MARLPIT PRESSIndependent PublisherHow The Mind and Its Place in Nature Was Received
Broad’s 674-page book was reviewed quickly and widely across philosophy, science, sociology, and the general intellectual press.
A remarkably broad reception
Confirmed reviews and notices appeared in philosophical journals, a science review journal, a sociological journal, a Catholic intellectual quarterly, and the general intellectual press.
That breadth fits the book itself, which deliberately crosses philosophy, psychology, biology, scientific method, and psychical research.
Bertrand Russell reviewed it twice
Russell first reviewed the book in The Nation and the Athenaeum on 28 November 1925. A longer critical review followed in Mind in January 1926 and occupied eight pages.
The double engagement is significant because Russell had also been one of Broad’s Cambridge advisers early in Broad’s career.
Praise for accuracy and distinctions
Contemporary Kegan Paul advertising preserved a favorable Russell sentence praising Broad’s accurate thought and useful distinctions.
The praise is characteristic. Broad rarely offered a charismatic system, but even critics valued the extraordinary analytical map he produced.
The Times Literary Supplement verdict
Publisher advertising also preserved a Times Literary Supplement description of the book as one of the most important recent contributions to philosophy.
The exact original TLS issue and date have not been securely recovered, so the surviving wording is best treated as a publisher-preserved excerpt rather than a substitute for the full review.
Specialist reviews and later discussion
L. Susan Stebbing reviewed Broad in the first volume of Philosophy. Reviews also appeared in Science Progress, the Journal of Philosophy, Social Forces, and other venues.
C. J. Ducasse devoted a ten-page discussion to the book in the Philosophical Review in 1927, showing that Broad’s arguments continued to generate substantive engagement beyond the initial review cycle.
Research basis
This note draws on Broad’s 1925 book, contemporary reviews, Trinity College archival material, and modern scholarship assembled for the Marlpit Press C. D. Broad research dossier.
- C. D. Broad, The Mind and Its Place in Nature (1925)
- Trinity College Library, Cambridge, Papers of C. D. Broad
- Bertrand Russell, reviews in The Nation and the Athenaeum and Mind
- L. Susan Stebbing, Philosophy (1926)
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Charlie Dunbar Broad
- David J. Chalmers, Consciousness and Its Place in Nature
- Modern scholarship on British emergentism and Broad’s philosophy of mind
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The Mind and Its Place in Nature · C. D. Broad biography · Philosophy & Mind · All research notes