Who was he?

Alfred North Whitehead was a 19^th century English Philosopher, whom was probably best known for his contributions to Mathematics and Science.  He was born on February 15^th 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 4^th ‘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 30^th, 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.