Alfred North Whitehead

In 1890, Whitehead married Evelyn Willoughby Wade an Irish lady, brought up in France. She had a positive influence on her husband’s life and it was her sense of adventure and beauty, which helped him to form his philosophical thoughts.

The couple had three children; a daughter named Jessie Whitehead, and two sons named Thomas North Whitehead and Eric Whitehead. Eric joined the Royal Flying Corps during World War I and died in action in 1918 at the age of 19.

Whitehead spent the last years of his life in Cambridge, Massachusetts, continuing to publish papers. Although he loved his life in the USA, he remained a British citizen till the end.

Alfred North Whitehead was born on 15 February 1861, in Ramsgate, a seaside town in eastern Kent, England. His father, also Alfred Whitehead, was an Anglican clergyman, who taught at Chatham House Academy, established by his own father, Thomas Whitehead. He was an upright man with a deep sense of duty.

Alfred’s mother, Maria Sarah nee Buckmaster, has been described as unimaginative woman with no sense of humor. That Alfred was not very fond of her is evident from the fact he never mentioned her in any of his writings.

Alfred was born youngest of his parents’ four children, having two brothers seven and eight years his senior and a sister, older by two years. He was the baby of the family and was not sent to school until he was fourteen, studying at home with his father.

Along with other subjects, he started learning Latin from the age of 10 and Greek from the age of 12. In 1875, 14 year old Alfred began his formal education at Sherborne School, an independent boys' school then linked with Sherborne Abbey, in the town of Sherborne in north-west Dorset.

At school, the major subjects were Latin, Greek and English; less attention being paid to mathematics, science, history and geography. It was here that he grew to love the poetries of Wordsworth and Shelly. He also excelled in games, but showed greatest aptitude for mathematics.

In 1884, Alfred North Whitehead began his career as a Fellow at the Trinity College, Cambridge, where he taught applied mathematics. It is not known if he undertook mathematical research during this early period because he did not publish a single paper in the first five years.

In 1888, he was made a Lecturer at the University of Cambridge. In the following year, he published two papers, both of which were on the motion of viscous fluids. But later, his interest turned to pure mathematics.

In January 1891, he started working on his first major work, ‘Treatise on Universal Algebra’. The work would take seven years to complete, finally being published in 1898. Meanwhile in 1894, he was appointed as examiner at Mathematical Tripos.

In 1903, Whitehead was promoted to the post of Senior Lecturer at Trinity. In the same year, he abandoned his work on the second volume of ‘Treatise on Universal Algebra’, which he had started in 1898, to start collaboration with Bertrand Russell, a former student and colleague.

In 1900, Whitehead and Russell went to Paris to attend International Congress of Philosophy, where they met Giuseppe Peano and Alessandro Padoa, the proponents of the set theory. Working independently, Russell published ‘Principles of Mathematics’, in 1903, and then started working on its second volume.

In 1911, after remaining unemployed for one year, Alfred North Whitehead accepted a position as Lecturer in Applied Mathematics and Mechanics at University College London. In the same year, he had his fourth book, ‘An Introduction to Mathematics’ published.

At the same time, he continued his collaboration with Russell, publishing the second and third volume of ‘Principia Mathematica’ in 1912 and 1913 respectively. Also in 1912, he hoped to be appointed to the Goldsmid Chair of Applied Mathematics and Mechanics, but was bypassed.

Therefore when in 1914, he received an invitation from his old friend Andrew Forsyth, Chief Professor of Mathematics at the Imperial College London, he joined the institution as Professor of Applied Mathematics. Very soon, he embarked on a very productive period.

From 1917 to 1922, he had four major works published, namely, 'The Organization of Thought Educational and Scientific' (1917), 'An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Natural Knowledge' (1919), 'The Concept of Nature' (1920), and 'The Principle of Relativity with Applications to Physical Science’ (1922).

Also from late 1918, Whitehead’s administrative responsibilities began to expand. In that year, he was elected the Dean of the Faculty of Science for four year. Concurrently, in 1919, he became a Member of the University of London's Senate and in 1920, the Chairman of the Senate's Academic Council.