PREVIEW-Episode 38: Bertrand Russell on Math and Logic

Summary: Discussing Russell's Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy (1919), ch. 1-3 and 13-18.<br> This is a 33-minute preview of our vintage 1 hr, 31-minute episode which you can buy at <a href="http://partiallyexaminedlife.com/product/ep-38-russell/" target="_blank">partiallyexaminedlife.com/store</a> or <a href="http://partiallyexaminedlife.com/2011/05/25/ep38-russell-citizen/" target="_blank">get for free</a> with PEL Citizenship (see <a href="http://partiallyexaminedlife.com/membership" target="_blank">partiallyexaminedlife.com/membership</a>). You can also purchase the full episode in the <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/episode-38-bertrand-russell/id1047269332" target="_blank">iTunes Store</a>: Search for "Partially Examined Russell" and look under "Albums."<br> How do mathematical concepts like number relate to the real world? Russell wants to derive math from logic, and identifies a number as a set of similar sets of objects, e.g. "3" just IS the set of all trios. Hilarity then ensues.<br> This book is a shortened and much easier to read version of Russell and Whitehead's much more famous Principia Mathematica, and given that we can't exactly walk through the specific steps of lots of proofs on a purely audio podcast (nor would we want to put you through that), we spend some of the discussion comparing analytic (with its tendency to over-logicize) and continental (with its tendency towards obscurity) philosophy.<br> Featuring guest podcaster and number guy <a href="http://joshpelton.com/" target="_blank">Josh Pelton</a>, filling in for Seth.<br> <a href="http://people.umass.edu/klement/russell-imp.html">Read with us online</a> or <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004QGXU92/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=theparexalif-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=B004QGXU92" target="_blank">buy the book.</a><br> End song: "Words and Numbers," by <a href="http://marklint.com/madisonlint.htm" target="_blank">Madison Lint</a> (<a href="http://partiallyexaminedlife.com/2011/05/28/partially-naked-self-examination-music-blog-words-numbers/" target="_blank">read more about this tune</a>).<br>