Philosophy 3600 (Fall 2011)
Chris Pincock
Russell: Chronology
1872: Born (parents die in 1874, raised by grandmother)
1890-94: Trinity College, Cambridge: three years study of mathematics followed by fourth year on moral
sciences (philosophy). Professors include James Ward, G. F. Stout and Henry Sidgwick.
1895: Fellow of Trinity College
1897: Revised fellowship dissertation, Essay on the Foundations of Geometry, published (dedicated to
McTaggart)
1898: Rejects Bradleyan idealism under influence of Moore
1900: The Philosophy of Leibniz
Meets Peano at Paris Congress
1902: Begins correspondence with Frege
1903: Principles of Mathematics, including Appendix A on Frege
1905: “On Denoting”
1907: “Mathematical Logic Based on a Theory of Types”
1908: Lecturer at Trinity College
1910: Philosophical Essays, with new theory of judgment
1910-13: Three volumes of Principia Mathematica (with Whitehead) appear
1910: “Knowledge by Acquaintance and Knowledge by Description”
1911: Wittgenstein arrives in Cambridge
1912: Problems of Philosophy
1913: April-June: works on Theory of Knowledge manuscript
October: Wittgenstein dictates “Notes on Logic”
1914: “The Relation of Sense-data to Physics”
Spring: Our Knowledge of the External World lectures at Harvard, gives courses on logic and the
theory of knowledge
1914-17: works to oppose WWI, especially for No Conscription Fellowship
1916: Loses Trinity College lectureship
1918: Mysticism & Logic collection
“Philosophy of Logical Atomism” lectures in London after return to philosophy in fall of 1917.
May-September: Prison term
1919: Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy, “On Propositions” (new approach to propositions and
judgment)
1920: visit to China
1921: Analysis of Mind
Introduction to Wittgenstein’s Tractatus
1924: “Logical Atomism”
1925: Second edition of Principia Mathematica (without Whitehead)
1927: Analysis of Matter
Outline of Philosophy
1938-1944: In USA
1940: Denied position at City College of New York on political grounds
Inquiry into Meaning and Truth (William James lectures, Harvard)
1944: Lecturer at Trinity College
The Philosophy of Bertrand Russell
1945: History of Western Philosophy
1948: Human Knowledge: Its Scope and Limits
1950: Nobel Prize for Literature
1959: My Philosophical Development
1967-69: Autobiography
1970: Dies
Influential collections of essays: Logic & Knowledge, Marsh (ed.); Essays in Analysis, Lackey (ed.)
Online resources: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/russell/, http://bertrandrussell.org/