Autobiography

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Chapters: 26

Summary

Autobiography is the lengthy memoir written in his later years by the British philosopher, mathematician, and logician Bertrand Russell (1872–1970). It was first published in three volumes in the late 1960s and later issued as a single volume. Organized chronologically, the book begins with Russell's childhood in an aristocratic family and traces his years at Cambridge, his collaboration with Whitehead on Principia Mathematica, his first marriage, and his encounters with intellectual figures across various countries. It recounts his anti-war stance during the First World War and the imprisonment it brought him; his impressions from visits to Soviet Russia and China in the 1920s; his subsequent teaching and lecturing career in the United States; and, after his return to Britain, his public activities in the nuclear disarmament movement and the founding of the Russell Tribunal. The opening passage, "What I Have Lived For," is a famous piece of English prose, in which Russell sums up the driving forces of his life in three phrases: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. Candid, humorous, and lucid in tone, the book records both a thinker's analysis of the evolution of his own ideas and a portrait of the intellectual landscape of Europe and the world over nearly a century.

Editor's review

这本书最著名的一段几乎人尽皆知：“对爱情的渴望，对知识的追求，对人类苦难不可遏制的同情，是支配我一生的三种激情。”读完全书你会发现，这句话是这位活了近一个世纪的思想者对自己一生的准确概括，并非用于装点的金句。罗素的坦率在同类作品中很少见，他并不回避自己的婚姻变故、牢狱经历和与同行之间的分歧，也不美化任何一场他所参与的运动。更重要的是，这本书同时是一部20世纪的思想文化史：从剑桥的怀特海、维特根斯坦，到一战时期的反战群体，从1920年代的中国之行到战后的核裁军运动，许多重要人物与事件都在他的笔下留下了第一手的侧面记录。中文版已有多种，读者如选择版本，可以留意是否为三卷合一的完整译本。

Who it's for

A good fit for

对西方哲学史与20世纪思想文化史感兴趣的读者
喜欢人物回忆录、书信与知识分子群像的读者
写作、演讲需要引用罗素名篇名句的读者
愿意慢读一部长篇传记、并耐心品味文笔的读者

Not a good fit for

期待看到戏剧性情节或强烈情感冲突的读者
只想了解罗素哲学论点、希望阅读通俗哲学科普的入门读者
习惯碎片化阅读、难以为长篇回忆录投入时间的读者

Reading tips

先读开篇《我为何而生》，再按三卷顺序读，能更好理解全书的时间线索与基调。
读到涉及剑桥学者、政治事件时，可随手查阅相关背景，能显著提升阅读收获。
阅读时不妨对照罗素的其他著作，比如《西方哲学史》《幸福之路》一起看。
读至第三卷，可留意罗素对晚年公共活动的态度，理解他为何被称为“公共知识分子”。

Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part One 1872–1914
Prologue: What I Have Lived For
1 Childhood
2 Adolescence
3 Cambridge
4 Engagement
5 First Marriage
6 Principia Mathematica
7 Return to Cambridge
Part Two 1914–1944
8 The First World War
9 Russia
10 China
11 Second Marriage
12 Later Years at the Telegraph Building
13 In America
Part Three 1944–1967
Preface
14 Return to England
15 At Home and Abroad
16 Trafalgar Square
17 The Foundation
Afterword
Index

FAQ

这本书是罗素自己写的一生，还是别人整理的？

是罗素本人撰写的回忆录，最初于20世纪60年代后期分为三卷出版，后来各版本多把三卷合成一册，并统称《自传》或《罗素自传》。

《自传》和《罗素自传》是同一种书吗？

通常指同一部作品。英文原名即 Autobiography，中文出版物译名多作《罗素自传》或《自传》，但市面上的节选本、选编译本内容差异较大，选购时需留意完整程度。

没有哲学基础能读吗？

可以。书中谈人生经历与人物的部分占很大比重，语言平实幽默；涉及数理逻辑专业的段落可以略读，不影响整体理解。

哪一段最值得先读？

开篇《我为何而生》是他最广为传诵的篇章，几百字之内概括了全书的精神基调，也十分适合作为了解罗素的第一篇文字。

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About the author

Bertrand Arthur William Russell Author · United Kingdom · 1872–1970

Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) was a British philosopher and mathematical logician, and one of the principal founders of analytic philosophy. He co-authored Principia Mathematica with Whitehead, laying a foundation for modern logic, and in 1950 was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. His writing ranged across philosophy, education, social criticism, and autobiography. The collection here holds 45 of his works, including A History of Western Philosophy, a clearly structured survey; The Conquest of Happiness and In Praise of Idleness, which address ordinary readers on life and the mind; and Education and the Social Order, along with Portraits from Memory and Other Essays and his autobiography. His prose is lucid and closely reasoned, discussing abstract questions with calm wit and bridging academic and public reading. In later years he campaigned against nuclear weapons and for peace.