Essays on Bertrand Russell, ed. by E. D. Klemke: Preface by the editor

* Sourcce: Essays on Bertrand Russell, ed. by E. D. Klemke (Urbana, Chicago & London; Univ. of Illinois Press, 1970. xi,458 p. 21 cm.)
* E. D. Klemke is professor and chairman of the Department of Philosophy at Roosevelt University.

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Preface by the editor

HARDLY anyone who has taken the trouble to wrestle with his major philosophical works can have doubts as to the status and rank of Bertrand Russell in contemporary philosophy. He has been referred to as "the dominant figure of the century" by Gustav Bergmann - one who has read Russell with care and constantly acknowledged his stature and importance.

Bertrand Russell Quotes 366

Bertrand Arthur William Russell was born in 1872. He entered Cambridge University at the age of eighteen and there met Alfred North Whitehead, J. E. McTaggart, and G. E. Moore, among others. For three years he was mainly occupied with the study of mathematics, but in his fourth year, he emphasized work in philosophy and studied under Henry Sidgwick, James Word, and G. F. Stout. He left Cambridge in 1894 and spent some time in foreign countries. He returned and held a position as lecturer in philosophy at the University of Cambridge from 1910 to 1916. The bulk of his philosophical works - including a large number of books and countless papers - cover a span of almost seven decades. He died on February 2, 1970, at the age of 97.

In 1944, a volume was devoted to Russell's philosophy in the Library of Living Philosophers Series.^*1 Since that time, a number of essays have appeared which deal with various aspects of Russell's thought. As I have already edited a collection of Essays on Frege,^*2 it was suggested that I bring together a similar collection of essays on Russell. Even more so than in the case of the earlier volume, I thought it desirable to include a number of new papers, which were written expressly for this volume. These are essays 5, 6, 7, 16, 17, 18, 19, 24, 25, and 26.

I have arranged the essays under three main headings: (1) Russell's ontology, (2) his theories of reference and of descriptions, and (3) his philosophy of logic and of mathematics. To some extent, the categorization is not quite adequate. Thus, a paper in the section on the theory of descriptions, for example, may in certain aspects deal with issues in ontology as well. Since some of the essays deal not with Russell's thought but with various criticisms of Russell, perhaps a more accurate title would have been Essays on Bertrand Russell and His Critics. However, for convenience, I have chosen the shorter title.

I am grateful to all the writers, editors, and publishers who so kindly granted permission to allow essays and selections to be reprinted in this volume. I would also like to express my appreciation to those who wrote and contributed new essays expressly for this book and to all those who gave advice or helped with the many tasks of getting the manuscript prepared for publication. I am particularly indebted to Professors Gustav Bergmann, Moltke S. Gram, Herbert Hochberg, Arthur Jacobson, Leonard Linsky, and Henry Veatch; Messrs. Truman Metzel, G. Moor, Richard Reed and Robert Bimbaum; Mrs. Mary Facko for typing the manuscript; Miss Jane Phillips of the University of lllinois Press; and President Rolf Weil, Dean Otto Wirth, and Dean George Watson of Roosevelt University.
Finally, I would like to express my appreciation to Bob Leali, Jr., who has helped in so many ways that I cannot adequately express my gratitude.

E. D. Klemke
Roosevelt University
Chicago, Illinois
March, 1970

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*1 Paul A. Schilpp, ed., The Philosophy of Bertrand Russell (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1944)
*2 E. D. Klemke, ed., Essays on Frege (Urbana: University of lllinois Press, 1968 ) .

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