Team led by WKU Philosophy Professor builds searchable and first-ever digital map of Principia Mathematica through multi-institutional, NEH-awarded grant project

Western Kentucky University News

With a $281,104 Scholarly Editions and Translations grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), researchers at the University of Iowa and Western Kentucky University collaborated to build the first-ever digital map and data table for all three volumes and 1,992 pages of Principia Mathematica—a monumental work in the philosophies of mathematics and logic.

This new digital resource, the Principia Mathematica Map and Table Site (PM-MATS), is the result of a three-year NEH grant awarded in 2023 and ongoing collaboration between the University of Iowa’s Matthew Butler, senior developer in the Digital Scholarship and Publishing Studio, Western Kentucky University’s Dr. Landon Elkind, assistant professor of philosophy in the Department of Political Science (and alumnus of the University of Iowa philosophy program, 2018), and the University of Iowa’s Dr. Gregory Landini, professor of philosophy. The new digital scholarly tools will be leveraged to produce the first-ever critical edition of Alfred North Whitehead and Bertrand Russell’s landmark Principia Mathematica. The resulting scholarly edition will be published in print and digital formats with Cambridge University Press; Volume I of the new edition is slated for release in 2025.

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