Abstract

Some of Lord Russell’s most interesting writings have until now remained hidden in the pages of rare periodicals. Professor Marsh has done a considerable service to students of contemporary British philosophy in making them readily available. Although most of these essays present neither Russell’s present views nor the views most commonly held at the present time, they do contain arguments and opinions which have had a great influence on the development of current philosophical thinking, either because they continue to go uncriticised or because of the reactions they have provoked. This is especially true of the series of articles “The Philosophy of Logical Atomism’, which, Russell tells us, “are very largely concerned with explaining certain ideas which I learnt from my friend and former pupil Ludwig Wittgenstein.’ Much of Wittgenstein’s later writing is intelligible only as a criticism of this interpretation of his doctrine. Quite apart from this, these articles contain some of Russell’s keenest thinking. Other articles of interest from a doctrinal point of view are “On the Relation of Universals and Particulars”, “On Propositions: what they are and how they mean” and “On Order in Time”. Two technical articles, “The Logic of Relations” and “Mathematical Logic as Based on the Theory of Types” retain considerable value for the specialist. The book is very well produced.