External World
"Our Knowledge of the External World" first appeared as a series of lectures delivered by Bertrand Russell while in Boston in the early spring of 1914. Fifteen years passed before Russell published these Lowell Lectures with the goal of introducing his "logical-analytic method" to the wider general public with the express purpose of finding "whatever objective scientific knowledge it is possible to obtain" (v). In writing this book Russell also hoped to stake a future claim for philosophy.

The barrage of scientific and mathematical discoveries during the early 20th century brought into question the future relevancy and legitimacy of philosophy. For Russell, philosophy found itself at a critical juncture, "Philosophy, from the earliest times, has made greater claims, and achieved fewer results, than any other branch of learning," with Russell's position being, "The problems and the method of philosophy have, I believe, been misconceived by all schools, many of its traditional problems being insoluble with our means of knowledge, while other more neglected but not less important problems can, [through Russell's Logical Atomism], be solved with all the precision and certainty to which the most advanced sciences have attained" (11). Russell envisioned a very specific purpose for philosophy, but realized that his brand of "Logical Atomism" would have to first overcome the entrenched "classical tradition" of Immanuel Kant and "evolutionism" of Herbert Spencer that was popular at the time.

Russell wrote that his interpretation of what philosophy should be "is to help us to understand the general aspects of the world and the logical analysis of familiar but complex things" (22). Philosophy's success in achieving these ends may then provide an ancillary boon to the other sciences. Russell writes, "The philosophy, therefore, which is to be genuinely inspired by the scientific spirit, must deal with somewhat dry and abstract maters, and must not hope to find an answer to the practical problems of life" (31).

In Russell's opinion both the classical tradition and evolutionism erred by presuming that either reason or intuition provided the path to truth. Concerning this false demarcation Russell writes,"insight, untested and unsupported, is an insufficient guarantee of truth...insight is what first leads to the beliefs which subsequent reason confirms or confutes(24-25)," and finally "It is neither intellect nor intuition, but sensation, that supplies new data...intellect is much more capable of dealing with [sensations] than intuition" (28). In contrast, Logical Atomism rejected the classical notion of a priori reasoning in favor of a deductive science based raw sense-data.

The basic premise of Logical Atomism is that all knowledge is ultimately reducible to problems of logic. According to Russell we build this stock of "common knowledge" through either acquaintance (i.e. direct experience) or description (i.e. vicarious experience). While he concedes that his Logical Atomism originated in the field of mathematical logic, Russell argues that it has since developed into its own discipline of philosophical logic, quite distinct from its mathematical origins. Russell's philosophical logic is primarily concerned with the misunderstandings that occur as a result of not clearly differentiating between the logical "form" of a sentence and its "constituent" parts. Russell writes, "In order to understand a sentence, it is necessary to have knowledge both of the constituents and of the particular instance of the form" (41). Simply, this is the task of philosophical logic-to realize that all sentences do not conform to the subject-predicate form.

Russell stated his philosophical methodology as follows:

"We start from a body of common knowledge, which constitutes our data. On examination, the data are found to be complex, rather vague, and largely interdependent logically. By analysis we reduce them to propositions which are as nearly as possible simple and precise, and we arrange them in deductive chains, in which a certain number of initial propositions form a logical guarantee for all the rest" (163).

Through this process Russell believed a higher degree of exactitude could be achieved, and the gap between the world of physics and the world of sensation could be bridged. This was the intellectual climate at Cambridge University during the early 20th century that would later influence others, specifically Wittgenstein, to take the "linguistic turn" in philosophy.

Masterpiece
This book is like a sculpture. Think of Russell as a Michelangelo of analytic philosophy and think of this book as one of his sculptures. You will be looking at his work from different angles, from the distance or from close vicinity, and you will appreciate its many aspects, you will go back and notice details that you missed, and, most important of all, when Russell will comment on the limits of his investigation, you will learn to love the imperfection of his masterpiece. This book is clear and well written, but that doesn't come as a surprise, knowing the author. Russell will capture the reader in his thoughts. His main point throughout the book is giving a logically sound account of reality. The three main arguments are about space, time and infinity. I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in reading a logical, accurate, elementary clear and well written account of the reality that surrounds us. Those readers who have, once in their lives, wondered if time exists, if there can be a definition of "number" and if infinity can be described, will think of this book as a treasure. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Essential Reading; Excellent Overview
Bertrand Russell was one of the preeminent thinkers of the Twentieth Century.It is difficult to imagine a man better qualified to compile and comment upon the greatest thinkers in Western Civilization.Of course, he does have a point of view, leaning more toward Aristotle's materialism than Plato's spirituality, and it is impossible to deny that it informs his interpretations of the great philosophers, but it really doesn't get in the way too much.His distillations of their thinking are as accurate as one may expect, and his commentary is always identified as opinion.
What is remarkable about this volume is it's presentation ofthe sweep of Western thought from the Greeks through the last century, each school of thought seeming to grow out of or be a reaction against what went before.I highly recommend reading it from the beginning so the causes and effects of each period of philosophy and the people who grew from them are fully appreciated.It is dense going at times, but the reward is worth the effort it takes to plow through.
That said, I found myself overwhelmed by the mathematical portions of the book, but that is not Russell's fault;if I have no head for it, he can't be blamed.
It is not a work for the casual reader;a great deal will be expected.There is a wealth of information here, but one must really spend time with each philosopher in order to understand his observations and conclusions.This is a book that needs to be studied, and is not for the dilettante.It requires a certain commitment.
Even so, for one who has neither the time nor the patience to slog through the actual writings of the philosophers presented here, this "Reader's Digest" version is just what is needed.One really cannot call oneself an educated person in our society without a passing knowledge of what is presented here.This introduction to Western Philosophy is about as good as you're going to get.

Interesting
I am not that interested in philosophy, but this book also gives an very well written HISTORY of Western thought. I skipped over the detailed accounts, why for example Plato thought, that God existed (or did not exist - I do not recall..), but I still got a definite "feel" for the development of Western thought. Mr. Russell also describes the men (it is only men...), not only their thoughts, and he shows, how they fit into their times and were influenced by their times.

It is probably ideal for what it set out to be, for someone like me, who puts the emphasis on history, it is a bit lengthy. Therefore, I derated one star.

A Little Dated though Brilliant
It is heartening to see Russell's overview of Western thought in a new reprint. The project itself at the time and even in present time; is extremely ambitious. However, Russell manages the task with professionalism and the text is written in a style that can be read by most individuals interested in the beginnings of Western thought...but Russell takes this project further, paving the way for other recorder's of history and philosophy that was not explored at the time it was written, (1946) and that is, relating philosophy to its particular social and economic background. In other words, he attempts to put a certain philosophy, for example, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche and Marx into its social and economic context, revealing these influencing factors on (their) particular view of the world.

Russell's magnum opus, "Principia Mathematica" , written in collaboration with Alfred North Whitehead, set the standard for logical positivism and analytical philosophy that is continued to be explored and taught in universities today. Although taking a decade to write, setting a new precedent in Western thought, Ludwig Wittgenstein took up the mantel, and changed analytical philosophy forever.

From the end of WW2, Russell became what is known as a `public philosopher', similar to the pragmatist, William James, taking Western thought to the people, writing in a style for the layman. This is one such work.

He was criticised by his colleagues, including his once favourite student Wittgenstein, but he changed direction, writing about controversial issues of the time. He was a great activist joining forces with Albert Einstein and Albert Schweitzer, protesting the Hydrogen Bomb testing after WW2 that the U.S. was carelessly throwing around not knowing the full detrimental effects on human life.

This book is a perfect place to begin for those interested in philosophy and considering it a subject for further study. Though a bit too general and biased in a few places, as any work is or can be, the student will receive a sweeping though accurate account of Western philosophy beginning with the pre-Socratics and ending with John Dewey and Logical Analysis.

Russell has an engaging style, and many thought he would move into fiction and the novel; though he lived into his late nineties, he never failed to rise in the morning for his walk, arranging his thoughts for the days subject...one of the more prolific writer's of the twentieth century.

A History of Western Philosophy is a book that should be in every library.






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Book Description
This second of two volumes of Russell's letters covers most of Russell's adult life, the period during which he wrote over thirty books. Alongside Russell's Autobiography, these letters present the most accurate and fascinating account of his life yet published. They contain letters to some of the greatest figures of the twentieth century, including Ho Chi Minh, Lyndon Johnson, Tito, Jawaharlal Nehru and Jean-Paul Sartre, all but three which are previously unpublished. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

AN OUTSTANDING SELECTION
This book is recommended reading for anyone interested in a fresh approach to the workings of the mind one of the greatest philosophers of the 20th century.
It is a selection of 338 letters written by Bertrand Russell between 1914 and 1970. Sifting though more than 40,000 letters is no simple feat. Fortunately the editor is Nicholas Griffin, director of the Bertrand Russel Research Center at McMaster University in Ontario. As editor of Russell's "Collected Papers", he is in an enviable position to provide us with the juiciest tidbits of Russell's dry humour, as well as a portrait of a passionate man.
The editor commentaries to the letters are useful in order to better understand and put in perspective some events and people mentioned by this very extraordinary thinker. One that you have to know well, if you are to understand how could he write in 1967
that "a great deal of work has come upon me, neglect of which might jeopardise the continuation of the human being......" Kudos to the editor. ... Read more