The Problems of Philosophy

Bertrand Russell

Home University Library, 1912
Oxford University Press paperback, 1959
Reprinted, 1971-2

Edited in hypertext by Andrew Chrucky, 1998.

CONTENTS

    PREFACE
  1. APPEARANCE AND REALITY
  2. THE EXISTENCE OR MATTER
  3. THE NATURE OF MATTER
  4. IDEALISM
  5. KNOWLEDGE BY ACQUAINTANCE AND KNOWLEDGE BY DESCRIPTION
  6. ON INDUCTION
  7. ON OUR KNOWLEDGE OF GENERAL PRINCIPLES
  8. HOW A PRIORI KNOWLEDGE IS POSSIBLE
  9. THE WORLD OF UNIVERSALS
  10. ON OUR KNOWLEDGE OF UNIVERSALS
  11. ON INTUITIVE KNOWLEDGE
  12. TRUTH AND FALSEHOOD
  13. KNOWLEDGE, ERROR, AND PROBABLE OPINION
  14. THE LIMITS OF PHILOSOPHICAL KNOWLEDGE
  15. THE VALUE OF PHILOSOPHY
    BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

PREFACE

IN the following pages I have confined myself in the main to those problems of philosophy in regard to which I thought it possible to say something positive and constructive, since merely negative criticism seemed out of place. For this reason, theory of knowledge occupies a larger space than metaphysics in the present volume, and some topics much discussed by philosophers are treated very briefly, if at all.

I have derived valuable assistance from unpublished writings of G. E. Moore{*) and J. M. Keynes: from the former, as regards the relations of sense-data to physical objects, and from the latter as regards probability and induction. I have also profited greatly by the criticisms and suggestions of Professor Gilbert Murray.
1912

NOTE TO SEVENTEENTH IMPRESSION

WITH reference to certain statements on pages 44, 75, 131, and 132, it should be remarked that this book was written in the early part of 1912 when China was still an Empire, and the name of the then late Prime Minister did begin with the letter B.
1943


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

The student who wishes to acquire an elementary knowledge of philosophy will find it both easier and more profitable to read some of the works of the great philosophers than to attempt to derive an all-round view from handbooks. The following are specially recommended:

PLATO: Republic, especially Books VI and VII.
DESCARTES: Meditations.
SPINOZA: Ethics.
LEIBNIZ: The Monadology.
BERKELEY: Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous.
HUME: Enquiry concerning Human Understanding.
KANT: Prolegomena to any Future Metaphysics.


{*} ["It is perhaps worth mentioning that Chapters 1-10 are the 'unpublished' writings of mine, to which Lord Russell refers in the Preface to The Problems of Philosophy." G. E. Moore, Preface to Some Main Problems of Philosophy (1953) (A. Chrucky)]