Alfred North
Whitehead was a 19th century English Philosopher, whom was probably
best known for his contributions to Mathematics and Science. He was born on February 15th in 1861,
in Ramsgate, Kent; son to an Anglican clergyman. Alfred grew up as the youngest
of four children and was educated at home, until the age of fourteen.
‘In 1875, at the age of fourteen, he
entered Sherbone Public School, in Dorsetshire, where he studied the ancient
historians: Herodotus; Xenophon; Thucydides; Sallust; Livy; and Tacitus. His education
also consisted of mathematics and reading of the Bible, in
Greek. (Richard Lubbock, 1999)
Throughout his
childhood he showed talent in both mathematics and sport.
Whitehead later graduated from Trinity
College, Cambridge in 1884, where he had been a 4th ‘Wrangler’;
meaning that he was highly ranked amongst his fellow students, being the fourth
highest scoring mathematics graduate from Cambridge University.
On
16th December in 1890, Whitehead married Evelyn Ada M R Willoughby-Wade, with
his brother Reverend, Henry Whitehead, officiating; he and his wife had four
children, all born at Cambridge.
At 30 years old, Alfred wrote his first
scholarly work, titled ‘Treatise on Universal Algebra’ in 1898 and around 1900,
Whitehead and Bertrand Russell joined forces for their collaboration on the
three-volume ‘Principia Mathematica’, setting out to prove that maths can be
understood by sound reasoning or logic. The completion took 10 years.
Whitehead
and his Wife lived in Cambridge for 20 years and it was there that he lectured
Mathematics, up until 1911 before relocating to London in 1910, where he
lectured Mathematics and Mechanics, at the University of London. From 1914 to
1924 he was Professor of Mathematics.
Whitehead was extremely influential in the
study of analytic philosophy and also served as president of the Aristotelian
Society from 1922-1923.
In 1924, he moved to Harvard University where
he became a Professor of Philosophy and it was there that he lived for the rest
of his days.
‘When he was teaching at Harvard during
the 1920's -- the age of The Great Gatsby, of jazz, of prohibition and Al
Capone -- he described himself as "a typical Victorian Englishman".’
Richard Lubbock (1999).
‘Whitehead
retired at the age of 76, and two years after the end of the Second World War,
on December 30th, 1947, he passed away at his home at 86 years of
age, from a cerebral haemorrhage. ‘His
obituary was printed in the New York Times, in which it also mentions that he
had three grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.’ He would now be 153
years old if still alive today.
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