“The Argument for the Remedying of Injustice”
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Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, was an English philosopher, logician, and social reformer.
science · English philosopher and logician (1872–1970) · mathematician · social critic · essayist · logician · epistemologist · philosopher of language · metaphysician · analytic philosopher · autobiographer · university teacher · also Bertrand Russell, Bertrand Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, Bertrand Russell, Earl Russell, Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, Russell
Born 18 May 1872 · Died 2 February 1970 · Q33760
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Well, there are many religions, but I suppose they all worship the same God. This remark kept me cheerful for about a week. We later learned that all the nineteen passengers in the non-smoking compartment had been killed. When the plane had hit the water a hole had been made in the plane and the water had rushed in. I had told a friend at Oslo who was finding me a place that he must find me a place where I could smoke, remarking jocularly,
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I have lived in the pursuit of a vision, both personal and social. Personal: to care for what is noble, for what is beautiful, for what is gentle; to allow moments of insight to give wisdom at more mundane times. Social: to see in imagination the society that is to be created, where individuals grow freely, and where hate and greed and envy die because there is nothing to nourish them. These things I believe, and the world, for all its horrors, has left me unshaken
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I spent all my spare time reading him, and learning him by heart, knowing no one to whom I could speak of what I thought or felt, I used to reflect how wonderful it would have been to know Shelley, and to wonder whether I should meet any live human being with whom I should feel so much sympathy.
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20267 items
“Well, there are many religions, but I suppose they all worship the same God. This remark kept me cheerful for about a week. We later learned that all the nineteen passengers in the non-smoking compartment had been killed. When the plane had hit the water a hole had been made in the plane and the water had rushed in. I had told a friend at Oslo who was finding me a place that he must find me a place where I could smoke, remarking jocularly,”
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“I have lived in the pursuit of a vision, both personal and social. Personal: to care for what is noble, for what is beautiful, for what is gentle; to allow moments of insight to give wisdom at more mundane times. Social: to see in imagination the society that is to be created, where individuals grow freely, and where hate and greed and envy die because there is nothing to nourish them. These things I believe, and the world, for all its horrors, has left me unshaken”
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“I think the metaphysics of both Hegel and Marx plain nonsense—Marx”
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“I spent all my spare time reading him, and learning him by heart, knowing no one to whom I could speak of what I thought or felt, I used to reflect how wonderful it would have been to know Shelley, and to wonder whether I should meet any live human being with whom I should feel so much sympathy.”
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Clarin.com: Bertrand Russell, filósofo británico: "El problema del mundo es que los estúpidos están seguros de todo y los inteligentes están llenos de dudas"
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Encyclopaedia Britannica: Analytic philosophy - Bertrand Russell, Logical Analysis, Analytic Tradition
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Variety: Nobel Prize-Winning Philosopher Bertrand Russell Biopic in Development, Amanda Curdt-Christiansen to Pen Script (EXCLUSIVE)
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20221 item
Published “Global burden of bacterial antimicrobial resistance in 2019: a systematic analysis” in The Lancet — cited 14,013 times.
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Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: Bertrand Russell
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20191 item
Psychology Today: Achieving Happiness: Advice from Bertrand Russell
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20181 item
Published “Minimal information for studies of extracellular vesicles 2018 (MISEV2018): a position statement of the International Society for Extracellular Vesicles and update of the MISEV2014 guidelines” in Journal of Extracellular Vesicles — cited 9,688 times.
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19803 items
“Jokes and their Relation to the Cognitive Unconscious”
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Published “A circumplex model of affect.” in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology — cited 12,023 times.
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A memorial to Russell was commissioned by a committee including the philosopher A
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197010 items
Died 1970-02-02.
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“Jeszcze nigdy ludzkość nie żyła w takim lęku jak obecnie i nigdy nie miała po temu tylu powodów.”
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“Impulsy, które w naturalny sposób wyciągają człowieka poza ściany swojego ego, to są seks, rodzicielstwo i patriotyzm albo instynkt stadny.”
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“Historia świata jest sumą tego, czego można było uniknąć.”
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“Budda był uprzejmy i oświecony; na łożu śmierci śmiał się ze swoich uczniów bo przypuszczali że jest nieśmiertelny. Ale duchowieństwo buddyjskie – takie jakie istnieje, na przykład, w Tybecie – było wsteczne, tyrańskie i okrutne w najwyższym stopniu.”
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“Była ścieżka prowadząca przez pola do New Southgate i chodziłem tam sam, żeby oglądać zachód słońca i rozważać samobójstwo. Nie popełniłem jednak samobójstwa, ponieważ chciałem dowiedzieć się więcej o matematyce.”
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“Chcę przedłożyć czytelnikowi do życzliwego rozważenia doktrynę, która, jak się obawiam, może się wydać niesłychanie paradoksalna i wywrotowa. Według tej doktryny jest rzeczą niepożądaną wierzyć jakiemuś twierdzeniu, gdy nie ma żadnej podstawy do przypuszczenia, że jest ono prawdziwe.”
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“Bez obywatelskiej moralności społeczeństwa giną, zaś bez osobistej nie są godne przetrwania.”
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“Być może ludzkość tak się przestraszy bomby wodorowej, iż otrzeźwieje i stanie się tolerancyjna. Gdyby to nastąpiło, mielibyśmy powód, by błogosławić jej wynalazców.”
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On 23 October, his will was published showing he had left an estate valued at £69,423 (equivalent to £1 million in 2025)
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Was one of eleven world figures who issued an appeal to Israel and the Arab countries to accept an arms embargo and international supervision of nuclear plants and rocket weaponry
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Awarded Jerusalem Prize (1963).
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Became the inaugural recipient of the Jerusalem Prize, an award for writers concerned with the freedom of the individual in society
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Russell played a public role in the Cuban Missile Crisis: in an exchange of telegrams with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, Khrushchev assured him that the Soviet government would not be reckless
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“Statement to young Japanese from the President of The Committee of 100 in Britain”
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Awarded Sonning Prize (1960).
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Awarded Kalinga Prize (1957).
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Before and during the Suez Crisis, Russell expressed his opposition to European imperialism in the Middle East
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Russell was divorced by Spence, with whom he had been very unhappy
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19504 items
Awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature — in recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought.
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Awarded Nobel Prize in Literature (1950).
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Russell was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature "in recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought"
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Russell attended the inaugural conference for the Congress for Cultural Freedom, a CIA-funded anti-communist organisation committed to the deployment of culture as a weapon during the Cold War
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19484 items
“s aggression continued, it would be morally worse to go to war after the USSR possessed an atomic bomb than before it possessed one, because if the USSR had no bomb the West”
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Russell said that if the USSR's aggression continued, it would be morally worse to go to war after the USSR possessed an atomic bomb than before it possessed one, because if the USSR had no bomb the West's victory would
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Russell was invited by the BBC to deliver the inaugural Reith Lectures—what was to become an annual series of lectures, still broadcast by the BBC
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Career landmark: Bukken Bruse disaster.
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Awarded doctor honoris causa from the University of Aix-Marseille (1947).
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As an agnostic or an atheist: he found it difficult to determine which term to adopt, saying:Therefore, in regard to the Olympic gods, speaking to a purely philosophical audience, I would say that I am an Agnostic
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To rejoin the faculty of Trinity College
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Adopted a stance toward large-scale warfare called "relative political pacifism": "War was always a great evil, but in some particularly extreme circumstances, it may be the lesser of two evils
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Russell expressed support for Zionism: "I have come gradually to see that, in a dangerous and largely hostile world, it is essential to Jews to have some country which is theirs, some region where they are not suspected
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Describing war as a necessary "lesser of two evils"
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Russell argued in favour of a moderate socialism, capable of overcoming its metaphysical principles
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Changed his appeasement view that avoiding a full-scale world war was more important than defeating Hitler
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But after a public outcry the appointment was annulled by a court judgment that pronounced him "morally unfit" to teach at the college because of his opinions, especially those relating to sexual morality, detailed in Ma
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Wrote in a personal letter: "If the Germans succeed in sending an invading army to England we should do best to treat them as visitors, give them quarters and invite the commander and chief to dine with the prime mini
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Russell returned to the London School of Economics to lecture on the science of power
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Won Sylvester Medal (1934).
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Won De Morgan Medal (1932).
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Russell became the 3rd Earl Russell
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Career landmark: member of the House of Lords (1931–1970).
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Russell became the 3rd Earl Russell of Kingston Russell, and the subsidiary title of Viscount Amberley of Amberley and of Ardsalla
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Wrote that people deemed "mentally defective" and "feebleminded" should be sexually sterilised because they "are apt to have enormous numbers of illegitimate children, all, as a rule, wholly useless to the community
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Russell met Barry Fox (later Barry Stevens), who became a known Gestalt therapist and writer in her later years
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Russell was asked by the Council of Trinity College to give the Tarner Lectures on the Philosophy of the Sciences; these would later be the basis for one of Russell's best-received books according to Hardy: The Analysis
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Russell again gained press attention when attending a "banquet" in the House of Commons with well-known campaigners, including Arnold Lupton, who had been an MP and had also endured imprisonment for "passive resistance t
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His second marriage was to Dora Winifred Black (died 1986), daughter of Sir Frederick Black
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Resigned in 1920, was Tarner Lecturer in 1926 and became a Fellow again in 1944 until 1949
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(he was prosecuted under the Defence of the Realm Act)
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“to my surprise, when I got up to speak, I was given the greatest ovation that was possible to give anybody”
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Resulted in Russell being fined £100 (equivalent to £6,000 in 2025), which he refused to pay in the hope that he would be sent to prison, but his books were sold at auction to raise the money
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Due to his absence of allegiance to the war effort, he was dismissed from Trinity College following his conviction under the Defence of the Realm Act 1914
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With Russell's affair with Lady Ottoline Morrell, and he and Alys finally divorced in 1921 to enable Russell to remarry
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Became a lecturer at the University of Cambridge, Trinity College, where he had studied
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“The Regressive Method of Discovering the Premises of Mathematics”
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Wrote the essay "On Denoting", which was published in the philosophical journal Mind
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Published The Principles of Mathematics, a work on the foundations of mathematics
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By the Fabian campaigners Sidney and Beatrice Webb
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When it occurred to Russell, while cycling, that he no longer loved her
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19005 items
Won Medal Carl von Ossietzky.
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Awarded Fellow of the Royal Society.
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Studied at Trinity College.
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Where he met Giuseppe Peano and Alessandro Padoa
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Studied at University of Cambridge.
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Wrote An Essay on the Foundations of Geometry (submitted at the Fellowship Examination of Trinity College) which discussed the Cayley–Klein metrics used for non-Euclidean geometry
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18962 items
Taught German social democracy at the London School of Economics
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With German Social Democracy, a study in politics that was an early indication of his interest in political and social theory
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Provided him with financial independence and the freedom to pursue research
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Proposed that the state issue certificates of health to prospective parents and withhold public benefits from those considered unfit
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And becoming a Fellow in the latter in 1895
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And graduated in 1893 with a Bachelor of Arts
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With an American friend, Edward FitzGerald, and with FitzGerald's family he visited the Paris Exhibition of 1889 and climbed the Eiffel Tower soon after it was completed
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Russell, aged 17, met the family of Alys Pearsall Smith, an American Quaker five years his senior and a graduate of Bryn Mawr College near Philadelphia
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Leaving Russell in the care of his grandmother
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And was remembered by Russell as a kind old man in a wheelchair
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Born 1872-05-18.
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