BR TO RALPH BARTON PERRY, 1 NOV. 1911
BRACERS 54117. ALS. Harvard U.
Proofread by K. Blackwell

Trinity College
Cambridge.1
Nov. 1. 1911

Dear Professor Perry

I am sending you seven copies of an address I recently gave to the Aristotelian Society on universals and particulars, in the hope that you will send six of them to Sheffer and others, whose address I do not know — I think especially of the other five members of the class of “six realists”. I had your school chiefly in mind in writing, as I believe you dispense with particulars as an independent sort of entities. But as my knowledge was chiefly derived from conversation with Shaffer, I did not like to make any explicit reference.

Bergson, who was present when I read my paper, evidently thought it antiquated nonsense. He said it reminded him of the Greeks, and that in the modern world particulars might be taken for granted but universals could only be accepted after careful proof. I should be very glad to know whether in fact you reject particulars and how this view is supported, if at any time you have time to write on the matter.

Yours sincerely
Bertrand Russell.

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