ABSTRACT
No one could doubt Keynes’s very significant influence on economic theory and world affairs, but how brilliant was he as a thinker? The philosopher Bertrand Russell has provided a concise and accurate evaluation of his fellow Cambridge don:
Keynes’s intellect was the sharpest and clearest that I have ever known. When I argued with him I felt that I took my life in my hands, and I seldom emerged without feeling something of a fool. I was sometimes inclined to feel that so much cleverness must be incompatible with depth, but I do not think this feeling was justified. 1
