Chapter I: Front Matter

RTR*ND R*SS*LL ***

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THE PHILOSOPHY OF
MR. B*RTR*ND R*SS*LL

WITH AN APPENDIX OF LEADING
PASSAGES FROM CERTAIN OTHER WORKS

EDITED BY

PHILIP E. B. JOURDAIN

LONDON: GEORGE ALLEN & UNWIN LTD.
RUSKIN HOUSE 40 MUSEUM STREET, W.C. 1
CHICAGO: THE OPEN COURT PUBLISHING CO.

_First published in 1918_

(_All rights reserved_)

EDITOR'S NOTE

When Mr. B*rtr*nd R*ss*ll, following the advice of Mr. W*ll**m J*m*s, again "got into touch with reality" and in July 1911 was torn to pieces by Anti-Suffragists, many of whom were political opponents of Mr. R*ss*ll and held strong views on the Necessity of Protection of Trade and person, a manuscript which was almost ready for the press was fortunately saved from the flames on the occasion when a body of eager champions of the Sacredness of Personal Property burnt the late Mr. R*ss*ll's house. This manuscript, together with some further fragments found in the late Mr. R*ss*ll's own interleaved copy of his _Prayer-Book of Free Man's Worship_, which was fortunately rescued with a few of the great author's other belongings, was first given to the world in the _Monist_ for October 1911 and January 1916, and has here been arranged and completed by some other hitherto undecipherable manuscripts. The title of the above-mentioned _Prayer-Book_, it may perhaps be mentioned, was apparently suggested to Mr. R*ss*ll by that of the Essay on "The Free Man's Worship" in the _Philosophical Essays_ (London, 1910, pp. 59-70[1]) of Mr. R*ss*ll's distinguished contemporary, Mr. Bertrand Russell, from whom much of Mr. R*ss*ll's philosophy was derived. And, indeed, the influence of Mr. Russell extended even beyond philosophical views to arrangement and literary style. The method of arrangement of the present work seems to have been borrowed from Mr. Russell's _Philosophy of Leibniz_ of 1900; in the selection of subjects dealt with, Mr. R*ss*ll seems to have been guided by Mr. Russell's _Principles of Mathematics_ of 1903; while Mr. R*ss*ll's literary style fortunately reminds us more of Mr. Russell's later clear and charming subtleties than his earlier brilliant and no less subtle obscurities. But, on the other hand, some important points of Mr. Russell's doctrine, which first appeared in books published after Mr. R*ss*ll's death, were anticipated in Mr. R*ss*ll's notes, and these anticipations, so interesting for future historians of philosophy, have been provided by the editor with references to the later works of Mr. Russell. All editorial notes are enclosed in square brackets, to indicate that they were not written by the late Mr. R*ss*ll.

At the present time we have come to take a calm view of the question so much debated seven years ago as to the legitimacy of logical arguments in political discussions. No longer, fortunately, can that intense feeling be roused which then found expression in the famous cry, "Justice--right or wrong," and which played such a large part in the politics of that time. Thus it will not be out of place in this unimpassioned record of some of the truths and errors in the world to refer briefly to Mr. R*ss*ll's short and stormy career. Before he was torn to pieces, he had been forbidden to lecture on philosophy or mathematics by some well-intentioned advocates of freedom in speech who thought that the cause of freedom might be endangered by allowing Mr. R*ss*ll to speak freely on points of logic, on the grounds, apparently, that logic is both harmful and unnecessary and might be applied to politics unless strong measures were taken for its suppression. On much the same grounds, his liberty was taken from him by those who remarked that, if necessary, they would die in defence of the sacred principle of liberty; and it was in prison that the greater part of the present work was written. Shortly after his liberation, which, like all actions of public bodies, was brought about by the combined honour and interests of those in authority, occurred his lamentable death to which we have referred above.

Mr. R*ss*ll maintained that the chief use of "implication" in politics is to draw conclusions, which are thought to be true, and which are consequently false, from identical propositions, and we can see these views expressed in Chapters III and XIX of the present work. These chapters were apparently written before the Government, in the spring of 1910, arrived at the famous secret decision that only "certain implications" are permitted in discussion. Naturally the secret decision gave rise to much speculation among logicians as to which kinds of implication were barred, and Mr. R*ss*ll and Mr. Bertrand Russell had many arguments on the subject, which naturally could not be published at the time. However, after Mr. R*ss*ll's death, successive prosecutions which were made by the Government at last made it quite clear that the opinion held by Mr. R*ss*ll was the correct one. There had been numerous prosecutions of people who, from true but not identical premisses, had deduced true conclusions, so that the possible legitimate forms of "implication" were reduced. Further, the other doubtful cases were cleared up in course of time by the prosecution of (1) members of the Aristotelian Society for deducing true conclusions from false premisses; (2) members of the _Mind_ Association for deducing false conclusions from false premisses; and also by the attempted prosecution of an eminent lady for deducing true conclusions from identities. Fortunately this lady was able to defend herself successfully by pleading that one eminent philosopher believed them to be true--which, of course, means that the conclusions are false. Thus appeared the true nature of legitimate political arguments.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] [This Essay is also reprinted in Mr. Russell's _Mysticism and Logic_, London and New York, 1918, pp. 46-57.--ED.]

"Even a joke should have some meaning...."

(The Red Queen, _T. L. G._, p. 105).

CONTENTS

PAGE
EDITOR'S NOTE 3
ABBREVIATIONS 9
CHAPTER
I. THE INDEFINABLES OF LOGIC 11
II. OBJECTIVE VALIDITY OF THE "LAWS OF THOUGHT" 15
III. IDENTITY 16
IV. IDENTITY OF CLASSES 18
V. ETHICAL APPLICATIONS OF THE LAW OF IDENTITY 19
VI. THE LAW OF CONTRADICTION IN MODERN LOGIC 21
VII. SYMBOLISM AND MEANING 22
VIII. NOMINALISM 24
IX. AMBIGUITY AND SYMBOLIC LOGIC 26
X. LOGICAL ADDITION AND THE UTILITY OF SYMBOLISM 27
XI. CRITICISM 29
XII. HISTORICAL CRITICISM 30
XIII. IS THE MIND IN THE HEAD? 31
XIV. THE PRAGMATIST THEORY OF TRUTH 32
XV. ASSERTION 34
XVI. THE COMMUTATIVE LAW 35
XVII. UNIVERSAL AND PARTICULAR PROPOSITIONS 36
XVIII. DENIAL OF GENERALITY AND GENERALITY OF DENIAL 37
XIX. IMPLICATION 39
XX. DIGNITY 43
XXI. THE SYNTHETIC NATURE OF DEDUCTION 45
XXII. THE MORTALITY OF SOCRATES 48
XXIII. DENOTING 53
XXIV. THE 54
XXV. NON-ENTITY 56
XXVI. IS 58
XXVII. AND AND OR 59
XXVIII. THE CONVERSION OF RELATIONS 60
XXIX. PREVIOUS PHILOSOPHICAL THEORIES OF MATHEMATICS 61
XXX. FINITE AND INFINITE 63
XXXI. THE MATHEMATICAL ATTAINMENTS OF TRISTRAM SHANDY 64
XXXII. THE HARDSHIPS OF A MAN WITH AN UNLIMITED INCOME 66
XXXIII. THE RELATIONS OF MAGNITUDE OF CARDINAL NUMBERS 69
XXXIV. THE UNKNOWABLE 70
XXXV. MR. SPENCER, THE ATHANASIAN CREED, AND THE ARTICLES 73
XXXVI. THE HUMOUR OF MATHEMATICIANS 74
XXXVII. THE PARADOXES OF LOGIC 75
XXXVIII. MODERN LOGIC AND SOME PHILOSOPHICAL ARGUMENTS 79
XXXIX. THE HIERARCHY OF JOKES 81
XL. THE EVIDENCE OF GEOMETRICAL PROPOSITIONS 83
XLI. ABSOLUTE AND RELATIVE POSITION 84
XLII. LAUGHTER 86
XLIII. "GEDANKENEXPERIMENTE" AND EVOLUTIONARY ETHICS 88
APPENDIXES 89

ABBREVIATIONS

_A. A. W._ Lewis Carroll: _Alice's Adventures in Wonderland_, London,
1908. [This book was first published much earlier, but
this was the edition used by Mr. R*ss*ll. The same applies
to _H. S._ and _T. L. G._]

_A. C. P._ John Henry Blunt (ed. by): _The Annotated Book of Common
Prayer_, London, new edition, 1888.

_A. d. L._ Ernst Schroeder: _Vorlesungen ueber die Algebra der Logik,
Leipzig_, vol. i., 1890; vol. ii. (two parts), 1891 and
1905; vol. iii.: _Algebra und Logik der Relative_, 1895.

_E. N._ Richard Dedekind: _Essays on the Theory of Numbers_,
Chicago and London, 1901.

_E. L. L._ William Stanley Jevons: _Elementary Lessons in Logic,
Deductive and Inductive. With copious Questions and
Examples, and a Vocabulary of Logical Terms_, London,
24th ed., 1907 [first published in 1870].

_E. u. I._ Ernst Mach: _Erkenntnis und Irrtum: Skizzen zur
Psychologie der Forschung_, Leipzig, 1906.

_F. L._ Augustus De Morgan: _Formal Logic: or The Calculus of
Inference, Necessary and Probable_, London, 1847.

_Fm. L._ John Neville Keynes: _Studies and Exercises in Formal
Logic_, 4th ed., London, 1906.

_Gg._ Gottlob Frege: _Grundgesetze der Arithmetik
begriffschriftlich abgeleitet_, Jena, vol. i., 1893;
vol. ii., 1903.

_Gl._ Gottlob Frege: _Die Grundlagen der Arithmetik: eine
logisch-mathematische Untersuchung ueber den Begriff der
Zahl_, Breslau, 1884.

_G. u. E._ G. Heymans: _Die Gesetze und Elemente des
wisenschaftlichen Denkens_, Leiden, vol. i., 1890;
vol. ii., 1894.

_H. J._ _The Hibbert Journal: a Quarterly Review of Religion,
Theology and Philosophy_, London and New York.

_H. S._ Lewis Carroll: _The Hunting of the Snark: an Agony in
Eight Fits_, London, 1911.

_M._ _The Monist: a Quarterly Magazine Devoted to Science and
Philosophy_, Chicago and London.

_Md._ _Mind: a Quarterly Review of Psychology and Philosophy_,
London and New York.

_Pa. Ma._ Alfred North Whitehead and Bertrand Russell: _Principia
Mathematica_, vol. i., Cambridge, 1910. [Other volumes
were published in 1912 and 1913.]

_P. E._ Bertrand Russell: _Philosophical Essays_, London and New
York, 1910.

_Ph. L._ Bertrand Russell: _A Critical Exposition of the Philosophy
of Leibniz, with an Appendix of Leading Passages_,
Cambridge, 1900.

_P. M._ Bertrand Russell: _The Principles of Mathematics_,
vol. i., Cambridge, 1903.

_R. M. M._ _Revue de Metaphysique et de Morale_, Paris.

_S. B._ Lewis Carroll: _Sylvie and Bruno_, London, 1889.

_S. L._ John Venn: _Symbolic Logic_, London, 1881; 2nd ed., 1894.

_S. o. S._ William Stanley Jevons: _The Substitution of Similars, the
True Principle of Reasoning derived from a Modification of
Aristotle's Dictum_, London, 1869.

_T. L. G._ Lewis Carroll: _Through the Looking-Glass, and what Alice
found there_, London, 1911.

_Z. S._ Gottlob Frege: _Ueber die Zahlen des Herrn H. Schubert_,
Jena, 1899.