Letters to the Editor
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‘Varieties of Heroism’
In regard to “Varieties of Heroism,” by Jeffrey Hart [Arts & Letters, November 23, 2007]: Professor Hart writes: “Mr. Johnson gives briefly some of the pertinent biographical facts about Wittgenstein (1889-1951), but omits the salient fact that Wittgenstein was an advanced student — colleague really — of Bertrand Russell at Cambridge.
“At the time Russell was the world’s foremost logician. With Whitehead he had written “Principia Mathematica” (1910). But Wittgenstein proved to be so much his superior as a logician that he put Russell out of the logic business.
“Thereafter Russell wrote only popular works — an enterprise for which he ultimately won the Nobel Prize in literature.”
The claim that Russell wrote “only popular works” after 1913 (when the third and final volume of “Principia Mathematica” appeared — in 1910 only the first volume had been published) is not correct.
While Russell spent his entire career writing popular essays, he also continued to write technical philosophy, at least through the 1940s. Some landmark philosophical works after 1913 include “Our Knowledge of the External World: As a Field for Scientific Method in Philosophy” (1914), “Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy” (1919), “The Analysis of Mind” (1921), “The Analysis of Matter” (1927), and “An Inquiry into Meaning and Truth” (1940), to name only a few.
ALEXANDER KLEIN
Toronto, Canada
‘My Smoking Confessional’
The greatly admired Mr. Buckley and his wife both freely chose to smoke [Oped, “My Smoking Confessional,” December 3, 2007]. Neither could claim to be ignorant of the risks, which both had also freely chosen to ignore. Presumably, they weighed the benefits against the risks — a 10% chance of eventually getting lung disease including, but not limited to, cancer, or a 90% chance of completely lucking out — and decided to keep on. But now, because he’s in the unlucky 10%, he’d “solemnly” remove the same freedom to make their own choices from others.
Sailing is risky too. Had Mr. Buckley been injured in a sailing accident, would he also want to ban all sailing in America? And rue the day he’d ever set foot on a boat?
LINDA STEWART
New York, N.Y.
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