Essay   Unpopular Essays Bertrand Russel   This is a collection of essays by Bertrand Russel, written over a period of fifteen years beginning 1930. According to Russel most of these were written to counter the rising dogmatism whether of the right or the left.   Bertrand Russel born in the late Victorian era lived a long life straddling the last two centuries. A giant of a public intellectual, he was a polymath: a philosopher, a logician, a mathematician and a public thinker of unmatched intellect. He began writing essays on popular themes to earn a little money, but his skills as a writer of stunningly lucid prose, his deep grasp of the subject and his capability to simplify most profound philosophical thoughts for the benefit of layman earned him immense popularity amongst lay readers all over the world.   In preface to this book he informs us that critics once took him to task for one of his books which they found a little difficult. This accord...

Essay A Mathematician's Apology G.H. Hardy 'I propose to put forward an apology for mathematics...' says G.H. Hardy, one of the greatest mathematicians of twentieth century as he opens the first chapter in this book. He explains in the chapter what he feels a real mathematician ought to be doing; 'It is a melancholy experience for a professional mathematician to find himself writing about mathematics. The function of a mathematician is to do something, to prove a new theorem, to add to mathematics, and not to talk about what he or other mathematician have done.' This sadness, this awareness that the powers which were his one source of supreme joy as a creator and which have now abandoned him and the honest admission of the same, pervades the essay like its soul. Another palpable quality is its most measured, pithy but supremely lucid and elegant prose. This is a work of a master craftsman. How I wish Hardy had written more and lengthier books, however a...

*** 1/2 /*****                                                                                                                                      Essay Why I am not a Christian       Bertrand Russell This is a collection of essays by Bertrand Russell. Many deal with religion. The eponymous essay Why I am not a Christian is one of the finest essay written on religion or the lack of it (contra...

*** 1/2 /*****                                                                                                                                      Essay/Anthology Democrats and Dissenters Ramachandra Guha Ramachandra Guha trained as a sociologist, but is known mostly as a historian amongst readers. His most popular book till ...