Bertrand Russell Proof 1 1 2
We ll just take their word for it.
Bertrand russell proof 1 1 2. This certainly isn t the longest proof that 1 1 2. How could they take 300 pages to prove 1 1 2. Bertrand russell and alfred north whitehead wrote the three volume pincipia mathematica in the early twentienth century and after 200 or 300 pages came up with therefore 1 1 2 russell later said it was the most difficult thing he ever did and it took something out of him that he never recovered from. Whitehead and russell s principia mathematica is famous for taking a thousand pages to prove that 1 1 2.
Throughout his life russell considered himself a liberal a socialist and a pacifist although he also sometimes suggested that his sceptical nature had led him to feel. In my post about the myth that logicians are crazy i mentioned in passing that whitehead and russell spend 300 pages proving 1 1 2 but were both sane. Bertrand arthur william russell 3rd earl russell om frs 18 may 1872 2 february 1970 was a british polymath philosopher logician mathematician historian writer social critic political activist and nobel laureate. Alfred north whitehead and bertrand russell wrote principia mathematica and published it in three volumes in the years 1910 1913.
Are you sure russell and whitehead weren t a few axioms short of a complete set. In it they laid the foundation of modern mathematics. The main reason that it takes so long to get to 1 1 2 is that principia mathematica starts from almost nothing and works its way up in very tiny incremental steps. Whitehead 1861 1947 bertrand russell and alfred north whitehead were british mathematicians logicians and philosophers who were in the vanguard of the british revolt against continental idealism in the early 20th century and between them they made important contributions in the.
That honour probably goes to alfred north whitehead and bertrand russell in principia mathematica where they develop mathematics from an abstract version of set theory and get around to proving 1 1 2 on page 362. On page 378 yes three hundred and seventy eight of the principia mathematica. If they had wanted to prove only that 1 1 2 it would probably have taken only half as much space. Of course it proves a lot of other stuff too.
Bertrand russell alfred north whitehead principia mathematica 1 1 2 bertrand russell 1872 1970 and a n. Here on page 362 they finally get around to proving that 1 1 2. The work of g. The principia mathematica often abbreviated pm is a three volume work on the foundations of mathematics written by the philosophers alfred north whitehead and bertrand russell and published in 1910 1912 and 1913.
Two people privately emailed me. So some really smart guys named bertrand russell. Peano shows that it s not hard to produce a useful set of axioms that can prove 1 1 2 much more easily than whitehead and russell do.