BRACERS Record Detail for 135534
To access the original letter, email the Russell Archives.
Lacking is the report BR enclosed on the dissertation by Theodore Redpath, "A Dissertation on Four Philosophical Controversies Engaged in by Leibniz and Certain Other Philosophers of the Late 17th and Early 18th Centuries". It is dated 1940 in the Cambridge repository. C.D. Broad was the supervisor. Benians was a historian, Master of St. John's, and Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge 1939–41.
Only the verso of BR's single-page letter is reproduced in Dominic's winter 2025 catalogue, item 311.
There is nothing regarding BR in Benians' papers at St. John's.
BR TO ERNEST ALFRED BENIANS, 15 MARCH 1938
BRACERS 56173. ALS. Dominic auction, 8 Oct. 2025
<letterhead>
Amberley House
Kidlington, Oxfordshire
<15 March 1938>
<I am enclosing a report on> Mr Redpath and am returning his dissertations
separately. May I add a few words in a less formal style? I find great
difficulty in deciding on his merits. When on a few famous
occasions, I have reported favourably on fellowship dissertations
(e.g. in the case of C. D. Broad), they reached, I think, a higher level
than is reached by Mr. Redpath. At the same time, I feel that what
he has written on Leibniz shows an original point of view, while it
suggests a somewhat inadequate industry. If he has been
hampered by bad health, he deserves to be judged much more
favourably than otherwise. As to this, I know only what appears in
his accompanying statement.
Yours sincerely
Russell.
