The Problems of Philosophy’s Centenary

Abstract

180 Reviews c:\users\arlene\documents\rj\type3602\red\rj 3602 134 red.docx 2017-01-09 4:03 PM THE PROBLEMS OF PHILOSOPHY ’S CENTENARY James Connelly Philosophy / Trent U. Durham Oshawa, on, Canada l1j 5y1 jamesconnelly@trentu.ca Bernard Linsky and Donovan Wishon, eds. Acquaintance, Knowledge, and Logic: New Essays on Russell’s The Problems of Philosophy. Stanford, ca: csli Publications, 2015. Pp. x, 277. us$30. isbn: 978-1-57586-846-2. espite the over 100 years which have passed since its original publication in 1912, Russell’s Problems of Philosophy remains, and will continue to be, a rewarding and productive subject of scholarly study for a variety of interrelated reasons. First, its enduring status as a popular textbook for introductory philosophy courses makes it a broadly available, and widely accessible, point of entry to both philosophical inquiry in general, as well as to Russell’s complex, fascinating and challenging ideas in particular. Second, it marks an important, historical and thematic point of transition within Russell’s philosophy . In particular, it marks a shift in emphasis from (though not a “clean break” between) the more technical, mathematical and logical work which characterized Russell’s early career, and which culminated in Principia Mathematica (1910–13), toward the broader epistemological, metaphysical, and scienti fic inquiries that characterized Russell’s work in the second decade of the twentieth century and beyond. Finally, the text originates from a brief but exceptionally fertile period within the history of analytic philosophy, during which two of the twentieth century ’s most original and influential analytic thinkers, Russell and Wittgenstein , collaborated extensively upon a host of important questions, themes and topics (e.g., propositions, sense, reference, logic, truth, and meaning) which would occupy centre stage within the analytic tradition for many decades afterward. While Russell and Wittgenstein’s names will be linked inextricably together for posterity, they only ever directly and actively collaborated for any extended period of time during the roughly two years intervening between Wittgenstein’s arrival at Cambridge in fall 1911 and his departure for Norway in fall 1913. Russell completed the manuscript of the Problems in late summer 1911, just prior to Wittgenstein’s arrival at Cambridge. The proofs were reviewed and revised by Russell in November, following Wittgenstein’s arrival, and the book was subsequently published in January 1912. While Wittgenstein therefore had little if any direct influence on the composition of the text, the Problems doubtless had a substantial influence on Wittgenstein’s philosophical development, and the views expressed in it formed part of the a= Reviews 181 c:\users\arlene\documents\rj\type3602\red\rj 3602 134 red.docx 2017-01-09 4:03 PM immediate philosophical context of Wittgenstein and Russell’s enormously important and influential philosophical interchanges during this period. This is especially true with regards to the multiple-relation theory of judgment developed and defended by Russell in Chapter xii (“Truth and Falsehood”). Thus, on the basis of the many insights it promises to yield into these formative interchanges alone (but not only on that basis), the Problems is destined to occupy a place within the philosophical canon, for many centuries to come. As the editors of Acquaintance, Knowledge, and Logic assert succinctly: “… The Problems of Philosophy has entered the canon of History of Philosophy that is relevant to current issues” (p. 2). Acquaintance, Knowledge, and Logic: New Essays on Bertrand Russell’s The Problems of Philosophy, offers a critical survey of Russell’s key epistemological , logical and metaphysical views, as espoused in this canonical philosophical text. The book consists of a series of eleven papers, authored by a variety of highly competent Russell scholars, including several of the leading contemporary scholars of early analytic philosophy. Each of the papers originated in a centenary conference held to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Problems’ publication, at the University of Mississippi, on 29 November–1 December 2012. This may partly explain why the papers seem to coordinate, organically, so as to constitute a deep, informative, and highly integrated discussion of Russell’s views and of their philosophical significance. In the first contribution to the volume, “The Place of The Problems of...