This book offers a comprehensive critical survey of issues of historical interpretation and evaluation in Bertrand Russell's 1918 logical atomism lectures and logical atomism itself. These lectures record the culmination of Russell's thought in response to discussions with Wittgenstein on the nature of judgement and philosophy of logic and with Moore and other philosophical realists about epistemology and ontological atomism, and to Whitehead and Russell¿s novel extension of revolutionary nineteenth-century work in mathematics and logic. Russell's logical atomism lectures have had a lasting impact on analytic philosophy and on Russell's contemporaries including Carnap, Ramsey, Stebbing, and Wittgenstein. Comprised of 14 original essays, this book will demonstrate how the direct and indirect influence of these lectures thus runs deep and wide.

Offers a comprehensive critical survey of issues of historical interpretation and evaluation of the logical atomism lectures and logical atomism itself

Part I History of Russell's Logical Atomism.- 1. On Russell's Logical Atomism; Landon D. C. Elkind.- 2. Logical Atomism's Necessity; Gregory Landini.- 3. Logical Atomism in Russell's Later Works; Gülberk Koç Maclean.- Part II Influences on Russell's Logical Atomism,- 4. Russell and Frege on the Power of Symbols and the Compositionality of Linguistic Expressions; Pieranna Garavaso.- 5. Russell's and Wittgensten's Logical Atomisms; David G. Stern.- 6. Russell in Transition 1914-1918: From Theory of Knowledge to "The Philosophy of Logical Atomism"; Russell Wahl.- Part III Metaphysics: Fundamentality and Negative Facts.- 7. Russell on Ontological Fundamentality and Existence; Kevin C. Klement.- 8. The Near Riot Over Negative Facts; Bernard Linsky.- 9. Can we be Positive About Russell's Negative Facts?; Katarina Perovi¿.- Part IV Language: The Theory of Judgment and Descriptivism.- 10. Russell's Discussion of Judgment in the Philosophy of Logical Atomism: Did Russell have a Theory of Judgemen in 1918?; Anssi Korhonen.- 11. Russell's Descriptivism about Proper Name and Indexicals: Reconstruction and Defense; Francesco Orilia.- Part V Epistemology: Acquaintance and Analysis.- 12. The Possibility of Analysis: Convergence and Proofs of Convergence; David Fisher and Charles McCarty.- 13. The Underlying Presuppositions of Logical Atomism; Richard Fumerton.- 14. Russell and Wittgenstein on Occam's Razor; James Levine.