Learned about Bertrand Russell

1 min read

With a background in STEM, we all have been very familiar with the Set theory. And although it bothered and bored me back when I studied it in high school, my recent encounter with it has been quite different. Following that, I came across the very interesting Russell's paradox that mathematician Bertrand Russell wrote as an argument in his letter to the famous logician Gottlob Frege:

Consider the set X of all sets that do not contain themselves. If X ∈ X, then X does contain itself, so X X. But if X X, then X is a set which does not contain itself, so X ∈ X.
A fanatic against fanaticism, and other pleasures of Bertrand Russell in  his own words | Aeon Videos

This paradox is so interesting that I couldn't stop myself from Googling about the mathematician. He was a British mathematician, logician, and philosopher of very high regard.

I'm picking this up from his Wikipedia article:

In 1950, 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". He was also the recipient of the De Morgan Medal (1932), Sylvester Medal (1934), Kalinga Prize (1957), and Jerusalem Prize (1963).

What I found more fascinating was that he wrote a lot. His book Marriage and Morals from the year 1929 is one of the most popular books (obviously you need to consider the domain). As it was back then. I guess I'm going to pick it up soon.


PS: I love discovering new reads through my curiosity, instead of Amazon suggestions.