[lit-ideas] "Russellism": "tyrannical and brutal"?
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 6 May 2004 19:15:31 EDT
P. A. Stone asks:
>I'm not trying to be combative, but can someone
>simply put forth what
>Bertrand Russell's "philosophy" was?
---
I too would like to know. I agree with Stone that Logicism is more of a
technical thing in the (foundations of) philosophy of science/mathematics,
rather
than _philosophy_ per se.
In Ayer's little book (_Russell_, for Modern Masters (Fontana, originally the
Gilbert Ryle Lectures given in Canada), Sir Alfred concentrates on Russell's
_empiricism_ (he has another book, "Moore and Russell: the analytical
heritage"), but surely that (Empiricism) was not original (to Russell), and is
more of
a development out of Mill's and other nineteenth-century philosophers (a
'revival', after the demise of Empiricism in Oxford amongst the Hegelians).
As far as his personality is concerned, I'm not sure how faifthful the the
film _Tom and Viv_ was (not much, I suspect) but, as it narrates the life of T.
S. Eliot and his English wife, shows a Russell with a quite a few
'personality' defects, to use McEvoy's phrase.
I append below some findings from the OED, though (since I wanted to contrast
'Russellianism' with, say 'Griceanism').
There's an entry for "Russell" (Russell 3, actually) himself, -- and one for
"Russellian", which includes a quote by Strawson -- the _Mind_ one.
(Interesting, Grice has a 1975 paper, "Definite Descriptions in Russell and in
the
Vernacular" (cited by G. P. Bealer, formerly of Reed).
The noun "Russellism" (as opposed to the more natural "RusseliANism"?) is
used by R. Campbell, in an interesting quote of 1934:
"Russellism and Waughism seem to me to be as tyrannical and brutal..as
Arnold-of-Rugby-ism." (Broken Record) -- a
-- and I wonder why he thought so -- since 'brutal' is not the first word
that comes to mind when I think Arnold (Can't be Schwarzenegger, right? --
Geary
would criticise my chronism here -- he defends _ana_-chronicity).
Cheers,
JL
---
From the OED
I. "Russell" (3)
"The name of Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell (1872-1970),
mathematician and philosopher, used attrib. and in the possessive in connection
with a paradox concerning the set of all sets that do not contain themselves
as members: the condition for it to contain itself is that it should not
contain itself."
Cites:
1922 tr. Wittgenstein's Tractatus 57
Herewith Russell's paradox vanishes.
1937 Jrnl. Symb. Logic II. 31
This contradiction corresponds to Russell's paradox.
1950 W. V. QUINE Methods of Logic (1952) §42. 249
This difficulty is called Russell's paradox, for its discoverer (1901).
1963 G. T. KNEEBONE Math. Logic iv. 127
Russell's antinomy..this is the paradox of the class {x/xx}.
1967 Encycl. Philos. V. 46/1
Russell's Paradox,..Russell..came upon a new paradox, that of the set of all
sets that do not contain themselves as elements. A set r, the â??Russell
setâ??,
is defined by the following condition: for every x, xr if and only if xx. By
substitution we obtain: rr if and only if rr.
1977 BELL & MACHOVER Course in Math. Logic x. 462
Unfortunately..(1.2) is untenable even when k = 0, because it leads to the
well-known Russell paradox.
II. Russellian [f. the name Russell (see RUSSELL3) + -IAN.]
A. adj. Designating the mathematical or philosophical ideas of Bertrand
Russell; characteristic of or pertaining to Russell (in quot. 1956, spec. of
Russell's paradox: see RUSSELL3).
B. n. An adherent of Russell's ideas. Hence Russellism, the system of
Russell's thought and practice.
1923 C. D. BROAD Sci. Thought xiii. 534
Physical objects in the Russellian sense.
1934 R. CAMPBELL Broken Record 145
Russellism and Waughism seem to me to be as tyrannical and brutal..as
Arnold-of-Rugby-ism.
1937 Discovery Feb. 61/1
The Russellian â??calculus of propositionsâ??.
1950 Mind LIX. 344
Neither Aristotelian nor Russellian rules give the exact logic of any
expression of ordinary language.
1954 R. WELLS in Word X. 235
Thus Wittgenstein has played a major part in all three branches of the
Russellian movement. Ibid. 245
Examples..have been separately discussed by various Russellians and
Wittgensteinians.
1956 G. E. M. ANSCOMBE tr. Wittgenstein's Remarks on Found. of Math. v. 166
The Russellian contradiction is disquieting, not because it is a
contradiction, but because the whole growth culminating in it is a cancerous
growth.
1972 Listener 27 Jan. 119/1 His interest is the more Russellian one of
getting the system to work.
1977 Language LIII. 74 Perhaps he is taking a Russellian view of definite
descriptions.
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