russell: the Journal of Bertrand Russell Studies n.s. (summer ): – The Bertrand Russell Research Centre, McMaster U. issn –; online – c:\users\ken\documents\rj\type\red\rj red.docx -- : Documents NOTES ON MCTAGGART’S LECTURES ON LOTZE Bertrand Russell Introduced by Nikolay Milkov Philosophy / U. Paderborn Paderborn, Germany nikolay.milkov@upb.de Text Edited by Kenneth Blackwell Russell preserved notes he took on McTaggart’s course on Lotze’s major works in . They are published here for the first time. Russell’s abbreviations are expanded and deletions noted. N. Milkov introduces the notes and provides Russell’s biographical and philosophical background. The course on Lotze, on whose philosophy of geometry Russell had already written, was influential in his development away from monism. n the Lent term, , at Cambridge J. McT. E. McTaggart delivered sixteen lectures on Hermann Lotze. Russell took extensive notes on thirteen.1 This conspectus was written at a very important point of his philosophical development. He always insisted that between and he was “a full- fledged Hegelian” (MPD, p. ). In fact, however, Russell got acquainted with Hegel only through his tutor McTaggart. He read Hegel (his Logic) for the first time in March and was deeply disappointed: it didn’t match his 1 Apparently McTaggart lectured on three books of Lotze’s: () Logik (Lectures I– IV—see IV below); () Metaphysik (V–XII below); () Mikrokosmus, Book ix (XIII– XVI below). Book ix, to which Russell refers at the end of his notes on Lecture XII (: below), discusses what Lotze understood as metaphysics. I Notes on McTaggart’s Lectures on Lotze c:\users\ken\documents\rj\type\red\rj red.docx -- : lectures on lotze1 MacTaggart. Lent Term . ogic Book. II. 〈Lecture〉 IV. Disparate sensations: not only in different senses, but red and blue also disparate. Not so of musical notes, according to Lotze: could imagine intermediate notes if had heard two. Cases where comparative terms accurate only: hotter and bigger e.g. Antinomies of motion: Zeno’s arrow destroys rest as well as motion. Therefore leads to scepticism. Argument denies community between 10 moments, which is essential to rest. Fallacy is in regarding time as discrete. In Mathematics, how know of all triangles what proved of one? Not owing to nature of space but because can set aside all irrelevant properties . Lotze here sets aside problem, which is:Why have geometrical propositions this peculiarity? Why is not life of German Emperor essential ? We are à priori certain that it isn’t, which is peculiar to Mathematics . [McT. has no solution to offer]. Probability, says Lotze, subjective: has to do with our rational expectation . No event improbable after it has happened.Therefore don’t 20 need higher cause for what was formerly unlikely, if it happens, than for anything else.This not valuable remark. If double ’s happen often, dice may have been loaded for that purpose, which is different cause, if not higher. Book III. Scepticism: presupposes truth: can’t say you aren’t getting truth, unless there is truth you aren’t getting. Besides scepticism asserts propositions. Can’t say properly we can know nothing, for this is knowledge. But suppose we say all the same that there is truth, but we can’t get it. Why should sceptic believe there is truth? Therefore this modified scepticism also unsound.—Even if what we know are phe- 30 nomena, shouldn’t say we only know phenomena, for this suggests noumena better. 1 Transcribed from a microfilm printout of an unfoliated notebook in the Morrell papers , Ransom Center, Texas (ra Rec. Acq. , box .). Lecture divisions were made uniform and symbols italicized; double underlines became small caps. Square brackets are Russell’s. See K. Blackwell, “Russell’s Personal Shorthand”, Russell (): –; “G.A.” for “God Almighty” is retained. “affected” was expected at : , : twice and : and . “Mier” at : remains unidentified. Line : noumena ] written over deleted phen’a L fol. bertrand russell c:\users\ken\documents\rj\type\red\rj red.docx -- : What mean by saying a thing real? Lotze objects to Setzung 〈positing 〉 as implying action. Takes Wirklichkeit 〈reality〉. Three stages, Being, Becoming and Validity. These three irreducible to each other. Events real, though can’t...