Principia Mathematica's Second Edition in Its Century, 1925-2025

FAIN: RZ-306663-26

Western Kentucky University (Bowling Green, KY 42101-1000)
Landon D.C. Elkind (Project Director: November 2024 to present)

Planning and holding a workshop on Principia Mathematica (1910-1913), a foundational text on mathematical logic by British philosophers Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947) and Bertrand Russell (1872-1970). (8 months)

This proposal for a Convening Grant would bring together 12-to-15 scholars from philosophy, history, mathematics, and digital humanities for a week to conduct archival research and a collaborative workshop at the Bertrand Russell Archives and Research Centre at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The central texts and tools for the workshop will be the NEH-funded edition of Principia Mathematica with its new editorial apparatus and textual notes, the NEH-funded Principia Mathematica Maps and Table Site (PM-MATS), and the holdings of the Bertrand Russell Archives. The outcomes of this Convening grant will be an edited volume with an academic press (likely Cambridge University Press, who have expressed interest), plus increased familiarity and facility of scholars with two NEH-funded work products—the new edition of Principia and the PM-MATS digital resource. The grant period will last January-August 2026.