Russell's Work Research Articles

Note on Russell's Anticipations

Wesley C. Salmon Department of Philosophy University of Arizona Mention has been made in of an anticipation by of Quine's existence criterion, and of a possible anticipation of Lewis's definition of strict implication. Although did not, strictly speaking, anticipate Nelson Goodman's famous grue-bleen paradox, first published in a brief note in 1946, did, I believe, publish a discussion of what is, in all essentials, the same problem in Human Knowledge in 1948. Goodman's and Russell's discoveries of this paradox were evidently quite independent of one another. What is quite remarkable, however, is that Russell, in contrast to Goodman, also provided a resolution of the problem -one which I believe to be quite satisfactory. I have discussed this matter in some deta il in Russell on Scientific Inference or Will the Real Deductivist Please Stand Up? section 3, in Bertrand Russell's Philosophy, ed. George Nakhnikian (London: Duckworth, 1974), pp. 188-92. In Goodman's better known presentation, Fact, Fiction and Forecast (1st ed., 1955; 2nd ed. 1965), he seems unaware of the relevance of Russell's solution to his paradox. This strikes me as another example of a widely unappreciated important accomplishment to be found in Russell's work.

The Russell Archives: Some new light on Russell's logicism

Summary This paper describes the materials in the Russell Archives relevant to Russell's work on logic and the foundations of mathematics, and suggests the kinds of information that may and may not be drawn about the historical development of his ideas. By way of illustration, a couple of episodes are described. The first (arts. 2–4) concerns a logical system closely related to his theory of denoting, which preceeds the system used in Principia mathematics, while the second (arts. 5) describes a delay in publishing the second volume of that work due to the discovery by Whitehead of a conceptual error.

“An Essay on the Foundations of Geometry”

''An Essay on the Foundations of Geometry" Part of the new Russell bibliography which Harry Ruja and I are compiling is devoted to lengthy technical descriptions of his books. But interspersed are, I hope, more interesting accounts of what might be called the "bio-bibliographical" background to each book. The purpose of these accounts is to bring together tile various remarks which Russell himself made on the books, plus whatever else of relevance I can locate in the Archives. The account of Russell's second published book follows. An Essay on the Foundations of Geometry (Cambridge, 1897) had its origin in Russell's fellowship dissertation. After a year of indecision as to whether to write on economics or non-Euclidean geometry, he chose the latter and "settled that I would be influenced [as to his subsequent work] by the opinions of the Cambridge examiners". (See his littleknown article, ."A Turning Point", Saturday Book, 1948.) The dissertation was written at Fernhurst in the spring and summer of 1895. As Russell says in the Autobiography (Allen & Unwin, I, 125), this was "my first experience of serious original work ....when my dissertation was 'finished, I fUlly believed that I had solved all philosophical questions connected with the foundations of geometry." The dissertation was submitted in August 1895 and examined by A.N. Whitehead and James Ward. Their remarks, before Russell received word of his election to a fellowship, almost discouraged him from pursuing philosophy as a career. This is evident from a letter he wrote Alys on 9 October 1895: Thy letter cheered me after a rather depressing talk I have just had with Whitehead. He says he and Ward (who are both ultra-empiricists ) disagreed with almost every view I advocated; Ward also found my metaphysic and Psychology rather thin - like my chances, I thought when Whitehead told me. So I don't think I shall be elected tomorrow, and I suspect I am not much good at Philosophy. •.• The only thing he said that was pleasant was that certain parts, more or less as they stood, were well worth publishing. - Adieu to sweet dreams: In Portraits from Memory, Russell reports that Whitehead's wife rebuked him for criticizing Russell so harshly. But Whitehead retorted he thought it was the last chance anyone would get of finding serious fault with Russell's work (Allen and Unwin edition, p. 92-3). After its acceptance, Russell re-wrote the dissertation (apparently in 1896), and delivered the substance of it as lectures at Bryn Mawr and Johns Hopkins that autumn. He wrote to Dr. James Carey Thomas (an uncle 'of Alys's and connected with Johns Hopkins) on 3 July 1896: ••• My lectures would be an expansion of a dissertation which I submitted when I was elected a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge ; since my election, I have continued to work at the same subject, and I hope that the Cambridge University Press will publish a book by me on the subject, during the course of the next year. Russell is found writing in much the same way to Carey Thomas, President of Bryn Mawr. His agreement with the Cambridge University Press is dated 28 September 1896. 750 copies of the ,book were printed and published in June 1897. Russell says that the book, when published, was "highly praised, far more highly in fact than it deserved. Since that time, academic reviewers have generally said of each successive book of mine that it showed a falling-ofP' (Autobiography, I, 130). In later years Russell considered The Foundations much too Kantian and "somewhat foolish": "the. geometry in 'EinsteinI s General Theory of Relativity is such as I had declared to be impossible•.•Apa~t from d~3 tails, I do not think that there is anything valid in this early book" (MY Philosophical Development, p. 39-40). For the French translation, published in 1901, Russell added a new preface, made a "Rreat number" of corrections and additions to the text - some of quite considerable importance, he remarks - and appended notes on mathematical concepts. Louis Couturat also revised ahd annotated the text, and appended definitions of some philosophical terms. The translator , Albert Cadenat, often solicited Russell's advice...

Bertrand Russell. My mental development. A reprint of IX 82(1). The philosophy of Bertrand Russell, edited by Paul Arthur Schilpp, second edition, The Library of Living Philosophers, Inc., Evanston, Illinois, 1946, pp. 1–20; also third edition, Tudor Publishing Company, New York 1951, pp. 1-20; also paper-bound reprint of the third edition, Harper Torchbooks, Harper & Row, Publishers, New York, Evanston,

Bertrand Russell. My mental development. A reprint of IX 82(1). The philosophy of Bertrand Russell, edited by Paul Arthur Schilpp, second edition, The Library of Living Philosophers, Inc., Evanston, Illinois, 1946, pp. 1–20; also third edition, Tudor Publishing Company, New York 1951, pp. 1-20; also paper-bound reprint of the third edition, Harper Torchbooks, Harper & Row, Publishers, New York, Evanston, and London, 1963, Vol. I, pp. 1-20. - Hans Reichenbach. Bertrand Russell's logic. A reprint of IX 76(2). The philosophy of Bertrand Russell, edited by Paul Arthur Schilpp, second edition, The Library of Living Philosophers, Inc., Evanston, Illinois, 1946, pp. 21–54; also ibid. 1951, pp. 21-54; also ibid. 1963, Vol. I, pp. 21-54. - Morris Weitz. Analysis and the unity of Russell's philosophy. A reprint of IX 77(1). The philosophy of Bertrand Russell, edited by Paul Arthur Schilpp, second edition, The Library of Living Philosophers, Inc., Evanston, Illinois, 1946, pp. 55–121; also ibid. 1951, pp. 55-121; also ibid. 1963, Vol. I, pp. 55-121. - Kurt Göde. Russell's mathematical logic. A reprint of XI 75. The philosophy of Bertrand Russell, edited by Paul Arthur Schilpp, second edition, The Library of Living Philosophers, Inc., Evanston, Illinois, 1946, pp. 123–153; also ibid. 1951, pp. 123-153; also ibid. 1963, Vol. I, pp. 123-153. - James Feibleman. A reply to Bertrand Russell's introduction to the second edition of The principles of mathematics. A reprint of IX 77(2). The philosophy of Bertrand Russell, edited by Paul Arthur Schilpp, second edition, The Library of Living Philosophers, Inc., Evanston, Illinois, 1946, pp. 155–174; also ibid. 1951, pp. 155-174; also ibid. 1963, Vol. I, pp. 155-174. - G.E. Moore. Russell's “theory of descriptions.” A reprint of IX 78(1). The philosophy of Bertrand Russell, edited by Paul Arthur Schilpp, second edition, The Library of Living Philosophers, Inc., Evanston, Illinois, 1946, pp. 175–225; also ibid. 1951, pp. 175-225; also ibid. 1963, Vol. I, pp. 175-225. - Max Black. Russell's philosophy of language. A reprint of IX 78(2). The philosophy of Bertrand Russell, edited by Paul Arthur Schilpp, second edition, The Library of Living Philosophers, Inc., Evanston, Illinois, 1946, pp. 227–255; also ibid. 1951, pp. 227-255; also ibid. 1963, Vol. I, pp. 227-255. - Philip P. Wiener. Method in Russell's work on Leibniz. A reprint of IX 82(2). The philosophy of Bertrand Russell, edited by Paul Arthur Schilpp, second edition, The Library of Living Philosophers, Inc., Evanston, Illinois, 1946, pp. 257–276; also ibid. 1951, pp. 257-276; also ibid. 1963, Vol. I, pp. 257-276. - Ernest Nagel. Russell's philosophy of science. A reprint of IX 79. The philosophy of Bertrand Russell, edited by Paul Arthur Schilpp, second edition, The Library of Living Philosophers, Inc., Evanston, Illinois, 1946, pp. 317–349; also ibid. 1951, pp. 317-349; also ibid. 1963, Vol. I, pp. 317-349. - Andrew Paul Ushenko. Russell's critique of empiricism. A reprint of IX 80. The philosophy of Bertrand Russell, edited by Paul Arthur Schilpp, second edition, The Library of Living Philosophers, Inc., Evanston, Illinois, 1946, pp. 385–417; also ibid. 1951, pp. 385-417; also ibid. 1963, Vol. I, pp. 385-417. - Volume 34 Issue 3

Pecan Island

The Mississippi delta is a complex consisting of the recent bird-foot delta and several fossil deltas now modified by the isostatic downwarping of this region localized on the edge of the active Gulf-geosyncline. Chenier Islands are stranded sand beaches in a marshland environment. Initially formed along the sea shore they indicate former coast lines. On the chenier plains of south-western Louisiana hurricanes have significant geomorphic effect. In the paper the interplay between chenier formation and delta development is discussed based on the results of Rich. J. Russell's research work. The description utilizes the author's observations from field trips in 1959 and 1963.

THE MEDIEVAL HOUSEHOLD: LARGE OR SMALL?

N medieval population history where the basic data refer so often to holdings and households, the size of the 'multiplier', or number of persons per household, is obviously crucial. Consequently, ProfessorJ. C. Russell's substitution of the 3.5 multiplier for the traditional five has modified greatly the estimates of medieval population densities.2 Needing a multiplier to use in conjunction with the number of landholders listed in Domesday Book and in the manorial extents, Russell used old and new methods to solve the problem. First, he argued that the group represented by the landholder was essentially the nuclear family, i.e. husband, wife, and children. Secondly, having the figures from the I377 poll tax of the number of persons over age I3 per house, he used his life tables to estimate the number of those who were 13 and under. Thirdly, by analysing the relationships between age distribution, age of marriage, and the percentage of families headed by women, he arrived at the hypothesis that 3-5 was the average size of the family. The construction of life tables and the use of such variables as age distribution and age of marriage marks an important innovation in medieval demographic studies. Professor Russell's work, if valid, thus possesses empirical and theoretical importance of the first order. The validity of his methods and conclusions will be examined in the following pages.

Mysticism and Logic

By Bertrand Russell. (London : Penguin Books Ltd.) Pp. 220. Price 2s. 6d. It is not easy to review a book of essays written some forty to fifty years ago and last revised only a little more recently. A critique of Russell's early work is hardly possible in the space available : all that can be attempted is to try to assess the value of this re-print to a modern reader.

IX.—The Cephalopoda of Scottish and Adjacent Waters

The literature of the Scottish Cephalopoda is, on the whole, rather scanty. Most of the references occur in more general faunistic lists, or are comparatively short notices in various periodicals. Except for Russell's work, which dealt almost exclusively with the collections of the former Fishery Board for Scotland and did not include references to the other Scottish species, there is no comprehensive paper devoted to the Scottish Cephalopoda. More attention has been paid to the subject in neighbouring countries. Massy (1928) has summarised previous work on the Irish species; Grimpe (1925) has dealt with the species of the North Sea, and Hertling (1929, 1936) has supplemented Grimpe's work with further notes on the Helgoland species; Grieg (1933) has described the Norwegian forms; Nielsen (1930) has listed the species occurring at the Faroes; Stevenson (1935) has described those found on the Yorkshire coast. Where references are made to the species occurring in the above-mentioned waters, these summaries only are quoted.