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The Importance to Philosophers of the Bertrand Russell Archive1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 June 2010

Kenneth Blackwell
Affiliation:
Bertrand Russell Archive, McMaster University

Extract

It is a great pleasure to be asked to describe to philosophers the papers of Bertrand Russell. Russell's papers were acquired by McMaster University in the spring of 1968. Professor William Ready, the University Librarian, who is almost solely responsible for their acquisition, has created a special department for them in the library with ample funds for their expansion and scholarly exploitation. Before their arrival in Canada, I had had the privilege of working on the papers for a year while they were being catalogued in London. After their sale to McMaster, Professor Ready hired me as someone who knew his way in the dozens of cabinet drawers and trunks. Although my interests in the papers are primarily bibliographical and personal, I shall try to outline what philosophers, especially those with an historical interest, could find of importance in them. In doing so, I shall mention some topics of possible inquiry and suggest specific manuscripts to study in connection with them, but I shall not attempt to trace in detail the development of any of Russell's ideas. That is for philosophers to do.

Type
Discussion/Note
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Philosophical Association 1969

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References

2 A Detailed Catalogue of the Archives of Bertrand Russell. Edited by Barry Feinberg. London: Continuum 1 Ltd., 1967.

3 The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell, 1914–1944 (Toronto, 1968), p. 57.