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Bertrand Russell (Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, OM, FRS (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970)) has been a major influence on my life.  I asked for and was given a copy of his collected Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell for my 21st birthday and although I never agreed entirely with every one of his opinions I have always respected them.

In 1950 Russell won the Nobel Prize in literature but remained a controversial figure.  He was responsible for the Russell–Einstein Manifesto in 1955. The signatories included Albert Einstein, just before his death, and ten other eminent intellectuals and scientists. They warned of the dangers of nuclear weapons and called on governments to find alternative ways of resolving conflict.   Russell went on to become the first president of the campaign for nuclear disarmament (CND) and subsequently organised opposition to the Vietnam War. He could be seen in 50's news-reels at the head of CND demonstrations with his long divorced second wife Dora, for which he was jailed again at the age of 89.  

In 1958 Gerald Holtom, created a logo for the movement by stylising, superimposing and circling the semaphore letters ND.

Some four years earlier I'd gained my semaphore badge in the Cubs, so like many children of my vintage, I already knew that: n icon = N(uclear)  d icon = D(isarmament)

The logo soon became ubiquitous, graphitied onto walls and pavements, and widely used as a peace symbol in the 60s and 70s, particularly in hippie communes and crudely painted on VW camper-vans.

 

peace

 (otherwise known as the phallic Mercedes).

 

 

To his Basic Writings I later added his History of Western Philosophy and an Inquiry into Meaning and Truth.  Only Hume and Plato outnumber him on my philosophy shelf.  Russell's writing is particularly precise and dense.  He reputedly wrote about 3000 words a day for most of his life but he is not an 'easy read'.  At heart Russell is a mathematician and logician.

Together with Alfred North Whitehead  Russell wrote the landmark text Principia Mathematica that ranks alongside Einstein's Theory of Special Relativity as amongst the most important intellectual insights of the early 20th century.

According to the Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy this is one of the most influential books on logic ever written:   

'It was published in three volumes in 1910, 1912 and 1913... Today there is not a major academic library anywhere in the world that does not possess a copy of this landmark publication.

It served as a major impetus for research in the foundations of mathematics throughout the twentieth century...  Principia Mathematica proved to be influential in at least three ways. First, it popularized modern mathematical logic to an extent undreamt of by its authors.  Whitehead and Russell managed to convey the remarkable expressive power of modern predicate logic in a way that previous writers had been unable to achieve. Second, by exhibiting so clearly the deductive power of the new logic, Whitehead and Russell were able to show how powerful the modern idea of a formal system could be, thus opening up new work in what was soon to be called metalogic. Third, Principia Mathematica reaffirmed clear and interesting connections between logicism and two of the main branches of traditional philosophy, namely metaphysics and epistemology, thus initiating new and interesting work in both of these areas.

Thus, not only did Principia introduce a wide range of philosophically rich notions (such as propositional function, logical construction, and type theory), it also set the stage for the discovery of classical metatheoretic results (such as those of Kurt Gödel, Alonzo Church, Alan Turing and others) and initiated a tradition of common technical work in fields as diverse as philosophy, mathematics, linguistics, economics and computer science.'

Thus (following the link above):

'Alan Turing's 1950 paper 'Computing Machinery and Intelligence' is one of the most frequently cited in modern philosophical literature. It gave a fresh approach to the traditional mind-body problem...  His work can be regarded as the foundation of computer science and of the artificial intelligence program.'

 

Russell's work in these areas led to significant advances in western thought and laid the ground for both logical positivism and information theory.  Other analytical or realist philosophers developed his ideas including Ryle and Strawson in linguistics, and Carnap, AJ Ayer and Karl Popper in empiricism and logical positivism.  It will be obvious to anyone who is familiar with the works of these philosophers that they, in turn, heavily influenced me in my thinking.  This is clearly exposed in my essay to my children, The Meaning of Life, published on this website.  Russell was also a major influence on his student  Ludwig Wittgenstein who, became a major influence in both the English speaking world and Europe. I take my hat off to anyone who fully understands what he's talking about. 

In this respect Russell stands with other English speaking British, American and Australian empiricists, in opposition to the romantic idealism of European philosophy that later evolved into existentialism, post modernism and the deconstructionists. 

It is difficult to over emphasise the importance of western empirical philosophy on the development of modern science and scientific thinking.  It is also central to the theory of language, information theory and symbolic logic that has been fundamental to the development of computer science. 

But these days it is difficult to find 'legitimate' philosophy books on any of these fundamental streams of intellectual development in a 'regular' bookshop.   If any are to be found at all they are likely to be sandwiched between vast numbers of self-help books; books on the occult; and a multiplicity of religions.  Astrology trumps Aristotle.  

Thank Berners-Lee (and Russell) for the Web!

You can read a number of Russell's writings on line click here and watch the video below, covering just one aspect of his many areas of interest:

  

 

 

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Travel

Greece and Türkiye 2024

 

 

 

 

In May 2024 Wendy and I travelled to Europe and after a string of flights landed in Berlin. By now we are quite familiar with that city and caught public transport to Emily and Guido's apartment to be greeted by our grandchildren and their parents.  I have previously reported on their family, so, suffice it to say, we had a very pleasant stay and even got out to their country place again.

From Berlin we flew to Greece and had an initial few days in Athens, before returning to Berlin, then back to Greece, a week later, to join a cruise of the Greek islands and Türkiye (just one port).

At the end of the cruise we spent a self-guided week on Crete. We finished our European trip with a week in Bulgaria, followed by a week in the UK, before flying back to Sydney.

Read more: Greece and Türkiye 2024

Fiction, Recollections & News

Recollections of 1963

 

 

 

A Pivotal Year

 

1963 was a pivotal year for me.  It was the year I completed High School and matriculated to University;  the year Bob Dylan became big in my life; and Beatlemania began; the year JFK was assassinated. 

The year had started with a mystery the Bogle-Chandler deaths in Lane Cove National Park in Sydney that confounded Australia. Then came Buddhist immolations and a CIA supported coup and regime change in South Vietnam that was both the beginning and the begining of the end for the US effort there. 

Suddenly the Great Train Robbery in Britain was headline news there and in Australia. One of the ringleaders, Ronnie Biggs was subsequently found in Australia but stayed one step of the authorities for many years.

The 'Space Race' was well underway with the USSR still holding their lead by putting Cosmonaut, Valentina Tereshkova into orbit for almost three days and returning her safely. The US was riven with inter-racial hostility and rioting. But the first nuclear test ban treaties were signed and Vatican 2 made early progress, the reforming Pope John 23 unfortunately dying midyear.

Towards year's end, on the 22nd of November, came the Kennedy assassination, the same day the terminally ill Aldous Huxley elected to put an end to it.

But for sex and scandal that year the Profumo Affair was unrivalled.

Read more: Recollections of 1963

Opinions and Philosophy

Energy and a ‘good life’

 

 

 

Energy

With the invention of the first practical steam engines at the turn of the seventeenth century, and mechanical energy’s increasing utility to replace the physical labour of humans and animals, human civilisation took a new turn.  

Now when a contemporary human catches public transport to work; drives the car to socialise with friends or family; washes and dries their clothes or the dishes; cooks their food; mows their lawn; uses a power tool; phones a friend or associate; or makes almost anything;  they use power once provided by slaves, servants or animals.

Read more: Energy and a ‘good life’

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