50 years ago: The death of Bertrand Russell

On February 2, 1970, British philosopher Bertrand Russell died of influenza at the age of 97. Professor Russell was one of the founders of analytic philosophy, and was regarded as one of the 20th century's foremost logicians. His most famous book, written with Alfred North Whitehead, was the three-volume Principia Mathematica (1910-1913). Prof. Russell was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1950 "in recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought." Prof. Russell was known for campaigning against nuclear arms, but it was less well-known that for several years in the late 1940s he advocated a pre-emptive nuclear strike by the U.S.A. against the U.S.S.R.

On the subject of religion, Prof. Russell said, in 1947: "Therefore, in regard to the Olympic gods, speaking to a purely philosophical audience, I would say that I am an Agnostic. But speaking popularly, I think that all of us would say in regard to those gods that we were Atheists. In regard to the Christian God, I should, I think, take exactly the same line." He was a member of the Advisory Council of the British Humanist Association and President of Cardiff Humanists until his death.

Rabi Maharaj, in his autobiography Death of a Guru (1977, p. 129) offered the following comment on one of Prof. Russell’s best-known books: "Why I am Not a Christian had turned out to be a disappointment...Russell’s arguments were weak and contrived, and the more I read of why he had not become a Christian, the more convinced I became that I must become one--the evidence demanded it." Malcolm Muggeridge said of Prof. Russell: "He had no heart at all." Paul Johnson included a chapter on Prof. Russell in his book Intellectuals (1988), which I recommend.