Russellian

Russellian is an adjective relating to the works, ideas, or method of the British philosopher and logician Bertrand Russell, and to positions developed from his work in logic, mathematics, and the philosophy of language. It is commonly used to describe theories and approaches in analytic philosophy that trace to Russell’s program.

In philosophy of language, Russellian often refers to the theory of descriptions, a framework for analyzing sentences containing definite descriptions. The Russellian analysis treats such phrases as part of the logical form of statements, not as straightforward references to actual objects. For example, a sentence like “The present king of France is bald” is analyzed in terms of existence and uniqueness conditions for the description, rather than presupposing a concrete referent.

In metaphysics and logic, Russellian (or logical) atomism and related programmatic ideas emphasize that the world is built from simple, structure-bearing facts and that language should reflect this logical structure. This tradition influenced early analytic philosophy and the development of formal logic, culminating in the work of Russell and his collaborator, Alfred North Whitehead.

Modern usage includes Russellian monism, a contemporary position inspired by Russell’s neutral monism. It posits a neutral base of reality from which both mental and physical phenomena emerge, rather than a strict mind- or matter-first ontology.

The term also denotes adherents who align with Russell’s methods and insights in philosophy, mathematics, and logic, and is often contrasted with other traditions (for example, Fregean approaches) in discussions of language, reference, and ontology.