John Russell, 4th Earl Russell cause of world peace. John Russell was succeeded as Earl by his half-brother, the historian Conrad Russell, 5th Earl Russell. John Russell, 4th Earl Russell John Conrad Russell, 4th Earl Russell (16 November 1921 – 16 December 1987) was the eldest son of the philosopher and mathematician Bertrand Russell (the 3rd Earl) and his second wife, Dora Black. His middle name was a tribute to the writer Joseph Conrad, whom his father had long admired. He was the great-grandson of the 19th century British Whig Prime Minister Lord John Russell. He succeeded to the earldom on the death of his
Bertrand Russell Many intellectuals, led by John Dewey, protested at his treatment. Albert Einstein's oft-quoted aphorism that "great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds" originated in his open letter, dated 19 March 1940, to Morris Raphael Cohen, a professor emeritus at CCNY, supporting Russell's appointment. Dewey and Horace M. Kallen edited a collection of articles on the CCNY affair in "The Bertrand Russell Case". Russell soon joined the Barnes Foundation, lecturing to a varied audience on the history of philosophy; these lectures formed the basis of "A History of Western Philosophy". His relationship with the eccentric Albert C. Barnes