Book Review: The Problems of Philosophy by Bertrand Russell (with an Introduction by John Skorupski)

This work of Bertrand Russell was originally published in 1912. In this he covers many interesting themes. Some of them include subjects, such as the distinction between appearance and reality, the existence and nature of matter, idealism, knowledge by the acquaintance and by description, induction, and the limits and the value of philosophical knowledge. I have tried to cover of the points in the book review.

All our knowledge, both knowledge of things and knowledge of truths, rests upon acquaintance as its foundation (p. 26). The chief importance of knowledge by description is that it enables us to pass beyond the limits of our private experience (p. 32).

The author also writes about the controversy between the empiricists and the rationalists. He states that the 'empiricists- who are best represented by the British philosophers, Locke, Berkeley, and Hume- maintained that all our knowledge is derived from experience the rationalists- who are represented by the Continental philosophers of the seventeenth century, especially Descartes and Leibniz- maintained that, in addition to what we know by experience, there are certain 'innate ideas' and 'innate principles', which we know independently of experience' (p. 41).

Russell says that 'minds do not create truth or falsehood. They create beliefs, but when once the beliefs are created, the mind cannot make them true or false, except in the special case where they concern future things which are within the power of the person believing, such as catching trains' (p. 75).

According to the author the main characteristic of philosophy which makes it distinct from science is criticism. Philosophy 'examines critically the principles employed in science and in daily life; it searches out any inconsistences there may be in these principles, and it only accepts then when, as the result of a critical inquiry, no reason for rejecting them as appeared' (p. 87).

The author writes that 'the value of philosophy is, in fact, to be sought largely in its very uncertainty. The man who has no tincture of philosophy goes through life imprisoned in the prejudices derived from common sense, from the habitual beliefs of his age of his nation, and from convictions which have grown up in his mind without the co-operation or consent of his deliberate reason' (p. 91). Further on the same page Russell states that ' philosophy, though unable to tell us with certainty what is the true answer to the doubts which it raises, is able to suggest many possibilities which enlarge our thoughts and free the from the tyranny of custom' (p. 91).

Russell suggests that 'philosophy is to be studied, not for the sake of any definite answers to its questions, since no definite answers can, as a rule, be known to be true, but rather for the sake of questions themselves; because these questions enlarge our conception of what is possible, enrich our intellectual imagination, and diminish the dogmatic assurance which closes the mind against speculation; but above all because, through the greatness of the universe which philosophy contemplates, the mind also is rendered great, and becomes capable of that union with the universe which constitutes its highest good' (p. 94).