Bertrand Russell and Wiener’s Postdoctoral Years, 1914—1917

Abstract

Wiener decided to utilize his Harvard traveling fellowship to study mathematical philosophy at Cambridge University under Bertrand Russell, on whose work his thesis had been based. Russell was Lecturer in the Principles of Mathematics, and had just completed the monumental and epoch-making Principia Mathematica {W11} together with his former teacher, the philosopher Alfred North Whitehead. Wiener well describes this phase of his life as “emancipation”: he was to be in a superb environment amid great minds, with the Atlantic Ocean acting as a potential barrier to paternal interference. But it was only with his father’s intervention that this “emancipation” was procured.’ Russell’s autobiography {R8, Vol. I, pp. 345, 346} contains a letter he received from Leo Wiener. It is reproduced here in full, since it gives us a glimpse of Leo’s interesting personality, and the tale it tells has a touch of humor. The emphasis we have added corroborates Norbert’s complaints about his father’s overbearing attitutes.