The Judger in Russell's Theories of Judgment

TL;DRAbstract

ussell's 1910-14 theory of belief and truth continues to capture attention for its. historical priority and for its negative epistemological lessons.! I say negative lessons, for, as Russell informs us from 1918 on, the theory is false and he has a better one. I find more interesting the positive lesson about how Russell's evolving conception of the judger contributed to the formulation of his better theory. From James's neutral monism he thought he could derive intentionali~And, inspired by his friend Wittgenstein, he thought he could connect more insightfully the statements in a language to the subjective judgments they express and to their objective truth conditions. Both advances turned on Russell's reconceptualization of the judger's role in the analysis ofjudgment. I. RUSSELL'S FOUR THEORIES OF JUDGMENT Kirkham, in his recent study of theories oftruth, chooses the earlier false theory as one of his two paradigms of a correspondence theory of truth. He calls it the original modern

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