The origins of Russell's paradox
Russell, Couturat, and the antinomy of infinite number
pp. 215-239
in: Jaakko Hintikka (ed), From Dedekind to Gödel, Berlin, Springer, 1995Abstract
From 1897 to 1913, during the entire period when Russell made his major contributions to mathematical logic, he corresponded regularly with the French philosopher, Louis Couturat. Almost 200 letters passed between them, ranging over a myriad of topics, from the politics of the Boer War to the usefulness of an international language. The heart of this correspondence, however, is not its political themes but its logical, mathematical, and philosophical ones.
