Dictionary of Philosophy of Religion

203

RUSSELL, BERTRAND ARTHUR WILLIAM

Loyalty (1908), The Problem of Christian-
ity (1913), Fugitive Essays (ed. J. Loewen-
berg, 1920), and Logical Essays (ed.
D. S. Robinson, 1951).

RUSSELL, BERTRAND ARTHUR
WILLIAM (1872–1970). Prominent
British philosopher who defended a
myriad of positions. The most common
conviction expressed throughout all of
his charges was his atheism. In Russell’s
monumental history of Western philoso-
phy, he positioned philosophy in what he
called a “no man’s land,” in between sci-
ence and religion or theology. In his view,
religion and theology were too dogmatic
and confident in their beliefs and values.
Russell thought that reliable knowledge is
best found in the sciences. In philosophy,
however, the terrain is always less than
scientific and less “dogmatic” (his term)
than theology. Russell brought together
some of his essays against theism and
Christianity in a book called Why I am
not a Christian (1927). He carried out an
important debate about theism with
Frederick Copleston on the BBC, which
was frequently anthologized in late
twentieth-century philosophy of religion
texts. His works include An Essay on the
Foundations of Geometry (1897), A Criti-
cal Exposition of the Philosophy of Leibniz
(1900, new ed., 1937), The Principles of

Mathematics (vol. 1, 1903, new ed., 1938),

Principia Mathematic (with Alfred North

Whitehead, vol. 1, 1910; vol. 2, 1912; vol. 3,

1913; new ed., 1925–1927), Philosophical

Essays (1910), The Problems of Philosophy

(1912), Our Knowledge of the External

Wo r l d (1914), Principles of Social Recon-

struction (1916), Road to Freedom: Social,

Anarchism and Syndicalism (1918), Mys-

ticism and Logic and other Essays (1918),

Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy

(1919), The Analysis of Mind (1921), What

I Believe (1925), The Analysis of Matter

(1927), An Outline of Philosophy (1927),

Sceptical Essays (1928), The Scientific

Outlook (1931), Education and the Social

Order (1932), Freedom and Organisation

(1934), Power: a New Social Analysis (1938),

An Inquiry into Meaning and Truth (1940),

A History of Western Philosophy (1947),

Human Knowledge: its Scope and Limits

(1948), Authority and the Individual (1949),

Unpopular Essays (1950), The Impact of

Science on Society (1951), New Hopes for

a Changing World (1952), Satan in the

Suburbs (1953), Human Society in Ethics

and Politics (1955), Portraits from Memory

and Other Essays (1956), Logic and Knowl-

edge (ed. R. C. Marsh, 1956), My Philo-

sophical Development (1959), Bertrand

Russell Speaks his Mind (1960), Fact and

Fiction (1961), Essays in Skepticism (1962),

and The Autobiography of Bertrand

Russell, 1872–1914 (3 vols., 1967).