Russell: The Great Philosophers

by Ray Monk

First published in 1999. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Biography

64 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Ray Monk is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Southampton, where he has taught since 1992.

He won the Mail on Sunday/John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and the 1991 Duff Cooper Prize for Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Duty of Genius. His interests lie in the philosophy of mathematics, the history of analytic philosophy, and philosophical aspects of biographical writing. He is currently working on a biography of Robert Oppenheimer. (Source: Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Sebastian · Rating 2 out of 5]

Esta introducción a Russell es biográfica: sigue el viaje que hizo BR del idealismo pitagórico-platónico más extremo y racionalista, hacia el escepticismo empirista más árido, algo que el autor atribuye a la influencia del mesías nominailsta de mirada extraviada, Ludwig Wittgenstein, algo que me parece un poco exagerado y cruel con el pobre Bertrand. También explica que ese viaje en el que BR perdía una convicción por cada década que pasaba lo encontró desvalido e inerme ante la demolición platónica que aplicó a su edificio lógico otro austríaco, Kurt Gôdel. A veces uno lo puede leer como una bildungsroman al revés, en la que el héroe cada vez cree menos en sí mismo.

El gran límite de este libro es que no se molesta en explicar qué es lo que BR escibió en su Principia Mathematica, al que considera uno de los libros más inentendibles de la historia del pensamiento. Quizás sea cierto, pero no me dejó claro el por qué.

[Christopher James · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a tiny little book I found in a second hand shop for a few pence, and as I quite like Bertrand Russel just bought it on a whim.

You could really finish this over a cup of coffee, so it would be easy to go on about what's not in it. But it does capture a certain spirit. For a mathematician, I tend to think of him as essentially an ethical philosopher. In that he had an almost desperate faith in truth and beauty. This little book gives a real sense of his struggles with a massive body of work that never achieved what he wanted.

It does just cover the big issues of his philosophy, without touching on his politics or private life at all.

If this is something you might want to get into, this is as good a place to start as any.

[Blair · Rating 4 out of 5]

Concentrates on the philosophy rather than Russell's fascinating life (which he writes about at length in his biographies of Russell), and the philosophy can be a bit dry, but Monk does a very good job of succinctly explaining some difficult concepts.

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice little book on Bertrand Russell .... captures some of his most important reflections .... easy reading given the subject.

[James Klagge · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short, reliable and interesting book on the evolution of Russell's views on logic and metaphysics.

[Daniel Clemence · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had the pleasure of Ray Monk being a lecturer of mine at university. So, this is likely to be a biased review.

That said, Ray Monk’s book on Russell gives an overview of Bertrand Russell’s philosophy of mathematics. It looks over Bertrand Russell’s life, his philosophy of mathematics and how it impacts logic. Don’t let the small size fool you. It is filled with depth of understanding mathematics, particularly looking over Pythagoras and the problems of Pythagorean mathematics. One quote from the book that sums up much of the book from page 27 “ Philosophy asks for mathematics: What does it mean? Mathematics in the past was unable to answer”. Such is the book explaining the interrelation between maths and philosophy.

I would recommend the book as an explanation of the philosophy of mathematics.

[R. · Rating 3 out of 5]

A young man falls in love and pursues the idealized dream that is his beloved. No matter how much he puts her on a pedestal, she does not stay put. That is not who she is!
In the end, after many years of courtship, he finds that what he thought she was she in fact isn’t. Or as the author says of Russell’s Pythagorean Dream, it was “a nightmare all along.”

[W · Rating 4 out of 5]

As part of the daunting process of trying to gain an introductory knowledge of philosophy, I found this a very interesting and enjoyable book. Despite being very short, it manages to synthesise, in an engaging manner, a brief biography of Russell, a vision of the process of developing philosophy, and some examination of important philosophical content. Worth reading if you have the opportunity, although it's also worth noting that even at 58 pages there aren't many words per page.

[Julian Morris]

A short story about someone trying to logically prove the existence of Plato's realm of ideas (in relation to mathematics at least). Themes include a noble quest, incredible intellectual feats, possible glimpses of the eternal, the humility of being surpassed by a pupil, and renunciation.

[George · Rating 5 out of 5]

The strength of this book lies equally in its brevity and its authorship. Only a truly informed lover of Russell such as Monk could achieve so concise and elucidatory a review. What's more, by situating Russell's life's work in his early childhood traumas, one gleans so much more than just a clear and accessible panoramic overview of the evolution in his thinking, itself an incredible achievement for subject matter so heavy, but one also appreciates the personal mission in Russell's life's work to prove the existence of absolute truth. In this way, [spoiler alert] when one reaches the end of these 58 printed pages, one is able thus to interpret its ending not as a failure of mission but as transcendence. So Russell renounces the search for absolute truth, and in this way, finally is able to accept, integrate and overcome the great loss and uncertainty of his early life. At a spiritual level we come to understand his superficial failure as his most meaningful success. This is a movingly universal and inspirational tale with meaning beyond the history of western philosophical thought. And how charming to by the way come to understand the genealogy of the language of my high school mathematics teachers. This story of a man who largely did his thinking alone and can be said to have achieved nothing in his life, can also so clearly be understood to have created the language and frameworks from which entire field(s) of thinking would arise within a generation. A fantastic introduction to Russell - and Wittgenstein - and very well told. Bravo!

[Camilo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ray Monk conoce muy bien a los autores de los que escribe, sus ideas a través de su vida queda muy bien plasmada pero no tanto su "vida" en terminos biográficos. Para quienes busquen una biografía de Russell aquí no la encontraran, el objetivo del libro es dar una pincelada general de las ideas del autor en su vida y los evento intelectuales que las cambiaron.

Si conoces un poco de matemáticos del siglo XX o los llamados filósofos analíticos, entonces este libro te será de gran placer para dar una estructura a todos los debates que se generaron en esta época, de no ser así, dificilmente podría recomendar este libro al público en general.

[Hollis Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just to be clear I read this in English, not sure why Goodreads only has a Portuguese edition. I enjoyed this book but it reminded me why I more or less abandoned reading or studying philosophy a few years ago. So hopelessly abstract I could hardly understand what the fuck was going on (and this is just the simplest of summaries, imagine seriously plunging into this) and when I did understand, I couldn't really grasp the significance or applications of it.