ABSTRACT
I FIRST studied philosophy at Oxford during the years I9I2I9I4, where the prevalent philosophy was that of the English Idealists. To this mode of thought I never took kindly, my natural predilections tending in the direction of some form of Realism. Since, however, the modem realist revival was not at that time regarded with favour at Oxford, I took Greats as a realist of the Platonic type, and contended for the independent reality of universals, with particular reference to the forms of beauty, goodness and truth. When I had nothing more to fear from examiners, I threw in my lot with the modern realists, and in their train gradually advanced from a more or less naive realism of the Meinong type, advocated in my first book Essays in Common Sense Philosophy, to the more extreme position known as neo-realism. During this stage, and, indeed, throughout my philosophical development, I was greatly influenced by the work of Bertrand Russell, to whom I owe more than to any other writer on philosophy.
