Orwell and Bertrand Russell

Abstract Two of the great Englishmen of the twentieth century, George Orwell and Bertrand Russell, were mutual admirers and sympathetic collaborators. That Orwell was familiar with and thought highly of Russell’s work is well known, yet a pervasive interpretation of Orwell as being scarcely capable of understanding philosophical monographs is persistent. Russell is a demonstrable influence on Orwell’s thought, although the full range of Russell’s influence has not always been appreciated, especially as it pertains to Orwell’s philosophical commitments. Russell’s views about power greatly influenced Orwell’s piqued interest in the topic during the 1940s, and Russell’s sympathies with British sentimentalism are discernible in Orwell’s own favoured moral psychology. There is also reason to think that Russell inspired a memorable passage in Nineteen Eighty-Four where Winston cannot recall the fallacy of which he suspects O’Brien is guilty: the unnamed fallacy likely has its origins in Russell’s critique of idealism.