Editing Bertrand Russell (section)

===Childhood and adolescence===
[[File:Young Bertrand Russell, circa late 1880s.jpg|left|thumb|177x177px|Russell as a schoolboy]]
Russell had two siblings: brother [[Frank Russell, 2nd Earl Russell|Frank]] (seven years older), and sister Rachel (four years older). In June 1874, Russell's mother died of [[diphtheria]], followed shortly by Rachel's death. In January 1876, his father died of [[bronchitis]]<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Brink |first=Andrew |date=1982 |title=Death, Depression and Creativity: A Psychobiological Approach to Bertrand Russell |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24777750 |journal=Mosaic: A Journal for the Interdisciplinary Study of Literature |volume=15 |issue=1 |issn=0027-1276 |page=93 |jstor=24777750 }}</ref> after a long period of [[Major depressive disorder|depression]].<ref name="Monk1996">{{Cite book |last=Monk |first=Ray |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AzssomBIDRIC |title=Bertrand Russell: The Spirit of Solitude, 1872–1921 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-684-82802-2 |access-date=9 June 2024 |archive-date=10 September 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240910142455/https://books.google.com/books?id=AzssomBIDRIC |url-status=live }}</ref>{{rp|p=14}} Frank and Bertrand were placed in the care of [[Victorian morality|Victorian]] paternal grandparents, who lived at [[Pembroke Lodge, Richmond Park|Pembroke Lodge]] in [[Richmond Park]]. His grandfather, former Prime Minister [[John Russell, 1st Earl Russell|Earl Russell]], died in 1878, and was remembered by Russell as a kind old man in a wheelchair. His grandmother, the [[Frances Russell, Countess Russell|Countess Russell]] (née Lady Frances Elliot), was the central family figure for the rest of Russell's childhood and youth.<ref name="Gallery" /><ref name="calicut" />

The Countess was from a Scottish [[Presbyterian]] family and petitioned the [[Court of Chancery]] to set aside a provision in Amberley's will requiring the children to be raised as agnostics. Despite her religious conservatism, she held progressive views in other areas (accepting [[Darwinism]] and supporting [[Home Rule|Irish Home Rule]]), and her influence on Bertrand Russell's outlook on [[social justice]] and standing up for principle remained with him throughout his life. Her favourite Bible verse, "Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil",<ref>{{Bibleverse |Exodus |23:2 |KJV}}</ref> became his motto. The atmosphere at Pembroke Lodge was one of frequent prayer, emotional repression and formality; Frank reacted to this with open rebellion, but the young Bertrand learned to hide his feelings.

[[File:Pembroke Lodge, Richmond Park.jpg|thumb|Childhood home, [[Pembroke Lodge, Richmond Park|Pembroke Lodge]], Richmond Park, London]]
Russell's adolescence was lonely and he contemplated suicide. He remarked in his autobiography that his interests in "nature and books and (later) mathematics saved me from complete despondency;"<ref>''The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell'' (Volume I, 1872–1914) George Allen and Unwin Ltd., 1971, page 31;</ref> only his wish to know more mathematics kept him from suicide.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bertrand Russell |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SlMrmmrNuEoC |title=Autobiography |publisher=Psychology Press |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-415-18985-9 |page=38 |access-date=7 January 2016 |archive-date=10 September 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240910140331/https://books.google.com/books?id=SlMrmmrNuEoC |url-status=live }}</ref> He was educated at home by a series of tutors.<ref name="nobel prize">The Nobel Foundation (1950). [http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1950/russell-bio.html Bertrand Russell: The Nobel Prize in Literature 1950] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110604131349/http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1950/russell-bio.html |date=4 June 2011 }}. Retrieved 11 June 2007.</ref> When Russell was eleven years old, his brother Frank introduced him to the work of [[Euclid]], which he described in his autobiography as "one of the great events of my life, as dazzling as first love".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Russell |first=Bertrand |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dVBpAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA30 |title=The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell: 1872–1914 |publisher=Routledge |year=2000 |location=New York |page=30 |isbn=978-1-317-83504-2 |orig-date=1967 |access-date=6 December 2018 |archive-date=10 September 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240910142454/https://books.google.com/books?id=dVBpAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA30#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Paul |first=Ashley |title=Bertrand Russell: The Man and His Ideas – Chapter 2 |url=http://www.geocities.com:80/vu3ash/index.htm2.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090101073812/http://www.geocities.com/vu3ash/index.htm2.htm |archive-date=1 January 2009 |access-date=6 December 2018}}</ref>

During these formative years, he also discovered the works of [[Percy Bysshe Shelley]]. Russell wrote: "I spent all my spare time reading him, and learning him by heart, knowing no one to whom I could speak of what I thought or felt, I used to reflect how wonderful it would have been to know Shelley, and to wonder whether I should meet any live human being with whom I should feel so much sympathy."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bertrand Russell |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SlMrmmrNuEoC |title=Autobiography |publisher=Psychology Press |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-415-18985-9 |page=35 |access-date=7 January 2016 |archive-date=10 September 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240910140331/https://books.google.com/books?id=SlMrmmrNuEoC |url-status=live }}</ref> Russell claimed that beginning at age 15, he spent considerable time thinking about the validity of [[Dogma#In religion|Christian religious dogma]], which he found unconvincing.<ref>{{Cite web |year=1959 |title=1959 Bertrand Russell CBC interview |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tP4FDLegX9s |website=YouTube |access-date=28 October 2015 |archive-date=10 September 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240910142512/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tP4FDLegX9s |url-status=live }}</ref> At this age, he came to the conclusion that there is no [[free will]] and, two years later, that there is no life after death. Finally, at the age of 18, after reading Mill's ''Autobiography'', he abandoned the "[[First Cause]]" argument and became an [[atheist]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bertrand Russell |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SlMrmmrNuEoC |title=Autobiography |publisher=Psychology Press |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-415-18985-9 |chapter=2: Adolescence}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |year=1959 |title=Bertrand Russell on God |url=http://richarddawkins.net/articles/4833 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100126090302/http://richarddawkins.net/articles/4833 |archive-date=26 January 2010 |access-date=8 March 2010 |publisher=[[Canadian Broadcasting Corporation]]}}</ref>

He travelled to the continent in 1890 with an American friend, [[Edward FitzGerald (mountaineer)|Edward FitzGerald]], and with FitzGerald's family he visited the [[Paris Exhibition of 1889]] and climbed the [[Eiffel Tower]] soon after it was completed.<ref name="Russell1967a">{{Cite book |last=Russell |first=Bertrand |url={{Google books|dVBpAwAAQBAJ|page=39|plainurl=y}} |title=The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell: 1872–1914 |publisher=Routledge |year=2000 |location=New York |page=39 |orig-date=1967}}</ref>