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Our Knowledge of the External World as a Field for Scientific Method in Philosophy

Bertrand Russell

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Our Knowledge of the External World as a Field for Scientific Method in Philosophy | Bertrand Russell

Our Knowledge of the External World as a Field for Scientific Method in Philosophy

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Bertrand Russell gave the Lowell Lectures in March and April of 1914; these lectures produced 'Our Knowledge of the External World'. Russell attempts to analyze the relationship of the crude data of our senses to the notions of physics such as space, time, and matter. Russell takes his analysis to illustrate the method of logical analysis used to such wonderful effect by thinkers in the late nineteenth-century to the notions of continuity, infinity, and the infinitesimal. These analyses effected a new epoch of clarity in the philosophy of mathematics; Russell hopes that a similar new age of clarity can be effected in the rest of philosophy through logical analysis; here, he undertakes the first stages of this analysis in the philosophy of physics.
says, “consists in ascribing the nature of general truths to all propositions which are true in every instance that we happen to know of.”[8] As regards its fallibility, he asserts that “the precariousness of the method of simple enumeration is in an inverse ratio to the largeness of the generalisation. The process is delusive and insufficient, exactly in proportion as the subject-matter of the observation is special and limited in extent. As the sphere widens, this unscientific method becomes less and less liable to mislead; and the most universal class of truths, the law of causation for instance, and the principles of number and of geometry, are duly and satisfactorily proved by that method alone, nor are they susceptible of any other proof.”[9]

In the above statement, there are two obvious lacunæ: (1) How is the method of simple enumeration itself justified? (2) What logical principle, if any, covers the same ground as this method, without being liable to its failures? Let us take the second question first.

A method of proof which, when used as directed, gives sometimes truth and sometimes falsehood—as the method of simple enumeration does—is obviously not a valid method, for validity demands invariable truth. Thus, if simple enumeration is to be rendered valid, it must not be stated as Mill states it. We shall have to say, at most, that the data render the result probable. Causation holds, we shall say, in every instance we have been able to test; therefore it probably holds in untested instances. There are terrible difficulties in the notion of probability, but we may ignore them at present. We thus have what at least may be a logical principle, since it is without exception. If a

Ali 06/02/2022
I liked most of it except its criticism of evolutionary epistemology, which makes sense because this book was published before many of the breakthroughs in evolutionary biology, like the discovery of the structure of DNA.
Husain 11/22/2020
Students of philosophy will find this book intriguing as well as a dry read. The ideas portrayed by Russell and thought provoking although his writing isn't as lucid and comprehendible as his other books. Albeit, it's a decent read for whoever is interested in philosophy and with epistemology.
Zay Min 12/26/2018
When I was reading of the very last part of this book, I had tried so hard not to watch the football match of Man United. I didn't go to watch that although Man Utd is my favourite team among others because this book took all of my attractiveness :3
Ady 03/05/2015
Highly recommended.
Jimmy 04/02/2013
Chapter 1 "Current Tendencies": Mr. Russell begins with the famous opening lines, "Philosophy, since the earliest times, has made greater claims, and achieved fewer results, than any other branch of learning. Ever since Thales said that all is water, philosophers have been ready with glib assertions
Derek 07/02/2011
Bertrand Russell had one of the clearest, as well as the most brilliant minds of the 20th century. The clarity certainly shows here, because I was reading a wretchedly OCRd version on my Kindle, and though every eighth word was mangled I was still able to follow and make sense of what's really a pre

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