   Russell concluded that even if there are no ultimate simples, no fundamental layer of reality that analysis can in principle reach, this does not invalidate analysis as a philosophical procedure. Moreover, at a given stage of analysis, a certain class of sentences may still be labeled as “atomic”, even if the facts corresponding to them cannot be regarded as built of fundamental ontological atoms (MPD, 165). Russell concluded that “the whole question whether there are simples to be reached by analysis is unnecessary” (MPD, 123).  From this vantage point, it might be argued that Russell’s “logical atomism” can be understood as first and foremost a commitment to analysis as a method coupled with a rejection of idealistic monism, rather than a pretense to have discovered the genuine metaphysical “atoms” making up the world of facts, or even the belief that such a discovery is possible (cf. Linsky 2003; Maclean 2018). Indeed, Russell continued to use the phrase “logical atomism” to describe his philosophy in later years of his career, during the period in which he stressed relative, not absolute simplicity (RTC, 717; MPD, 9).