Critical Notes — Chapter IV: Philosophical Consequences (§§ 180–209)

Primary Text: Read Verbatim Treatise Track (pp. 178–201) · Overview: Analytical Summary · Cross-Corpus Loci: Master Concordance

Historical & Cross-Corpus Commentary

How Cantor and Moore Dissolved Chapter IV by 1903

Chapter IV represents the high-water mark of Russell’s neo-Hegelian dialectical phase (explicitly comparing empty space to Aristotle’s materia prima in §203 and citing Hegel’s Naturphilosophie). Within three years, Cantor’s set-theoretic continuum (PoM Ch. L) and Moore’s realism about absolute points (PoM Ch. LI) led Russell to repudiate all three antinomies as artifacts of faulty pre-relational logic.