SOURCE: “Russell and Whitehead: A Comparison,” in Insights and Oversights of Great Thinkers, State University of New York Press, 1983, pp. 255-68.

In the following essay, Hartshorne compares the thought of Bertrand Russell and Whitehead, judging Whitehead the greater philosopher.

Russell is the most gifted Englishman alive. Russell doesn't understand the importance of the past, or of tradition, and—he won't qualify. Bertie says that I am muddle headed, but I say that he is simple minded. Seek simplicity and mistrust it. 

Alfred North Whitehead

As a teacher I regard Whitehead as perfect. Asymmetrical relations are the most relational of relations. 

Bertrand Russell

A Unique Collaboration

The ten-year long collaboration of Russell (1872-1970) and Whitehead (1861-1947) was an unprecedented affair. Never before had two thinkers of their stature struggled together so arduously to produce a work so influential upon philosophical inquiry as Principia Mathematica. Yet, and this illustrates the...