Acquaintance, Knowledge, and Logic – New Essays on Bertrand Russell's "The Problems of Philosophy"

Bertrand Russell, the recipient of the 1950 Nobel Prize for Literature, was one of the most distinguished, influential, and prolific philosophers of the twentieth century. Acquaintance, Knowledge, and Logic brings together ten new essays on Russell’s best-known work, The Problems of Philosophy. These essays, by some of the foremost scholars of his life and works, reexamine Russell’s famous distinction between “knowledge by acquaintance” and “knowledge by description,” his developing views about our knowledge of physical reality, and his views about our knowledge of logic, mathematics, and other abstract matters. In addition, this volume includes an editors’ introduction, which summarizes Russell’s influential book, presents new biographical details about how and why Russell wrote it, and highlights its continued significance for contemporary philosophy.

Donovan Wishon is assistant professor of philosophy at the University of Mississippi.

Bernard Linsky is professor of philosophy at the University of Alberta and a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. He is the author of The Evolution of Principia Mathematica: Bertrand Russell’s Manuscripts and Notes for the Second Edition.