Bertrand Russell
In Our Time6 Des 2012

Bertrand Russell

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the influential British philosopher Bertrand Russell. Born in 1872 into an aristocratic family, Russell is widely regarded as one of the founders of Analytic philosophy, which is today the dominant philosophical tradition in the English-speaking world. In his important book The Principles of Mathematics, he sought to reduce mathematics to logic. Its revolutionary ideas include Russell's Paradox, a problem which inspired Ludwig Wittgenstein to pursue philosophy. Russell's most significant and famous idea, the theory of descriptions, had profound consequences for the discipline.

In addition to his academic work, Russell played an active role in many social and political campaigns. He supported women's suffrage, was imprisoned for his pacifism during World War I and was a founder of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. He wrote a number of books aimed at the general public, including The History of Western Philosophy which became enormously popular, and in 1950 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Russell's many appearances on the BBC also helped to promote the public understanding of ideas.

With:

AC Grayling Master of the New College of the Humanities and a Supernumerary Fellow of St Anne's College, Oxford

Mike Beaney Professor of Philosophy at the University of York

Hilary Greaves Lecturer in Philosophy and Fellow of Somerville College, Oxford

Producer: Victoria Brignell.

Episoder(1084)

Archaea

Archaea

Misha Glenny and guests discuss one of the most remarkable scientific discoveries of the 20th century: the archaea microorganisms. In the 1970s the American microbiologist Carl Woese (1928-2012) reali...

9 Apr 53min

Margaret Beaufort

Margaret Beaufort

Misha Glenny and guests discuss the woman who, as a child bride, became mother to the boy who would eventually become the first king in the Tudor dynasty. Lady Margaret Beaufort (c1443-1509) was twelv...

2 Apr 54min

The Columbian Exchange

The Columbian Exchange

Misha Glenny and guests discuss the exchange of cultures and biology across the Atlantic and Pacific after 1492. That was when Columbus reached the Bahamas, a time when Europe had no potatoes, tomatoe...

26 Mar 52min

John Keats

John Keats

Misha Glenny and guests discuss the short life and lasting works of Keats (1795-1821), who in one year wrote some of the most loved poems in English. Among these are Ode to a Nightingale, Ode on a Gre...

19 Mar 48min

The Code of Hammurabi

The Code of Hammurabi

Misha Glenny and guests discuss the laws that Hammurabi (c1810 - c1750 BC), King of Babylon, had carved into a black basalt pillar in present day Iraq and which, since its rediscovery in 1901 in prese...

12 Mar 49min

Henry IV Part 1

Henry IV Part 1

Misha Glenny and guests discuss one of the most successful of Shakespeare's plays in his own time. Written with no Part 2 in mind as 'Henry the Fourth', the play explores ideas about who can be a legi...

5 Mar 51min

The Roman Arena

The Roman Arena

Misha Glenny and guests discuss the countless venues across the Roman Empire which for over five hundred years drew the biggest crowds both in the Republic and under the Emperors. The shows there deli...

26 Feb 50min

The Mariana Trench

The Mariana Trench

Misha Glenny and guests discuss one of the wonders of the natural world. In 1875 in the western Pacific, the crew of HMS Challenger discovered the Mariana Trench which turned out to be deeper than Ev...

19 Feb 58min

Populært innen Historie

rss-dette-ma-aldri-skje-igjen
henrettelsespodden
rss-katastrofe
historier-som-endret-norge
rss-benadet
med-egne-oyne
rss-historiske-romanser-svik-drap-og-kjarlighet
aftenposten-historie
rss-nadelose-nordmenn-gestapo
rss-frontkjemperne
historier-som-endret-verden
sektledere
rss-strid-de-norske-borgerkrigene
rss-gamle-greier
rss-bisarr-historie
taakeprat
lille-helvete
historiepodden
rss-historier-fra-gudbrandsdalen
historiepodden-ww2