By Bertrand Russell
An introduction to philosophical inquiry
Subject
Themes
An ordinary table becomes the starting point for a systematic investigation of what can be known. Its colour shifts with the angle of view, its shape changes with every vantage point, and its texture transforms under a microscope. These shifting impressions, called "sense-data," cannot be identical with the real table. A fundamental distinction between appearance and reality emerges: what the senses deliver is appearance, while reality, if it exists, must be something inferred.
An ordinary table becomes the starting point for a systematic investigation of what can be known. Its colour shifts with the angle of view, its shape changes with every vantage point, and its texture transforms under a microscope. These shifting impressions, called "sense-data," cannot be identical…
When this work appeared in 1912, British philosophy was undergoing one of its most significant transformations. The preceding generation had been dominated by absolute idealism, a tradition imported from Germany and championed in Britain by thinkers such as F. H. Bradley and T. H. Green. These…
One of the most consequential distinctions in the entire philosophical tradition is the separation of appearance from reality. What the senses deliver, moment by moment, is not a transparent window onto the world as it truly is. A table appears brown from one angle, brighter from another, and…
Induction is the process by which we extend what we have observed to what we have not observed. Every time we expect the sun to rise, every time we eat bread trusting it will nourish rather than poison us, every time a scientist predicts the outcome of an experiment, the principle of induction is at…
One of the most striking claims to emerge from the inquiry is that there exists a realm of entities that are neither physical objects nor mental states: the world of universals. Universals are those things that may be shared by many particulars. Justice, whiteness, the relation "north of," the…
What do we mean when we say a belief is true? This seemingly simple question proves remarkably difficult to answer. Three requirements constrain any adequate theory. First, truth must have an opposite; a theory that makes all beliefs automatically true cannot account for the plain fact of error.…
The value of philosophy does not reside in any body of definite, demonstrable answers. Unlike mathematics, history, or the natural sciences, philosophy cannot point to a catalogue of established truths. A candid philosopher must confess that positive results of the kind achieved by other disciplines…
A deceptively simple question launches the inquiry: is there any knowledge so certain that no reasonable person could doubt it? Consider an ordinary table. To the eye it appears oblong, brown, and shiny. To the touch it is smooth, cool, and hard. When tapped, it gives out a wooden sound. Anyone…
Having accepted that something real underlies our sense-data, the investigation turns to the nature of that something. Physical science offers a partial answer: all natural phenomena reduce to motions. Light, heat, and sound are wave-motions travelling from emitting bodies to perceivers. Yet saying…
Two kinds of knowledge of things are distinguished: knowledge by acquaintance and knowledge by description. Acquaintance is direct awareness without any intermediary of inference. When sitting at a table, we are acquainted with the sense-data that make up its appearance: its colour, shape, hardness,…
The principle of induction is not alone in being unprovable by experience yet universally believed. There exist other principles with even greater evidence, possessing the same degree of certainty as the existence of sense-data themselves. These principles of inference are often overlooked precisely…
The problem of universals traces back to Plato, whose "theory of ideas" (or "forms") remains one of the most successful attempts to address it. Plato reasoned that if we ask what justice is, we must look at what all just acts have in common. That common nature, present in whatever is just and absent…
If an insistent Socrates keeps demanding reasons for every reason we give, we are driven back eventually to principles that seem luminously evident but cannot be deduced from anything more fundamental. The inductive principle, used constantly in reasoning, cannot itself be demonstrated from any…
Knowledge cannot simply be defined as "true belief." A man who believes that the late Prime Minister's surname began with B is right (it was Sir Henry Campbell Bannerman), but if he believes this only because he thinks Mr. Balfour was Prime Minister, his true belief does not constitute knowledge. A…
Many people, influenced by science or practical affairs, regard philosophy as useless trifling, hairsplitting distinctions, and controversies on matters concerning which knowledge is impossible. This view stems from misconceptions about both the ends of life and the goods philosophy strives to…
An ordinary table becomes the starting point for a systematic investigation of what can be known. Its colour shifts with the angle of view, its shape changes with every vantage point, and its texture transforms under a microscope. These shifting impressions, called "sense-data," cannot be identical with the real table. A fundamental distinction between appearance and reality emerges: what the senses deliver is appearance, while reality, if it exists, must be something inferred.