ABSTRACT
One point in regard to which improvement is obviously desirable is
in the axiom of reducibility *12.1.11
Introduction to the Second Edition (1925)
In 1911 a young Austrian, Ludwig Wittgenstein, who had been studying at Manchester in preparation for a career in aeronautical engineering, took a passionate interest in the foundations of mathematics. With characteristic British humor, Russell reports that
. . . for a whole term I could not make up my mind whether he was
a man of genius or merely an eccentric. At the end of his first term
at Cambridge he came to me and said: “Will you please tell me
whether I am a complete idiot or not?” I replied: “My dear fellow,
I don’t know. Why are you asking me?” He said: “Because, if I am
a complete idiot, I shall become an aeronaut; but if not, I shall
It is difficult to believe that either thought that engineering can be performed by idiots. But in any case, Russell soon came to recognize Wittgenstein’s potential and took him under his wing. In time, he came to believe Wittgenstein was an eccentric savant who, between mania and depression, may well make the next great advance in mathematical logic.
