If you are interested in or have done some philosophy then you'll find this article fascinating and informative. It covers aspects of the strained relationship between Bertrand Russell and Norbert Wiener that I can't ever remember reading about in other short biographies of the pre-WWI Cambridge philosophers and mathematicians. Similarly, the somewhat awkward and prickly relationship been Russell and Wittgenstein is mentioned.
The article conveys a sense of the intellectual milieu in and around Cambridge in 1913. That must have been a remarkable time to have been at Cambridge and majored in philosophy and or mathematics with the likes of Russell, Wiener, Wittgenstein, G.E. Moore, G.H. Hardy J.E. Littlewood, A.N. Whitehead all there at the same time—even Srinivasa Ramanujan was there in 1913!
I'd have loved to have been around this intellectual tour de force when I was studying those subjects. Ah, well, I'll just have to be content with the fact that a number of my textbooks were written by four of them not to mention other notables who they'd influenced.
> I'd have loved to have been around this intellectual tour de force when I was studying those subjects
You get to do something they could only dream of back then - fast forward the wheels of history 100 years past two world wars to the age of science fiction where machines can think and speak, planet earth grows food for 8 billion people, and the moon is littered with human footprints from a generation ago.
Those philosophers would love nothing more than to spend an hour with you listening to your descriptions and thoughts about the world you live in.
Specifically Trinity College, Cambridge. From Newton to Byron. And down to the Cambridge Spies and Bloomsbury Group.
Although they still do the Math Tripos, the Greats program in Ancient Greek and Latin seems to have befallen modern times and is sadly diminished. One wonders what we are losing ;)
I think that what you call the "Greats" programme would today be called the "Classics", which still seems to be a Tripos option [1]. It requires knowledge of Latin but an extra preliminary year is available to teach it to those without the background. It also includes "intensive ancient Greek programme".
The article conveys a sense of the intellectual milieu in and around Cambridge in 1913. That must have been a remarkable time to have been at Cambridge and majored in philosophy and or mathematics with the likes of Russell, Wiener, Wittgenstein, G.E. Moore, G.H. Hardy J.E. Littlewood, A.N. Whitehead all there at the same time—even Srinivasa Ramanujan was there in 1913!
I'd have loved to have been around this intellectual tour de force when I was studying those subjects. Ah, well, I'll just have to be content with the fact that a number of my textbooks were written by four of them not to mention other notables who they'd influenced.