The Bloomsbury Companion to Bertrand Russell

Description

A founder of modern analytic philosophy and one of the most important logicians of the twentieth century, Bertrand Russell has influenced generations of philosophers. The Bloomsbury Companion to Bertrand Russell explores this influence in detail and responds to renewed interest in Russell’s philosophical approach, presenting the best guide to research in Russell studies today. Bringing new insights into Russell’s relationship with his contemporaries, a team of experts explore his life-long battles with important philosophical issues. They consider how he influenced thinkers and schools of thought, from Schröder, Frege and Meinong to Wittgenstein and the Vienna Circle, while also covering his impact on individual issues in epistemology, logic, metaphysics, philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, and political philosophy. Importantly this companion discusses often overlooked topics. Focusing on Russell’s later views, including his moral philosophy and his politics, reveals that Russell did make significant contributions to ethics - both theoretical and practical - in the course of his career. Through a combination of enlightening historical background and sustained focus on Russell’s impact on contemporary areas of philosophy, The Bloomsbury Companion to Bertrand Russell demonstrates why Russell continues to influence philosophers of language, mathematics, epistemology and metaphysics Title Page Copyright Page Contents List of Contributors Acknowledgments Bertrand Russell—A Timeline Abbreviations for Works Written by Russell Introduction Notes Part 1 Russell in Context Chapter 1 Russell and Idealism 1 Idealism: Berkeley, Kant, and Hegel 2 Three British idealists: McTaggart, Bradley, and Ward 3 Russell as idealist 4 Russell’s Moorean philosophy21 5 Russell’s post-Peano philosophy and idealism Notes References Chapter 2 Russell and the Pragmatists 1 The straightforward story: Russell the anti-pragmatist 2 A spanner in the works of the straightforward story 3 Russell at Harvard: 1914 4 Russell’s pragmatism: Perception, belief, and behavior Notes References Chapter 3 Russell’s Objections to Frege and Meinong in Context 1 The origins of Russell’s Paradox and his disagreements with Frege 2 What Russell learned from Frege 3 Where Russell agreed with Meinong 4 The origins of “The present King of France” objection Notes References Works by Russell Chapter 4 Russell’s Initial Encounter with Wittgenstein 1911–14 1 Introduction 2 Wittgenstein and Russell 1911–12: The matter of matter 3 1913: Theory of knowledge 4 Russell’s reaction to Wittgenstein’s criticisms Notes References Chapter 5 From Russell to the Vienna Circle and Back 1 Introduction 2 Carnap, the Principia, and logicism 3 OKEW, Aufbau: Logical construction and type theory 4 Russell and the circle Notes References Part 2 Philosophical Issues Chapter 6 Russell’s Logicism 1 Introduction 2 The regressive method and its prior successes 3 The paradoxes and the development of Russell’s logic 4 Logicism in Principia Mathematica 5 Gödel’s results and the scope of Logicism 6 The controversial “axioms” and if-then-ism Notes References Chapter 7 Russell on Denoting and Language Introduction 1 Russellian propositions 2 Russell’s theory of descriptions 3 Logical form, metaphysics, and semantics 4 Going forward: Two problems with the theory of descriptions 5 Conclusion Notes References Chapter 8 Russell’s Logic as the Essence of Philosophy 1 Introduction 2 Logic as the essence of philosophy: Problems 3 Logic as the essence of philosophy: Our Knowledge 4 Reconstruction in philosophy Notes References Chapter 9 Sense-Data, Sensibilia, and Percepts 1 Introduction 2 Sense-data introduced 3 Logical constructions and sensibilia 4 Sense-data rejected 5 Russell’s epistemology after the rejection of sense-data Notes References Chapter 10 Russell on Introspection and Self-Knowledge 1 Introduction 2 Knowing things and knowing truths 3 Knowing the mind by acquaintance 4 Inner perception and introspective judgments 5 Is there acquaintance with the self? 6 Constructing the self 7 Toward neutral monism Notes References Chapter 11 Russell’s Bridge 1 Building Russell’s Bridge 2 Russell’s Bridge and the structure of epistemic justification 3 Russell’s regressive method 4 The relevance of Russell’s method Notes References Chapter 12 Neutral Monism 1 Introduction 2 Three arguments against neutral monism 3 Sensation 4 Judgment 5 Images and emphatic particulars 6 Neutral monism and physics Notes References Chapter 13 Bertrand Russell’s Moral Philosophy 1 A decade with the Moorean good 2 Three decades with ethical subjectivism 1913–44 3 Russell’s ethics in practice: The nuclear peril 4 Final thought: A call to duty Notes References Chapter 14 Russell’s Literary Approach to History 1 Introduction 2 The scientific and the literary approaches to history 3 Russell on the literary approach 4 Trevelyan and Russell on truth 5 Beyond the literary approach Notes References Bibliography 1 Books by Russell in chronological order 2 Collections of essays and stories 3 Collections of letters 4 Papers by Russell 5 Secondary Sources Index