Bertrand Russell

He is one of the most influential mathematicians, philosphers and politicians in the 20th century. I first heard about him when Jay and I were preparing for our interviews for Cambridge in Autumn 2000. His notable academic contributions include Logical Atomism and his famous publication Principia Mathematica (described as "an attempt to derive all mathematical truths from a well-defined set of axioms and inference rules in symbolic logic", truths such as 1 + 1 = 2).

I spent part of this afternoon reading the article about him in Wikipedia (see here). As well as a superstar in his academic fields, he was also an outspoken politician, and famously opposed the war against Vietnam by the Americans.

Another interesting part of him can be found in his Russell's teapot. The fact that no one can disprove the existent of a China teapot between the Earth and Mars, it doesn't mean that it's there. This as a consequence tell the difference between agnostic and atheist.

Related articles:
G?del's incompleteness theorems
Google search result on "Atheist"


I am looking forward to the match tonight. Without a doubt, Arsenal were the better team last week when they beat Juventus by 2-0 at Highbury. But everyone says it's very different at Turin. We'll see.