This collection of fifteen new essays marks the centenary of the 1910 to 1913 publication of the monumental "Principia Mathematica" by Alfred N. Whitehead and Bertrand Russell. The papers study the influence of PM on the development of symbolic logic in the twentieth century, Russell's philosophy of logic and his program of reducing mathematics to logic, the distinctive theory of logical types that provides a response to the paradoxes of logic that Russell and others discovered around 1900, as well as the details of some of the mathematical theories in the three volumes of symbolic proofs.

'China, by her resources and her population, is capable of being the greatest power in the world after the United States.' Bertrand Russell, The Problem of China In 1920 the philosopher Bertrand Russell spent a year in China as Professor of Philosophy at the University of Beijing (then Peking), where his lectures on mathematical logic enthralled students and listeners, including Mao Tse Tung, who attended some of Russell's talks. Written at a time when China was largely regarded by the West as backward and weak, The Problem of China sees Russell rise above the prejudices of his era and presciently assess China's past, present and future. Russell brings his analytical and insightful eye to bear on some fundamental aspects of China's history and politics, cautioning China against adopting a purely Western model of social and economic development, which he regarded as characterized by a combination of greed and militarism. Beginning with an overview of nineteenth-century Chinese history and considering China's relations with Japan and Russia, Russell then contrasts Chinese civilization with Western. He devotes a fascinating chapter to the character of the Chinese, which he argues is complex but ultimately defined by a 'pacific temper'. With uncanny foresight, Russell predicts China's resurgence, but only if it is able to establish an orderly government, promote industrial development under Chinese control and foster the spread of education. This Routledge Classics edition includes a new introduction by Bernard Linsky.

China, by her resources and her population, is capable of being the greatest power in the world after the United States.'

Bertrand Russell, The Problem of China

In 1920 the philosopher Bertrand Russell spent a year in China as Professor of Philosophy at the University of Beijing (then Peking), where his lectures on mathematical logic enthralled students and listeners, including Mao Tse Tung, who attended some of Russell’s talks. Written at a time when China was largely regarded by the West as backward and weak, The Problem of China sees Russell rise above the prejudices of his era and presciently assess China's past, present and future.

Russell brings his analytical and insightful eye to bear on some fundamental aspects of China’s history and politics, cautioning China against adopting a purely Western model of social and economic development, which he regarded as characterized by a combination of greed and militarism. Beginning with an overview of nineteenth-century Chinese history and considering China's relations with Japan and Russia, Russell then contrasts Chinese civilization with Western. He devotes a fascinating chapter to the character of the Chinese, which he argues is complex but ultimately defined by a ‘pacific temper’.

With uncanny foresight, Russell predicts China’s resurgence, but only if it is able to establish an orderly government, promote industrial development under Chinese control and foster the spread of education.

This Routledge Classics edition includes a new introduction by Bernard Linsky.

Table of Contents

Introduction to The Problem of China Bernard Linsky

Preface

1. Questions

2. China before the Nineteenth Century

3. China and the Western Powers

4. Modern China

5. Japan before the Restoration

6. Modern Japan

7. Japan and China before 1914

8. Japan and China during the War

9. The Washington Conference

10. Present Forces and Tendencies in the Far East

11. Chinese and Western Civilization Contrasted

12. The Chinese Character

13. Higher Education in China

14. Industrialism in China

15. The Outlook for China.

Appendix

Postscript

Index

To mark the centenary of the 1910 to 1913 publication of the monumental Principia Mathematica by Alfred N. Whitehead and Bertrand Russell, this collection of fifteen new essays by distinguished scholars considers the influence and history of PM over the last hundred years.

Originally published in 1910, Principia Mathematica led to the development of mathematical logic and computers and thus to information sciences. It became a model for modern analytic philosophy and remains an important work. In the late 1960s the Bertrand Russell Archives at McMaster University in Canada obtained Russell's papers, letters and library. These archives contained the manuscripts for the new Introduction and three Appendices that Russell added to the second edition in 1925. Also included was another manuscript, 'The Hierarchy of Propositions and Functions', which was divided up and re-used to create the final changes for the second edition. These documents provide fascinating insight, including Russell's attempts to work out the theorems in the flawed Appendix B, 'On Induction'. An extensive introduction describes the stages of the manuscript material on the way to print and analyzes the proposed changes in the context of the development of symbolic logic after 1910.