Cambridge University Press

Contemporary Review, March, 2004

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS has brought out two more titles in its series of companions: The Cambridge Companion to Bertrand Russell ([pounds sterling]55.00 and US$75.00) edited by Nicholas Griffin. This collection of fifteen essays, prepared by scholars from Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the U.S., is introduced by the editor who claims that almost every aspect of twentieth-century analytic philosophy 'either originated with' Russell 'or was transformed by being transmitted through him'. The contributions, which bring students the latest thinking on Russell, discuss: mathematics in his logic, Russell's philosophical background, Russell's relations with G. E. Moore and, in a separate paper, with Gottlob Frege, Russell's logicism, his theory of descriptions and his substitutional theory, 'the theory of types', his method of analysis, his neutral monism and his metaphysics of logical atomism, his structuralism and the absolute description of the world, his influence on knowledge by acquaintance to knowledge by causation, an essay on 'Russell, Experience, and the Roots of Science' and finally an essay on 'Bertrand Russell: Moral Philosopher or Unphilosophical Moralist'. There is also a paperback edition at [pounds sterling]19.95 (US$26.00).

The second Cambridge title is a new edition of The Cambridge Companion to Chaucer edited by Piero Boitani and Jill Mann ([pounds sterling]45.00 and US$60.00), first published in 1986. Contributors have updated their individual essays and the editors have also included several new pieces to keep the text abreast of new developments in Chaucerian studies. The Anglo-Italian editorial team is to be congratulated for giving new focus to what has become a classic guide to England's greatest mediaeval poet. There is also a paperback edition at [pounds sterling]16.95 (US$23.00).