Page:Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays.djvu/248

 BY BERTRAND RUSSELL History of Western Philosophy Demy 8vo. Fifth Impression 305. net In spite of Principia Mathematica, The Analysis of Mind and other land marks, this history may prove to be the crowning achievement of one of the greatest intellects of our day. &quot;It is certain of a very wide audience, and is, in my opinion, just the kind of thing people ought to have to make them understand the past. . . . It may be one of the most valuable books of our time. . . .&quot; DR. G. M. TREVELYAN. &quot;Bertrand Russell s remarkable book is, so far as I am aware, the first attempt to present a history of Western philosophy in relation to its social and economic background. As such, and also as a brilliantly written expos6 of changing philosophical doctrines, it should be widely read.&quot; DR. JULIAN HUXLEY. My Philosophical Development Demy 8vo. iSs. net In this book Bertrand Russell gives an account of his philosophical development from crude adolescent attempts at the age of 15 down to the present day. He tells of his Hegelian period during the years 1894-8, and includes hitherto unpublished notes for a Hegelian philosophy of science. He deals next with the two- fold revolution involved in his abandonment of idealism and adoption of a mathematical logic founded upon that of Peano. After two chapters on Principia Mathematica, he passes to the problems of perception as dealt with in Our Knowledge of the External World. There is a chapter on &quot;The Impact of Wittgenstein&quot; in which he examines what he now thinks must be accepted and what rejected in that philosopher s work. He notes the changes from earlier theories required by the adoption of William James s view that sensation is not essentially relational and is not per se a form of knowledge. In an explanatory chapter, he endeavours to remove misconceptions of and objections to his theories as to the relation of perception to scientific knowledge. The book concludes with a reprint of some recent articles on modern Oxford philosophy. Such a survey as this, by one of the world s leading thinkers, of nearly seventy years of his own philosophical work, is clearly as important as it is fascinating. It is a masterpiece of philosophical autobiography.