Where's a good place to start with Bertrand Russell & John Dewey

Been reading up on these two (I found out about them as Noam Chomsky seems to be rather of fond of them) and they sound very interesting but I am unsure where to start, any recommendations? Any other writers in a similar vain I should check out?

Ta lads and lass's

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertrand_Russell

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dewey

ive always been fond of Bertrand Russell though never read his stuff.

i read russell's 'why i am not a christian' way back when and thought well enough of it, but I was too young to understand quite a bit of what he was on about.

here's a link to some free online versions of his books & essays

interested to see what other people recommend, as i'd like to read more by these two gentlemen as well

  On 4/21/2011 at 3:52 PM, chris moss acid said:

ive always been fond of Bertrand Russell though never read his stuff.

could we get a bertrand russel inspired acid track?

  On 4/21/2011 at 4:03 PM, luke viia said:

i read russell's 'why i am not a christian' way back when and thought well enough of it, but I was too young to understand quite a bit of what he was on about.

 

here's a link to some free online versions of his books & essays

 

interested to see what other people recommend, as i'd like to read more by these two gentlemen as well

ah wicked, thanks a lot

I have Russell's History of Western Philosophy, a hard read, only about a hundred or so pages in to it.

I heard Wittgenstein hated Russell. or at least they were scholastic nemeses.

Russell's History of Western Philosophy is supposed to be good, and he wrote autobiographies both personal and intellectual, if you're more interested in that angle.

  On 4/21/2011 at 4:12 PM, funkaholic said:

  On 4/21/2011 at 3:52 PM, chris moss acid said:

ive always been fond of Bertrand Russell though never read his stuff.

 

could we get a bertrand russel inspired acid track?

na tried the philosophy acid tip a few years ago and it got boring

  On 4/21/2011 at 4:40 PM, chris moss acid said:

  On 4/21/2011 at 4:12 PM, funkaholic said:

  On 4/21/2011 at 3:52 PM, chris moss acid said:

ive always been fond of Bertrand Russell though never read his stuff.

 

could we get a bertrand russel inspired acid track?

 

 

na tried the philosophy acid tip a few years ago and it got boring

damn

For Russel: A nice short introduction, relatively easy read (i love his writing style) is "Unpopular Essays". It even has an essay titled "Philosophy for Laymen".

http://www.archive.org/details/unpopularessays027477mbp

  On 4/21/2011 at 4:46 PM, thanks robert moses said:

For Russel: A nice short introduction, relatively easy read (i love his writing style) is "Unpopular Essays". It even has an essay titled "Philosophy for Laymen".

 

http://www.archive.org/details/unpopularessays027477mbp

excellent, thanks a lot, will slowly print this off at work

  On 4/21/2011 at 4:41 PM, funkaholic said:

  On 4/21/2011 at 4:40 PM, chris moss acid said:

  On 4/21/2011 at 4:12 PM, funkaholic said:

  On 4/21/2011 at 3:52 PM, chris moss acid said:

ive always been fond of Bertrand Russell though never read his stuff.

 

could we get a bertrand russel inspired acid track?

 

 

na tried the philosophy acid tip a few years ago and it got boring

 

damn

plus it would only be fun and it wouldn't sell.

i just read these two (russell essays), both pretty good:

the theologian's nightmare

on youthful cynicism

  On 4/21/2011 at 4:22 PM, Smettingham Rutherford IV said:

I have Russell's History of Western Philosophy, a hard read, only about a hundred or so pages in to it.

same. not 100 in yet though and doubt i ever will be.

For an overview of Bertrand Russell's life I would recommend Logicomix, a fantastic graphic novel about the "foundational quest" in mathematics at the end of the 19th century. The story is told through Russell who relates his life story and his eventual quest to set a foundation for logic in describing reality.

Actually Wikipedia's summary does a nice job:

  Quote

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logicomix

 

Set between the late 19th century and present-day, the graphic novel Logicomix is based on the story of the so-called "foundational quest" in mathematics.

 

Logicomix intertwines the philosophical struggles with the characters' own personal turmoil. These are in turn played out just upstage of the momentous historical events of the era and the ideological battles which gave rise to them. The narrator of the story is Bertrand Russell, who stands as an icon of many of these themes: a deeply sensitive and introspective man, Russell was not just a philosopher and pacifist, he was also one of the prominent figures in the foundational quest. Russell's life story, depicted by Logicomix, is itself a journey through the goals and struggles, and triumph and tragedy shared by many great thinkers of the 20th century: Georg Cantor, Ludwig Wittgenstein, G. E. Moore, Alfred North Whitehead, David Hilbert, Gottlob Frege, Henri Poincaré, Kurt Gödel, and Alan Turing.

 

A parallel tale, set in present-day Athens, records the creators’ disagreement on the meaning of the story, thus setting in relief the foundational quest as a quintessentially modern adventure. It is on the one hand a tragedy of the hubris of rationalism, and on the other an origin myth of the computer.

It gives a nice overview of not only Russell's life, but explains several of the problems confronting mathematicians and logicians at the time and onward into the present in a way that can be quickly understood by laypeople.

in the ditch like a pee-soaked rug