Russell's Hidden Substitutional Theory

Gregory Landini presents and explores Bertrand Russell's substitutional theory of classes - a theory largely elaborated in unpublished manuscripts from the period before Principia Mathematica. He shows how paradoxes about propositions gradually undermined this theory and forced Russell to recast his ideas. Landini argues, however, that even in the Principia Russell is still attempting to salvage the guiding idea of the theory, showing that Russell's work exhibits far more consistency than previously thought.