The Russell/Bradley Dispute and Its Significance for Twentieth Century Philosophy

In the early twentieth century a philosophical debate took place between F. H. Bradley and Bertrand Russell concerning a range of connected issues of apparently technical significance: the nature and unity of the proposition, the proper account of truth, and the status of relations. The historical outcome was momentous: the demise of the philosophical movement known as British Idealism, and its eventual replacement by the various forms of analytic philosophy. Since then, a conception...
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In the early twentieth century a philosophical debate took place between F. H. Bradley and Bertrand Russell concerning a range of connected issues of apparently technical significance: the nature and unity of the proposition, the proper account of truth, and the status of relations. The historical outcome was momentous: the demise of the philosophical movement known as British Idealism, and its eventual replacement by the various forms of analytic philosophy. Since then, a conception of this debate and its rights and wrongs has become entrenched in English-language philosophy. Stewart Candlish examines afresh not only the events of this formative period in twentieth-century thought but also the standard conception of them, providing a reassessment of Bradley's contribution to modern philosophy, new insight into the development of Russell's thought, and some surprising conclusions.