The Bertrand Russell Society Quarterly

society news

There is much Society News this issue—details of the 2005 BRS Annual Meeting, a call for papers for the Annual Meeting, election results for BRS Board of Directors, details of the conference celebrating the centenary anniversary of ‘On Denoting’ that is to be held in conjunction with this year’s BRS Annual Meeting, a list of donors to the BRS this year, an end-of-the-year membership report, sad news of recently deceased friends of the BRS, and information on BRS sessions at the APA—but first we need to say: IT’S TIME TO RENEW!

Regular memberships in the Bertrand Russell Society expire at year's end. If you have not yet done so, now is the time to renew your membership. Instructions are on page 4.

BRS 2005 ANNUAL MEETING NEWS

The Bertrand Russell Society will hold its 32nd Annual Meeting this coming May 13-15, 2005, at McMaster University in Hamilton Ontario—home of the Bertrand Russell Archives and Bertrand Russell Research Centre. BRS members and their friends are urged not to miss this year’s BRS Annual Meeting, as it promises to be an extra special one. The meeting will take place in conjunction with a second conference at McMaster University celebrating the centenary anniversary of Russell’s landmark paper ‘On Denoting’. Organized by Nicholas Griffin and Dale Jacquette, this second conference will take place May 14-18, 2005, allowing those who attend the BRS Annual Meeting to attend the ‘On Denoting’ conference as well. To encourage conference crossover attendance, there will be a special reduced registration fee for those wishing to attend both conferences, and those registered for the BRS meeting will be able to attend papers at the ‘On Denoting’ conference for free prior to the BRS farewell luncheon on Sunday afternoon. Registration details for the annual meeting can be found on pages 2 and 3, and also on the web at URL http://russell.mcmaster.ca/brsmeeting.htm. Nick Griffin provides details of the centenary conference in his conference report for the BRSQ, to be found in the back of this issue. Details of that conference can also be found online at http://denoting.mcmaster.ca

Call for papers. You can’t have a BRS Annual Meeting without a lot of good talks on Russell. If you are working on, or planning to work on a paper on Russell's thought or his life, please submit an abstract of around 150 words to BRS President, Dr Alan Schwerin, at: aschweri@monmouth.edu.

At the last annual meeting, the Society held “master’s classes”—seminars for which members had read material before hand. If you would like to lead such a master’s class at the next annual meeting, send Alan Schwerin an email expressing your interest.

BRS Board of Directors Election Results. The 2004 election for three year positions on the BRS Board of Directors was a lively one, with 11 nominees for 8 seats. Fifty members cast votes in this election, more than have voted in a BRS Board election in recent years. The nominees, with the votes each received, were: Kevin Brodie-32, Rosalind Carey-44, Tim Madigan-39, Ray Perkins-40, Alan Schwerin-37, Warren Allen Smith-33, Chad Trainer-39, Thom Weidlich-36, John Fitzgerald-10, Kevin Klement-1, Marvin Kohl-23, Gregory Landini-23

The eight winners were: Kevin Brodie, Rosalind Carey, Tim Madigan, Ray Perkins, Alan Schwerin, Warren Allen Smith, Chad Trainer, and Thom Weidlich. We thank all who voted in the election this year, and especially all who ran as candidates.

Special Thanks to BRS Supporters. The following people made donations to the Bertrand Russell Society in 2004 beyond their regular membership fees. The Russell Society gratefully thanks them for their generosity and support. (Members please note: though dues are not tax-deductible, contributions are.) The donors were:

Patrons ($250 and up) David S. Goldman, Frank Jenkins

Sponsors ($100 and up) Congressman Neil Abercrombie, Congressman Neil Abercrombie (yes, twice), John J. Fitzgerald, Yvonne Jonath, Gregory Landini, Robert A. Riemenschneider, and Benjamin A. Wade

Sustainers ($65 and up) William M. Calder, Stephen J. Reinhardt, James Bunton

Contributors ($50 and up) Jane Duran, Robert K. Davis, Linda Egendorf, Mark Fuller, Justin Leiber, Michael A. Sequeira, Warren Allen Smith, Gladys Leithahuser, Basil Fadipe

Other Donors Jay Aragona, Aidha S. Barakat

End-of-the-Year Membership Report, by BRS Treasurer, Dennis Darland. At the end of 2004, the BRS had 165 members, up from 150 members at the end of 2003. For this report, couples were counted as 2 people (in some reports, including the mid-year report, couples have been counted as 1). Honorary members (13) are included in these numbers as well. The number of donors to the BRS also increased this year, from 20 donors in 2003 to 24 in 2004.

The BRS at the APA. The BRS sponsors sessions at each of the division meetings of the American Philosophical Association. This past December, the BRS met at the Eastern division meeting of the APA in Boston with good talks and discussions (see the Traveler’s Diary in the back for details).

This spring, the BRS, in conjunction with HEAPS (the new History of Early Analytic Philosophy Society), will be sponsoring talks at the Pacific and Central division meetings of the APA. The Pacific division will meet in San Francisco this year, March 22-27, 2005 at the Westin St. Francis Hotel, Union Square. (The Pacific APA program only calls it a HEAPS session rather than the joint BRS and HEAPS session that it actually is. Nevertheless, the BRS will be there!) Bay Area BRSer Peter Stone will chair the session at the Pacific, Jane Duran will deliver her Annual Meeting talk on Russell on History and Intrinsic Value, with comments by Rosalind Carey, Bruce Frazier will speak on How Analytic Philosophy Inspired the Chomskian Revolution, with comments by Robert Riemenschneider, and finally, Sandra Lapointe will speak on Bolzano On Axioms, ‘Grounding’, and Synthetic a priori Knowledge (commentator TBA). The Bay Area Russell Society (BARS) will meet there at the same time. If you are in the area, please show your support for the BRS by attending.

The Central APA will meet in Chicago this year, April 27-30, 2005, at the Palmer House Hilton Hotel, and the BRS will be sponsoring talks there as well. Details will be provided in the next issue of the Quarterly.