 In contradistinction to these views, Russell adopted what he called “the doctrine of external relations”, which he claimed “may be expressed by saying that (1) relatedness does not imply any corresponding complexity in the relata; (2) any given entity is a constituent of many different complexes” (BReal, 87). This position on relations allowed Russell to adopt a pluralist philosophy in which the world is conceived as composed of many distinct, independent entities, each of which can be considered in isolation from its relations to other things, or its relation to the mind. In 1911 Russell claimed that this doctrine was the “fundamental doctrine” of his realistic position (BReal, 87; cf. RA, 92; POM, 226), and it represents perhaps the most important turning point in the development of his logical atomism.