Bertrand Russell: The Problems of Philosophy (1912)

Abstract

In 1912 Bertrand Russell was at the top of his profession. Volume 1 of his great work Principia Mathematica, written with Alfred North Whitehead, had come out two years before and the second volume was published that year. Principia Mathematica is an immensely difficult work and very few can claim to have really understood it all. This made it especially surprising that such an eminent philosopher should choose, at this stage of his career, to write a book intended for a popular audience. But Russell was no ordinary philosopher and The Problems of Philosophy became an instant classic of its kind.