Rand’s argument against Russell is not rational.
“… the disastrous, paralyzing, stultifying consequences are the greatest single cause of mankind’s intellectual erosion… As an illustration, observe what Bertrand Russell was able to perpetrate because people thought they ‘kinda knew’ the meaning of the concept ‘number’.” (Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology, Pg 66 and 67).
Rand accuses Russell of perpetrating something. “Perpetrate” means to commit a crime or violent act. That is not what Bertrand Russell did. Rand presents the false premise that Russell’s work in mathematics and logic was foisted on an uneducated public instead of being evaluated by mathematicians. That is not true. What Rand calls an example of the greatest single cause of mankind’s intellectual erosion is cited by many as one of the foundations of modern mathematics – Russell’s Paradox.
Rand cannot disprove Russell’s logic, so she resorts to ad hominem attack. Rand’s argument against Russell is not rational.
Ayn Rand, Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology, Mentor Book, New American Library, 1979
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy/plato.stanford.edu is my immediate source on Russell, but any error in paraphrasing is my own.