In Bertrand Russell in 90 Minutes, Paul Strathern offers a concise, expert account of Russell's life and ideas, and explains their influence on man's struggle to understand his existence in the world. The book also includes criticisms and comments on Russell's writings; a brief list of suggested reading for those who wish to push further; and chronologies that place Russell within his own age and in the broader scheme of philosophy.
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Like Strathern himself, Bertrand Russell was a popularizer of philosophy, and his History of Western Phi losophy (1945) is one of the best one-volume works on it. Russell's stature as a philosopher, however, comes from his project to reduce mathematics to a logically coherent system without resting it on axioms. Alas, Kurt Godel exposed this effort as a chimera, but Russell's thought about epistemology fared better. Strathern condenses Russell's heavy thinking into a few paragraphs, leavening it with highlights of his life, such as the turmoil arising from his logician's approach to emotional and social life, which led him to contemplate suicide, conduct assignations galore, and champion liberal causes and pacifism. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
Well-written, clear and informed, they have a breezy wit about them...I find them hard to stop reading. (Bernstein, Richard New York Times )
Witty, illuminating, and blessedly concise. (Jim Holt Wall Street Journal )
Each of these little books is witty and dramatic and creates a sense of time, place, and character...I cannot think of a better way to introduce oneself and one's friends to Western civilization. (Katherine A. Powers The Boston Globe )
A godsend in this era of the short attention span. (Daryl Royster Alexander New York Times )
Strathern presents these technical topics...in an easily understandable way. (Thomas Riggins Political Affairs.Net )
Witty, illuminating, and blessedly concise. (Jim Holt Wall Street Journal )
Each of these little books is witty and dramatic and creates a sense of time, place, and character...I cannot think of a better way to introduce oneself and one's friends to Western civilization. (Katherine A. Powers The Boston Globe )
A godsend in this era of the short attention span. (Daryl Royster Alexander New York Times )
Strathern presents these technical topics...in an easily understandable way. (Thomas Riggins Political Affairs.Net )
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3.0 out of 5 stars
90 Minutes with Bertrand Russell,
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This review is from: Bertrand Russell in 90 Minutes (Philosophers in 90 Minutes Series) (Paperback)
This short book of 92 pages is one of the entries in Strathern's 90 Minutes series. If you know absolutely nothing about Russell you could begin with this book-- but you will need more than it provides to really understand this major philosopher. The heart of this book is the 63 page essay "Russell's Life and Works." Strathern describes how Russell revolted against the prevailing neo-Hegelian idealism he found at Cambridge as a student and developed a philosophy based on logical analysis which he later called "logical atomism" because it stressed the discreteness of things rather than seeing them as all interelated parts of the neo-Hegelian "Absolute." The best part of the book is the non-technical explanation of "Russell's Paradox" and his "Theory of Types." Unfortunately, Strathern does not present Russell's mature philosophy. He gives an overview of Russell's thoufgr based on works from which he later diverged. Strathern should have consulted Russell's 1959 "My Philosopical Development" where he gives his final views on many of the topics discussed in this small book. Russell may need more than ninety minutes!
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