Bertrand Russell Quotes

Bertrand Russell Quotes 366
I was trying hard to solve the contradictions mentioned above. Every morning I would sit down before a blank sheet of paper. Throughout the day, with a brief interval for lunch, I would stare at the blank sheet. Often when evening came it was still empty. ... the two summers of 1903 and 1904 remain in my mind as a period of complete intellectual deadlock. It was clear to me that I could not get on without solving the contradictions, and I was determined that no difficulty should turn me aside from the completion of Principia Mathematica, but it seemed quite likely that the whole of the rest of my life might be consumed in looking at that blank sheet of paper. .
Source: Bertrand Russell: The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell, v.１, chap. 6: Principia Mathematica, 1967
More info.:https://russell-j.com/beginner/AB16-130.HTM

* a brief comment
Hegel lovers need not bother with this kind of thing. According to Hegel's dialectic (Hegelian logic), even if a 'positive' (proposition) and an 'anti' (proposition) seem 'outwardly' contradictory, by 'lifting up' (Aufheben), the 'contradiction' is resolved. There is no need to be concerned about the 'contradiction', because we can 'lifting up' it permanently.
　But Russell is talking about 'logical' contradictions. If you accept even one 'logical' contradiction, no matter how wrong it is, you can prove it 'right'.

　When Russell also entered Cambridge University, he was steeped in Hegel's philosophy and became a Hegelian, but he abandoned Hegel after a few years. For one thing, he was influenced by the discovery that Hegel did not understand mathematics at all and said very silly things.
　Logic is important because it is the basis of all disciplines, but it is a very humble discipline (a discipline that is often struggled with but rarely acknowledged). For this reason, Russell also recalled in later years that he wished he had been a scientist. Russell's scientific abilities were also excellent, and he would have been a successful scientist had he aspired to become one. However, scientists increase enormously in number with the times, so unless you are at least as good as Einstein, you are likely doomed to be forgotten. For example, most Japanese people know Hideki Yukawa, but most foreigners do not.
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