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Bertrand Russell | 352 pages | 06 Apr 2009 | Taylor & Francis Ltd | 9780415473453 | English | London, United Kingdom Outlines of a Philosophy of the History of Man | work by Herder | Britannica

This gave him access to an extensive body of writing and artifacts, which he synthesized into his own poetry and prose. As a result of his writing, his influence spread widely during his lifetime. In fact, one version of his biography implies he may well have been a direct mentor to the Buddha or, in some versions, was the Buddha himself. There are lot of colorful narratives surrounding Lao-Tzu, some of which are almost certainly . In fact, there are some historians who even question whether or not Lao-Tzu was a real person. Historical accounts differ on who he was, exactly when he lived and which works he contributed to the canon of . However, in most traditional tellings, Lao-Tzu was the living embodiment of the philosophy known as Taoism and author of its primary text, the Tao Te Ching. An English physicist and , John Locke was a prominent thinker during the Enlightenment period. Part of the movement of British alongside fellow countrymen , Thomas Hobbes, and Sir Francis Bacon, Locke is regarded as an important contributor to the development of the social contract theory and is sometimes identified as the father of . Indeed, his discourses on identity, the self, and the impact of sensory would be essential revelations to many Enlightenment thinkers and, consequently, to real revolutionaries. A writer, public office-holder, and philosopher of Renaissance Italy, Machiavelli both participated in and wrote prominently on political matters, to the extent that he has even been identified by some as the father of modern political science. Machiavelli was an empiricist who used experience and historical fact to inform his beliefs, a disposition which allowed him to divorce politics not just from theology but from as well. His most prominent works described the parameters of effective rulership, in which he seems to advocate for leadership by any means which retain power, including deceit, murder, and oppression. A German-born economist, political theorist, and philosopher, Karl Marx wrote some of the most revolutionary philosophical content ever produced. Indeed, so pertinent was his writing to the human condition during his lifetime, he was exiled from his native country. This event would, however, also make it possible for his most important ideas to find a popular audience. Together, they devised an assessment of class, society, and power dynamics that revealed deep inequalities, and exposed the economic prerogatives for state-sponsored violence, oppression, and war. Marx predicted that the inequalities and violence inherent in capitalism would ultimately lead to its collapse. From its ashes would rise a new socialist system, a classless society where all participants as opposed to just wealthy private owners have access to the means for production. The philosophy underlying Marxism, and his revolutionary fervor, would ripple throughout the world, ultimately transforming entire spheres of thought in places like Soviet Russia, Eastern Europe, and Red China. In many ways, Karl Marx presided over a philosophical revolution that continues in the present day in myriad forms of , , socialized democracy, and grassroots political organization. British economist, public servant, and philosopher John Stuart Mill is considered a linchpin of modern social and political theory. He contributed a critical body of work to the school of thought called liberalism, an ideology founding on the extension of individual liberties and economic freedoms. As such, Mill himself advocated strongly for the preserving of individual rights and called for limitations to the power and authority of the state over the individual. Mill was also a proponent of , which holds that the best action is one that maximizes utility, or stated more simply, one that provide the greatest benefit to all. For his own part, as a member of Parliament, Mill became the first office-holding Briton to advocate for the right of women to vote. Friedrich Nietzsche was a poet, cultural critic, and philosopher, as well as possessor of among the most gifted in human history. Writing on an enormous breadth of subjects, from history, and science to art, culture and the tragedies of Greek and Roman Antiquity, Nietzsche wrote with savage wit and a love of irony. He used these forces to pen deconstructive examinations of , Christian morality, and the impact of social constructs on our formulation of moral values. This idea in particular would remain an important component of the existentialist and surrealist movements that followed. Greek philosopher and teacher Plato did nothing less than found the first institution of higher learning in the Western World, establishing the Academy of Athens and cementing his own status as the most important figure in the development of western philosophical tradition. As the pupil of Socrates and the mentor to Aristotle, Plato is the connecting figure in what might be termed the great triumvirate of Greek thought in both philosophy and science. Often, in his dialogues, he employed his mentor Socrates as the vessel for his own thoughts and ideas. While he was not the first individual to partake of the activity of philosophy, he was perhaps the first to truly define what it meant, to articulate its purpose, and to reveal how it could be applied with scientific rigor. This orientation provided a newly concreted framework for considering questions of , politics, , and theology. Born in Geneva, then a city-state in the Swiss Confederacy, Rousseau would be one of the most consequential thinkers of the Enlightenment era. His ideas on human morality, inequality, and most importantly, on the right to rule, would have an enormous and definable impact not just on thinking in Europe, but on the actual power dynamics within Western Civilization. Indeed, his most important works would identify personal property as the root to inequality and would refute the premise that monarchies are divinely appointed to rule. Rousseau proposed the earth-shattering idea that only the people have a true right to rule. These ideas fomented the French Revolution, and more broadly, helped bring an end to a centuries-old entanglement between Church, Crown, and Country. Rousseau may be credited for providing a basic framework for classical republicanism, a form of government centered around the ideas of civil society, citizenship, and mixed governance. A French novelist, activist, and philosopher, Sartre was a leading exponent of the 20th century existentialist movement as well as a vocal proponent of Marxism and socialism. He advocated for resistance to oppressive social constructs and argued for the importance of achieving an authentic way of . His writing coincided with, and contrasted, the sweep of fascism through Europe, the rise of authoritarian regimes, and the spread of Nazism. Sartre became active in the socialist resistance, which aimed its activities at French Nazi collaborators. Of note, one of his activist collaborators was both a romantic partner and a fellow major cohort of , Simone de Beauvoir. In fact, his involvement earned Sartre two near-miss bomb attacks at the hands of French paramilitary forces. Also notable, Sartre was supportive of the Soviet Union throughout his lifetime. A necessary inclusion by of his role as, essentially, the founder of , Socrates is nonetheless unique among entrants on this list for having produced no written works reflecting his key ideas or principles. Thus, the body of his thoughts and ideas is left to be deciphered through the works of his two most prominent students, Plato and Xenophon, as well as to the legions of historians and critics who have written on him since. And because Socrates is best known as a teacher of thought and insight, it is perhaps appropriate that his most widely recognized contribution is a way of approaching education that remains fundamentally relevant even today. The so-called , which involves the use of of questioning and discourse to promote open dialogue on complex topics and to lead pupils to their own insights, is on particular display in the Platonic dialogues. His inquisitive approach also positioned him as a central social and moral critic of the Athenian leadership, which ultimately led to his trial and execution for corrupting the minds of young Athenians. He lived a life of eccentricity and professional nomadism, dabbling in academia, military service, education, and even as a hospital orderly. Ethics — study of and morality. — the systematic study of the form of valid and reasoning. — concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world that encompasses it. Philosophy of — studies the nature of the mind , mental properties, , and their relationship to the physical body, particularly the brain. during post- classical history. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Overview of and topical guide to philosophy. Main article: . Main article: . Main article: Western philosophy. Main article: History of philosophy. Main articles: Timeline of and List of years in philosophy. Main article: . Main articles: and Ancient Roman philosophy. Main article: . Main article: . Main article: Early . Main article: Medieval . Main article: . Main article: . Main article: . Main article: . Main articles: List of philosophies and Glossary of philosophy. See also: List of art movements. A Quick History of Philosophy - General - The Basics of Philosophy

Details if other :. Thanks for telling us about the problem. Return to Book Page. An Outline of Philosophy by ,. John G. Philosophy, Russell argues in An Outline of Philosophy, is concerned with the as a whole. Humanity demands consideration solely as the instrument by which we acquire knowledge of the universe. Russell illuminates the ways in which we are capable of knowledge and discovering natural laws with a discussion of , memory, learning in infants and animals and l Philosophy, Russell argues in An Outline of Philosophy, is concerned with the universe as a whole. Russell illuminates the ways in which we are capable of knowledge and discovering natural laws with a discussion of perception, memory, learning in infants and animals and linguistic ability. He moves on to a study of the physical world and then to a discussion of humanity as it sees itself. Finally Russell considers some of the great philosophers of the past and what philosophy has to say about humanity's place in the universe. Get A Copy. Paperback , pages. Published October 13th by Routledge first published More Details Original Title. Other Editions Friend Reviews. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about An Outline of Philosophy , please sign up. Be the first to ask a question about An Outline of Philosophy. Lists with This Book. Community Reviews. Showing Average rating 3. Rating details. More filters. Sort order. Start your review of An Outline of Philosophy. Apr 02, Farha Crystal rated it liked it Shelves: bertrand-russell. While reading this book an old joke about philosophy made me laugh. A dean asks the head of a physics department to see him. All those labs and experiments and whatnot, this is getting expensive! Why can't you be more like mathematicians - they only need pens, paper, and a trash bin. Or philosophers! They only need pens and paper :P When the role of science is to find what is Truth and Real, the philosophy just provides various options about how to see things. The thoughts may work in a scientific or non-scientific way. And, in the whole book Mr. Russel tried to convince that philosophy only makes sense when it only sees things in a scientific way. It's interesting that he rejects the idea of and other so-called which are claimed to be true for those who believe because they need no scientific evidence to believe :P but have no scientific ground to prove in . Yet this philosopher was by way of believing that no one else existed. This shows that solipsism is not really believed even by those who think they are convinced of its truth"- This is how Mr. Russel ditched solipsism. Since the book was written in , a lot of scientific discoveries are missing from Mr. Russel but the core ideas about how science works are still same. Russell is a joy to read, and along with Popper my favourite writer in philosophy. He always writes accessibly, but this volume is a little unusual in being directed at a lay audience. The book was written explicitly for the American market of the s, and is thus pitched at perhaps a more challenging level than might be attempted today, but still be light review material for a student of philosophy. It is ferociously non-mathematical. Russell possesses a delightfully wry wit, reminiscent Russell is a joy to read, and along with Popper my favourite writer in philosophy. Russell possesses a delightfully wry wit, reminiscent of Hume, which eases the way. One is startled to learn that Kant was a misfortune - as one reviewer says in the introduction, an epithet more properly reserved for Hegel. The author is apparently a "plain man"! Spinoza's greatness is ethical rather than metaphysical, and "accordingly" his contemporaries treated him as a profound metaphysician but maximally wicked man. Little gems like this pepper the text. The book is divided into four main sections dealing with the external and perceptual world of the mind, the physical world and , the inner world of the mind and the Universe and man's place in it. Russell's philosophy can probably best be described as pragmatic : He rejects solipsism, , naive and all such monomanias. He espouses neutral - the view that mind and matter are manifestations of one reality, a view that has weathered the decades well. His physics is now a bit out of date, but not in ways fatal to his constructs. He admits that solipsism and other such constructs are logically unassailable, but chooses not to accept them - the idea of a real, phenomenal Universe is not logically necessary but logically consistent and basically sensible. This is basically a sensible man, and a sensible book. Very well worth reading as a first introduction to philosophy, perhaps accompanied by his History of Western Philosophy. Jun 17, 1. I quite liked this one. Russell's arguments concerning perception really struck a chord. So did his arguments and thoughtful investigations into other matters, and non-matters even. Written in the dawn of the QFT era, a heady time when models of the natural world were changing every year, this book is curiously not that quaint or dated, though the science has come a long way since. Well-structured and with plenty of food for thought, this is a must-read for anyone who likes Russell or is 'gettin I quite liked this one. Well-structured and with plenty of food for thought, this is a must-read for anyone who likes Russell or is 'getting into philosophy', without wanting to dive right into a serious primary text. The writing is excellent and clear which makes it less of a daunting read than it seems at first. Still, it took me some time to finish—time that was certainly not wasted. I always struggle reading philosophy. The ideas are big, the sentences are long, and there doesn't appear to be much of a point of it all. I find I don't actually pick much up from it, but I'm a stubborn whatsit, and keep trying in the hope that it will all make sense. I got on better with Russell than with anyone else so far. His writing is accessible. The Introduction actually explains that the book is based on a first-year introduction to philosophy class that he taught, so it's very much aim I always struggle reading philosophy. The Introduction actually explains that the book is based on a first-year introduction to philosophy class that he taught, so it's very much aimed at the beginner. But in addition to that, Russell's ideas of are very much rooted in science. He spends a lot of time discussing how, and to what extent, the laws of physics determine how much we can actually know about the world, and how that information is received by our bodies. To me, that is much more sensible than philosophising from an ideological point of view. Russell's ultimate conclusions about man's place in the world, and the role of philosophy, I find very satisfying: the role is not to decide what is good, or what the right way to live is, but what is true. And whether what is true is good or bad, to recognise it honestly. The most interesting chapter by far to me was the chapter on the structure of the atom. Not for any philosophical , but for the insight it lent me into the state of scientific understanding in the mid-twenties, when Russell wrote this text. I kind of knew that all the things we know now were discovered at some point, and that this must have happened in some sort of sequence, but I couldn't have told you the order in which stuff happened. Reading this chapter taught me that Russell knew about nuclei and electrons, photons, quantum theory, isotopes. But, not about the neutron, which was discovered in I found it fascinating to read a very accomplished discussion of atomic theory weaving around this quite major missing detail. I'm sure I'll come back to that chapter to amaze myself again. I should come back to the rest of the book as well, to see if I can assimilate a bit more of the vast amount of sensible philosophising included. One of the great pleasures in reading Bertrand Russell for me was when he discusses the role of philosophy in a society where science has been the approach to finding out what is real and true in our universe. As science plays a greater role in our lives, there seems to be less space for philosophy. The other was when Russell plainly says that he doesn't understand Kant. As someone who openly praises science over philosophy, I take a certain joy in this. However, it should be understood that sci One of the great pleasures in reading Bertrand Russell for me was when he discusses the role of philosophy in a society where science has been the approach to finding out what is real and true in our universe. However, it should be understood that science is good at answering the small questions in life, not the large ones. Sometimes it's good to step back and see exactly what the larger picture is of the small questions science has been answering. And that's where Russell's Outline of Philosophy comes in. Although much has changed since this book was written in , some of the philosophical questions Russell examines are still worthwhile considering given what we've learnt about the world around us. Philosophy becomes important when we realize that when we ask a really precise question, we come to uncertainty of some kind, and so we depend on larger 'philosophical' to make sense of our world sometimes. How does an eye work is easier than asking how a certain wavelength causes a certain cell in the retina to send a signal to the brain. Another important 17th Century French Rationalist although perhaps of the second order was Nicolas Malebranche , who was a follower of Descartes in that he believed that humans attain knowledge through ideas or immaterial representations in the mind. However, Malebranche argued more or less following St. Augustine that all ideas actually exist only in God , and that God was the only active power. Thus, he believed that what appears to be "interaction" between body and mind is actually caused by God , but in such a way that similar movements in the body will "occasion" similar ideas in the mind, an idea he called Occasionalism. In opposition to the continental European movement was the equally loose movement of British Empiricism , which was also represented by three main proponents. The first of the British Empiricists was John Locke. He argued that all of our ideas, whether simple or complex, are ultimately derived from experience , so that the knowledge of which we are capable is therefore severely limited both in its scope and in its a kind of modified , especially given that the real inner natures of things derive from what he called their primary qualities which we can never experience and so never know. Locke , like Avicenna before him, believed that the mind was a tabula rasa or blank slate and that people are born without innate ideas , although he did believe that humans have absolute natural rights which are inherent in the nature of Ethics. Along with Hobbes and Rousseau , he was one of the originators of Contractarianism or Social Contract Theory , which formed the theoretical underpinning for democracy , republicanism , Liberalism and , and his political views influenced both the American and French Revolutions. The next of the British Empiricists chronologically was Bishop George Berkeley , although his Empiricism was of a much more radical kind, mixed with a twist of Idealism. Using dense but cogent arguments, he developed the rather counter-intuitive system known as Immaterialism or sometimes as Subjective Idealism , which held that underlying reality consists exclusively of minds and their ideas , and that individuals can only directly know these ideas or although not the objects themselves through experience. Thus, according to Berkeley 's theory, an object only really exists if someone is there to see or sense it "to be is to be perceived" , although, he added, the infinite mind of God perceives everything all the time, and so in this respect the objects continue to exist. The third, and perhaps greatest , of the British Empiricists was David Hume. He believed strongly that human experience is as close are we are ever going to get to the truth , and that experience and observation must be the foundations of any logical argument. Hume argued that, although we may form beliefs and make inductive about things outside our experience by means of instinct, imagination and custom , they cannot be conclusively established by reason and we should not make any claims to certain knowledge about them a hard-line attitude verging on complete Skepticism. Although he never openly declared himself an atheist , he found the idea of a God effectively nonsensical , given that there is no way of arriving at the idea through sensory data. He attacked many of the basic assumptions of religion , and gave many of the classic criticisms of some of the arguments for the of God particularly the teleological argument. In his , Hume stressed the importance of moderation , and his work contains elements of both and Liberalism. Among the "non-aligned" philosophers of the period many of whom were most active in the area of Political Philosophy were the following:. Towards the end of the Age of Enlightenment , the German philosopher caused another paradigm shift as important as that of Descartes years earlier, and in many ways this marks the shift to Modern philosophy. He sought to move philosophy beyond the debate between Rationalism and Empiricism , and he attempted to combine those two apparently contradictory doctrines into one overarching system. A whole movement developed in the wake of his work, and most of the subsequent history of philosophy can be seen as responses , in one way or another, to his ideas. Kant showed that Empiricism and Rationalism could be combined and that statements were possible that were both synthetic a posteriori knowledge from experience alone, as in Empiricism but also a priori from reason alone, as in Rationalism. Thus, without the senses we could not become aware of any object, but without understanding and reason we could not form any conception of it. However, our senses can only tell us about the appearance of a thing phenomenon and not the "thing-in-itself" , which Kant believed was essentially unknowable , although we have certain innate predispositions as to what exists . Kant 's major contribution to Ethics was the theory of the Categorical Imperative , that we should act only in such a way that we would want our actions to become a universal law , applicable to everyone in a similar situation Moral Universalism and that we should treat other individuals as ends in themselves , not as mere means Moral Absolutism , even if that means sacrificing the greater good. Kant believed that any attempts to prove God's existence are just a waste of time , because our concepts only work properly in the empirical world which God is above and beyond , although he also argued that it was not irrational to believe in something that clearly cannot be proven either way . In the Modern period, Kantianism gave rise to the German Idealists , each of whom had their own interpretations of Kant 's ideas. Fichte 's later Political Philosophy also contributed to the rise of German Nationalism. Friedrich Schelling developed a unique form of Idealism known as Aesthetic Idealism in which he argued that only art was able to harmonize and sublimate the contradictions between subjectivity and , freedom and necessity, etc , and also tried to establish a connection or synthesis between his conceptions of nature and spirit. Arthur Schopenhauer is also usually considered part of the and movements, although his philosophy was very singular. He was a thorough-going pessimist who believed that the "will-to-life" the drive to survive and to reproduce was the underlying driving force of the world, and that the pursuit of happiness, love and intellectual satisfaction was very much secondary and essentially futile. He saw art and other artistic, moral and ascetic forms of awareness as the only way to overcome the fundamentally frustration-filled and painful human condition. The greatest and most influential of the German Idealists , though, was Georg Hegel. Although his works have a reputation for abstractness and difficulty , Hegel is often considered the summit of early 19th Century German thought, and his influence was profound. He extended Aristotle 's process of resolving a thesis and its opposing antithesis into a synthesis to apply to the real world - including the whole of history - in an on-going process of conflict resolution towards what he called the Absolute Idea. However, he stressed that what is really changing in this process is the underlying "Geist" mind, spirit, soul , and he saw each person's individual consciousness as being part of an Absolute Mind sometimes referred to as Absolute Idealism. Karl Marx was strongly influenced by Hegel 's dialectical method and his analysis of history. His Marxist theory including the concepts of historical materialism , class struggle , the labor theory of value , the bourgeoisie , etc , which he developed with his friend Friedrich Engels as a reaction against the rampant Capitalism of 19th Century Europe, provided the intellectual base for later radical and revolutionary Socialism and Communism. A very different kind of philosophy grew up in 19th Century England , out of the British Empiricist tradition of the previous century. The doctrine of Utilitarianism is a type of an approach to Ethics that stresses an action's outcome or consequence , which holds that the right action is that which would cause "the greatest happiness of the greatest number". Mill refined the theory to stress the quality not just the quantity of happiness, and intellectual and moral pleasures over more physical forms. He counseled that coercion in society is only justifiable either to defend ourselves, or to defend others from harm the "harm principle". Ralph Waldo Emerson established the movement in the middle of the century, rooted in the transcendental philosophy of Kant , German Idealism and Romanticism , and a desire to ground religion in the inner spiritual or mental of humanity, rather than in sensuous experience. Emerson 's student Henry David Thoreau further developed these ideas, stressing intuition , self-examination , Individualism and the exploration of the beauty of nature. Thoreau 's advocacy of civil disobedience influenced generations of social reformers. The other main American movement of the late 19th Century was , which was initiated by C. Peirce and developed and popularized by William James and John Dewey. The theory of Pragmatism is based on Peirce 's pragmatic maxim , that the meaning of any concept is really just the same as its operational or practical consequences essentially, that something is true only insofar as it works in practice. Peirce also introduced the idea of that all and "facts" are necessarily provisional , that they can never be certain but only probable. James , in addition to his psychological work, extended Pragmatism , both as a method for analyzing philosophic problems but also as a theory of truth , as well as developing his own versions of Fideism that beliefs are arrived at by an individual process that lies beyond reason and evidence and Voluntarism that the will is superior to the intellect and to emotion among others. Dewey 's interpretation of Pragmatism is better known as , the methodological view that concepts and theories are merely useful instruments , best measured by how effective they are in explaining and predicting phenomena, and not by whether they are true or false which he claimed was impossible. Dewey 's contribution to and to modern progressive education particularly what he called "learning-by-doing" was also significant. But European philosophy was not limited to the German Idealists. The French sociologist and philosopher Auguste Comte founded the influential Positivism movement around the belief that the only authentic knowledge was scientific knowledge , based on actual sense experience and strict application of the scientific method. Comte saw this as the final phase in the evolution of humanity , and even constructed a non-theistic, pseudo- mystical "positive religion" around the idea. He too was a kind of Fideist and an extremely religious man despite his attacks on the Danish state church. But his analysis of the way in which human freedom tends to lead to "angst" dread , the call of the infinite , and eventually to despair , was highly influential on later Existentialists like Heidegger and Sartre. The German Nietzsche was another atypical, original and controversial philosopher, also considered an important forerunner of Existentialism. He challenged the foundations of Christianity and traditional morality famously asserting that "God is dead" , leading to charges of , Moral Skepticism , and . An important precursor of the tradition was the Logicism developed during the late 19th Century by Gottlob Frege. Logicism sought to show that some, or even all , of mathematics was reducible to Logic , and Frege 's work revolutionized modern mathematical Logic. In the early 20th Century, the British logicians Bertrand Russell and Alfred North Whitehead continued to champion his ideas even after Russell had pointed out a paradox exposing an inconsistency in Frege 's work, which caused him, Frege , to abandon his own theory. Russell and Whitehead 's monumental and ground-breaking book, "Principia Mathematica" was a particularly important milestone. Both Russell and Whitehead went on to develop other philosophies. Russell 's work was mainly in the area of , including his theory of Logical and his contributions to Ordinary Language Philosophy. Whitehead developed a metaphysical approach known as , which posited ever-changing subjective forms to complement Plato 's eternal forms. Their Logicism , though, along with Comte 's Positivism , was a great influence on the development of the important 20th Century movement of . The Logical Positivists campaigned for a systematic reduction of all human knowledge down to logical and scientific foundations , and claimed that a statement can be meaningful only if it is either purely formal essentially, mathematics and logic or capable of empirical verification. In the s, A. Ayer was largely responsible for the spread of Logical Positivism to Britain, even as its influence was already waning in Europe. The "Tractatus" of the young Ludwig Wittgenstein , published in , was a text of great importance for Logical Positivism. Indeed, Wittgenstein has come to be considered one of the 20th Century's most important philosophers , if not the most important. A central part of the philosophy of the "Tractatus" was the picture theory of meaning , which asserted that thoughts , as expressed in language, "picture" the facts of the world, and that the structure of language is also determined by the structure of reality. However, Wittgenstein abandoned his early work, convinced that the publication of the "Tractatus" had solved all the problems of all philosophy. He later re-considered and struck off in a completely new direction. His later work, which saw the meaning of a word as just its use in the language, and looked at language as a kind of game in which the different parts function and have meaning , was instrumental in the development of Ordinary Language Philosophy. Ordinary Language Philosophy shifted the emphasis from the ideal or formal language of Logical Positivism to everyday language and its actual use , and it saw traditional philosophical problems as rooted in misunderstandings caused by the sloppy use of words in a language. Some have seen Ordinary Language Philosophy as a complete break with, or reaction against , Analytic Philosophy , while others have seen it as just an extension or another stage of it. Either way, it became a dominant philosophic school between the s and s, under the guidance of philosophers such as W. Quine , Gilbert Ryle , Donald Davidson , etc. Quine 's work stressed the difficulty of providing a sound empirical basis where language, convention, meaning, etc, are concerned, and also broadened the principle of Semantic to the extreme position that a sentence or even an individual word has meaning only in the context of a whole language. Ryle is perhaps best known for his dismissal of Descartes ' body-mind Dualism as the "ghost in the machine" , but he also developed the theory of Philosophical Behaviourism the view that descriptions of human behavior need never refer to anything but the physical operations of human bodies which became the standard view among Ordinary Language philosophers for several decades. Another important philosopher in the Analytic Philosophy of the early 20th century was G. Moore , a contemporary of Russell at Cambridge University then the most important center of philosophy in the world. His "Principia Ethica" has become one of the standard texts of modern Ethics and Meta-Ethics , and inspired the movement away from Ethical the belief that there exist moral properties , which we can know empirically , and that can be reduced to entirely non-ethical or natural properties, such as needs, wants or pleasures and towards Ethical Non-Naturalism the belief that there are no such moral properties. He pointed out that the term "good" , for instance, is in fact indefinable because it lacks natural properties in the way that the terms "blue", "smooth", etc, have them. He also defended what he called "common sense" Realism as opposed to Idealism or Skepticism on the grounds that common sense claims about our knowledge of the world are just as plausible as those other metaphysical premises. On the side, an important figure in the early 20th Century was the German Edmund Husserl , who founded the influential movement of Phenomenology. He developed the idea, parts of which date back to Descartes and even Plato , that what we call reality really consists of objects and events "phenomena" as they are perceived or understood in the human consciousness , and not of anything independent of human consciousness which may or may not exist. Thus, we can "bracket" or, effectively, ignore sensory data, and deal only with the "intentional content" the mind's built-in mental description of external reality , which allows us to perceive aspects of the real world outside. Outline of philosophy - Wikipedia

However, our senses can only tell us about the appearance of a thing phenomenon and not the "thing-in-itself" noumenon , which Kant believed was essentially unknowable , although we have certain innate predispositions as to what exists Transcendental Idealism. Kant 's major contribution to Ethics was the theory of the Categorical Imperative , that we should act only in such a way that we would want our actions to become a universal law , applicable to everyone in a similar situation Moral Universalism and that we should treat other individuals as ends in themselves , not as mere means Moral Absolutism , even if that means sacrificing the greater good. Kant believed that any attempts to prove God's existence are just a waste of time , because our concepts only work properly in the empirical world which God is above and beyond , although he also argued that it was not irrational to believe in something that clearly cannot be proven either way Fideism. In the Modern period, Kantianism gave rise to the German Idealists , each of whom had their own interpretations of Kant 's ideas. Fichte 's later Political Philosophy also contributed to the rise of German Nationalism. Friedrich Schelling developed a unique form of Idealism known as Aesthetic Idealism in which he argued that only art was able to harmonize and sublimate the contradictions between subjectivity and objectivity, freedom and necessity, etc , and also tried to establish a connection or synthesis between his conceptions of nature and spirit. Arthur Schopenhauer is also usually considered part of the German Idealism and Romanticism movements, although his philosophy was very singular. He was a thorough-going pessimist who believed that the "will-to-life" the drive to survive and to reproduce was the underlying driving force of the world, and that the pursuit of happiness, love and intellectual satisfaction was very much secondary and essentially futile. He saw art and other artistic, moral and ascetic forms of awareness as the only way to overcome the fundamentally frustration-filled and painful human condition. The greatest and most influential of the German Idealists , though, was Georg Hegel. Although his works have a reputation for abstractness and difficulty , Hegel is often considered the summit of early 19th Century German thought, and his influence was profound. He extended Aristotle 's process of dialectic resolving a thesis and its opposing antithesis into a synthesis to apply to the real world - including the whole of history - in an on-going process of conflict resolution towards what he called the Absolute Idea. However, he stressed that what is really changing in this process is the underlying "Geist" mind, spirit, soul , and he saw each person's individual consciousness as being part of an Absolute Mind sometimes referred to as Absolute Idealism. Karl Marx was strongly influenced by Hegel 's dialectical method and his analysis of history. His Marxist theory including the concepts of historical materialism , class struggle , the labor theory of value , the bourgeoisie , etc , which he developed with his friend Friedrich Engels as a reaction against the rampant Capitalism of 19th Century Europe, provided the intellectual base for later radical and revolutionary Socialism and Communism. A very different kind of philosophy grew up in 19th Century England , out of the British Empiricist tradition of the previous century. The doctrine of Utilitarianism is a type of Consequentialism an approach to Ethics that stresses an action's outcome or consequence , which holds that the right action is that which would cause "the greatest happiness of the greatest number". Mill refined the theory to stress the quality not just the quantity of happiness, and intellectual and moral pleasures over more physical forms. He counseled that coercion in society is only justifiable either to defend ourselves, or to defend others from harm the "harm principle". Ralph Waldo Emerson established the Transcendentalism movement in the middle of the century, rooted in the transcendental philosophy of Kant , German Idealism and Romanticism , and a desire to ground religion in the inner spiritual or mental essence of humanity, rather than in sensuous experience. Emerson 's student Henry David Thoreau further developed these ideas, stressing intuition , self-examination , Individualism and the exploration of the beauty of nature. Thoreau 's advocacy of civil disobedience influenced generations of social reformers. The other main American movement of the late 19th Century was Pragmatism , which was initiated by C. Peirce and developed and popularized by William James and John Dewey. The theory of Pragmatism is based on Peirce 's pragmatic maxim , that the meaning of any concept is really just the same as its operational or practical consequences essentially, that something is true only insofar as it works in practice. Peirce also introduced the idea of Fallibilism that all truths and "facts" are necessarily provisional , that they can never be certain but only probable. James , in addition to his psychological work, extended Pragmatism , both as a method for analyzing philosophic problems but also as a theory of truth , as well as developing his own versions of Fideism that beliefs are arrived at by an individual process that lies beyond reason and evidence and Voluntarism that the will is superior to the intellect and to emotion among others. Dewey 's interpretation of Pragmatism is better known as Instrumentalism , the methodological view that concepts and theories are merely useful instruments , best measured by how effective they are in explaining and predicting phenomena, and not by whether they are true or false which he claimed was impossible. Dewey 's contribution to Philosophy of Education and to modern progressive education particularly what he called "learning-by-doing" was also significant. But European philosophy was not limited to the German Idealists. The French sociologist and philosopher Auguste Comte founded the influential Positivism movement around the belief that the only authentic knowledge was scientific knowledge , based on actual sense experience and strict application of the scientific method. Comte saw this as the final phase in the evolution of humanity , and even constructed a non-theistic, pseudo- mystical "positive religion" around the idea. He too was a kind of Fideist and an extremely religious man despite his attacks on the Danish state church. But his analysis of the way in which human freedom tends to lead to "angst" dread , the call of the infinite , and eventually to despair , was highly influential on later Existentialists like Heidegger and Sartre. The German Nietzsche was another atypical, original and controversial philosopher, also considered an important forerunner of Existentialism. He challenged the foundations of Christianity and traditional morality famously asserting that "God is dead" , leading to charges of Atheism , Moral Skepticism , Relativism and Nihilism. An important precursor of the Analytic Philosophy tradition was the Logicism developed during the late 19th Century by Gottlob Frege. Logicism sought to show that some, or even all , of mathematics was reducible to Logic , and Frege 's work revolutionized modern mathematical Logic. In the early 20th Century, the British logicians Bertrand Russell and Alfred North Whitehead continued to champion his ideas even after Russell had pointed out a paradox exposing an inconsistency in Frege 's work, which caused him, Frege , to abandon his own theory. Russell and Whitehead 's monumental and ground-breaking book, "Principia Mathematica" was a particularly important milestone. Both Russell and Whitehead went on to develop other philosophies. Russell 's work was mainly in the area of Philosophy of Language , including his theory of and his contributions to Ordinary Language Philosophy. Whitehead developed a metaphysical approach known as Process Philosophy , which posited ever-changing subjective forms to complement Plato 's eternal forms. Their Logicism , though, along with Comte 's Positivism , was a great influence on the development of the important 20th Century movement of Logical Positivism. The Logical Positivists campaigned for a systematic reduction of all human knowledge down to logical and scientific foundations , and claimed that a statement can be meaningful only if it is either purely formal essentially, mathematics and logic or capable of empirical verification. In the s, A. Ayer was largely responsible for the spread of Logical Positivism to Britain, even as its influence was already waning in Europe. The "Tractatus" of the young Ludwig Wittgenstein , published in , was a text of great importance for Logical Positivism. Indeed, Wittgenstein has come to be considered one of the 20th Century's most important philosophers , if not the most important. A central part of the philosophy of the "Tractatus" was the picture theory of meaning , which asserted that thoughts , as expressed in language, "picture" the facts of the world, and that the structure of language is also determined by the structure of reality. However, Wittgenstein abandoned his early work, convinced that the publication of the "Tractatus" had solved all the problems of all philosophy. He later re-considered and struck off in a completely new direction. His later work, which saw the meaning of a word as just its use in the language, and looked at language as a kind of game in which the different parts function and have meaning , was instrumental in the development of Ordinary Language Philosophy. Ordinary Language Philosophy shifted the emphasis from the ideal or formal language of Logical Positivism to everyday language and its actual use , and it saw traditional philosophical problems as rooted in misunderstandings caused by the sloppy use of words in a language. Some have seen Ordinary Language Philosophy as a complete break with, or reaction against , Analytic Philosophy , while others have seen it as just an extension or another stage of it. Either way, it became a dominant philosophic school between the s and s, under the guidance of philosophers such as W. Quine , Gilbert Ryle , Donald Davidson , etc. Quine 's work stressed the difficulty of providing a sound empirical basis where language, convention, meaning, etc, are concerned, and also broadened the principle of to the extreme position that a sentence or even an individual word has meaning only in the context of a whole language. Ryle is perhaps best known for his dismissal of Descartes ' body-mind Dualism as the "ghost in the machine" , but he also developed the theory of Philosophical Behaviourism the view that descriptions of human behavior need never refer to anything but the physical operations of human bodies which became the standard view among Ordinary Language philosophers for several decades. Another important philosopher in the Analytic Philosophy of the early 20th century was G. Moore , a contemporary of Russell at Cambridge University then the most important center of philosophy in the world. As a member of the Dutch States Army, then as the Prince of Orange and subsequently as Stadtholder a position of national leadership in the Dutch Republic , Descartes wielded considerable intellectual influence over the period known as the Dutch Golden Age. He often distinguished himself by refuting or attempting to undo the ideas of those that came before him. A Boston-born writer, philosopher, and poet, Ralph Waldo Emerson is the father of the transcendentalist movement. He was also seen as a key figure in the American romantic movement. Historian, social theorist, and philosopher Michel Foucault, born in the riverfront city of Poiltiers, France, dedicated much of his teaching and writing to the examination of power and knowledge and their connection to social control. Though often identified as a postmodernist, Foucault preferred to think of himself as a critic of . His service as an international diplomat on behalf of France also influenced his understanding of social constructs throughout history and how they have served to enforce racial, religious, and sexual inequality. His ideals have been particularly embraced by progressive movements, and he allied with many during his lifetime. Active in movements against racism, human rights abuses, prisoner abuses, and marginalization of the mentally ill, he is often cited as a major influence in movements for social , human rights, and feminism. More broadly speaking, his examination of power and social control has had a direct influence on the studies of sociology, communications, and political science. In contrast to rationalists such as Descartes, Hume was preoccupied with the way that passions as opposed to reason govern human behavior. This, Hume argued, predisposed human to knowledge founded not on the existence of certain absolutes but on personal experience. As a consequence of these ideas, Hume would be among the first major thinkers to refute dogmatic religious and moral ideals in favor of a more sentimentalist approach to human nature. His belief system would help to inform the future movements of utilitarianism and logical positivism, and would have a profound impact on scientific and theological discourse thereafter. Prussian-born and therefore identified as a German philosopher , Kant is considered among the most essential figures in modern philosophy, an advocate of reason as the source for morality, and a thinker whose ideas continue to permeate ethical, epistemological, and political debate. What perhaps most distinguishes Kant is his innate desire to find a synthesis between rationalists like Descartes and empiricists like Hume, to decipher a middle ground that defers to human experience without descending into skepticism. To his own way of thinking, Kant was pointing a way forward by resolving a central philosophical impasse. A Danish theologian, social critic, and philosopher, Kierkegaard is viewed by many as the most important existentialist philosopher. His work dealt largely with the idea of the single individual. His thinking tended to prioritize concrete reality over abstract thought. Within this construct, he viewed personal choice and commitment as preeminent. This orientation played a major part in his theology as well. This proliferation was a major force in helping existentialism take root in the 20th century. First described the concept of angst, defining it as a dread the comes from anxieties over choice, freedom, and ambiguous feelings. Viewed as a divine figure in traditional Chinese , his ideas and writings would form one of the major pillars alongside Confucius and the Buddha for Eastern thought. As such, Taoism is equally rooted in religion and philosophy. In traditional telling, though Lao-Tzu never opened a formal school, he worked as an archivist for the royal court of Zhou Dynasty. This gave him access to an extensive body of writing and artifacts, which he synthesized into his own poetry and prose. As a result of his writing, his influence spread widely during his lifetime. In fact, one version of his biography implies he may well have been a direct mentor to the Buddha or, in some versions, was the Buddha himself. There are lot of colorful narratives surrounding Lao-Tzu, some of which are almost certainly myth. In fact, there are some historians who even question whether or not Lao-Tzu was a real person. Historical accounts differ on who he was, exactly when he lived and which works he contributed to the canon of Taoism. However, in most traditional tellings, Lao-Tzu was the living embodiment of the philosophy known as Taoism and author of its primary text, the Tao Te Ching. An English physicist and philosopher, John Locke was a prominent thinker during the Enlightenment period. Part of the movement of British Empiricism alongside fellow countrymen David Hume, Thomas Hobbes, and Sir Francis Bacon, Locke is regarded as an important contributor to the development of the social contract theory and is sometimes identified as the father of liberalism. Published October 13th by Routledge first published More Details Original Title. Other Editions Friend Reviews. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about An Outline of Philosophy , please sign up. Be the first to ask a question about An Outline of Philosophy. Lists with This Book. Community Reviews. Showing Average rating 3. Rating details. More filters. Sort order. Start your review of An Outline of Philosophy. Apr 02, Farha Crystal rated it liked it Shelves: bertrand- russell. While reading this book an old joke about philosophy made me laugh. A dean asks the head of a physics department to see him. All those labs and experiments and whatnot, this is getting expensive! Why can't you be more like mathematicians - they only need pens, paper, and a trash bin. Or philosophers! They only need pens and paper :P When the role of science is to find what is Truth and Real, the philosophy just provides various options about how to see things. The thoughts may work in a scientific or non-scientific way. And, in the whole book Mr. Russel tried to convince that philosophy only makes sense when it only sees things in a scientific way. It's interesting that he rejects the idea of solipsism and other so-called belief which are claimed to be true for those who believe because they need no scientific evidence to believe :P but have no scientific ground to prove in reality. Yet this philosopher was by way of believing that no one else existed. This shows that solipsism is not really believed even by those who think they are convinced of its truth"- This is how Mr. Russel ditched solipsism. Since the book was written in , a lot of scientific discoveries are missing from Mr. Russel but the core ideas about how science works are still same. Russell is a joy to read, and along with Popper my favourite writer in philosophy. He always writes accessibly, but this volume is a little unusual in being directed at a lay audience. The book was written explicitly for the American market of the s, and is thus pitched at perhaps a more challenging level than might be attempted today, but will still be light review material for a student of philosophy. It is ferociously non-mathematical. Russell possesses a delightfully wry wit, reminiscent Russell is a joy to read, and along with Popper my favourite writer in philosophy. Russell possesses a delightfully wry wit, reminiscent of Hume, which eases the way. One is startled to learn that Kant was a misfortune - as one reviewer says in the introduction, an epithet more properly reserved for Hegel. The author is apparently a "plain man"! Spinoza's greatness is ethical rather than metaphysical, and "accordingly" his contemporaries treated him as a profound metaphysician but maximally wicked man. Little gems like this pepper the text. The book is divided into four main sections dealing with the external and perceptual world of the mind, the physical world and causality, the inner world of the mind and the Universe and man's place in it. Russell's philosophy can probably best be described as pragmatic positivism: He rejects solipsism, idealism, naive materialism and all such monomanias. He espouses - the view that mind and matter are manifestations of one reality, a view that has weathered the decades well. His physics is now a bit out of date, but not in ways fatal to his constructs. He admits that solipsism and other such constructs are logically unassailable, but chooses not to accept them - the idea of a real, phenomenal Universe is not logically necessary but logically consistent and basically sensible. This is basically a sensible man, and a sensible book. Very well worth reading as a first introduction to philosophy, perhaps accompanied by his History of Western Philosophy. Jun 17, 1. I quite liked this one. Russell's arguments concerning perception really struck a chord. So did his arguments and thoughtful investigations into other matters, and non-matters even. Written in the dawn of the QFT era, a heady time when models of the natural world were changing every year, this book is curiously not that quaint or dated, though the science has come a long way since. Well-structured and with plenty of food for thought, this is a must-read for anyone who likes Russell or is 'gettin I quite liked this one. Well-structured and with plenty of food for thought, this is a must- read for anyone who likes Russell or is 'getting into philosophy', without wanting to dive right into a serious primary text. The writing is excellent and clear which makes it less of a daunting read than it seems at first. Still, it took me some time to finish—time that was certainly not wasted. I always struggle reading philosophy. The ideas are big, the sentences are long, and there doesn't appear to be much of a point of it all. I find I don't actually pick much up from it, but I'm a stubborn whatsit, and keep trying in the hope that it will all make sense. I got on better with Russell than with anyone else so far. His writing is accessible. The Introduction actually explains that the book is based on a first-year introduction to philosophy class that he taught, so it's very much aim I always struggle reading philosophy. The Introduction actually explains that the book is based on a first-year introduction to philosophy class that he taught, so it's very much aimed at the beginner. But in addition to that, Russell's ideas of epistemology are very much rooted in science. He spends a lot of time discussing how, and to what extent, the laws of physics determine how much we can actually know about the world, and how that information is received by our bodies. To me, that is much more sensible than philosophising from an ideological point of view.

Outline of philosophy I quite liked this one. Russell's arguments concerning perception really struck a chord. So did his arguments and thoughtful investigations into other matters, and non-matters even. Written in the dawn of the QFT era, a heady time when models of the natural world were changing every year, this book is curiously not that quaint or dated, though the science has come a long way since. Well-structured and with plenty of food for thought, this is a must-read for anyone who likes Russell or is 'gettin I quite liked this one. Well-structured and with plenty of food for thought, this is a must- read for anyone who likes Russell or is 'getting into philosophy', without wanting to dive right into a serious primary text. The writing is excellent and clear which makes it less of a daunting read than it seems at first. Still, it took me some time to finish—time that was certainly not wasted. I always struggle reading philosophy. The ideas are big, the sentences are long, and there doesn't appear to be much of a point of it all. I find I don't actually pick much up from it, but I'm a stubborn whatsit, and keep trying in the hope that it will all make sense. I got on better with Russell than with anyone else so far. His writing is accessible. The Introduction actually explains that the book is based on a first-year introduction to philosophy class that he taught, so it's very much aim I always struggle reading philosophy. The Introduction actually explains that the book is based on a first-year introduction to philosophy class that he taught, so it's very much aimed at the beginner. But in addition to that, Russell's ideas of epistemology are very much rooted in science. He spends a lot of time discussing how, and to what extent, the laws of physics determine how much we can actually know about the world, and how that information is received by our bodies. To me, that is much more sensible than philosophising from an ideological point of view. Russell's ultimate conclusions about man's place in the world, and the role of philosophy, I find very satisfying: the role is not to decide what is good, or what the right way to live is, but what is true. And whether what is true is good or bad, to recognise it honestly. The most interesting chapter by far to me was the chapter on the structure of the atom. Not for any philosophical reason, but for the insight it lent me into the state of scientific understanding in the mid-twenties, when Russell wrote this text. I kind of knew that all the things we know now were discovered at some point, and that this must have happened in some sort of sequence, but I couldn't have told you the order in which stuff happened. Reading this chapter taught me that Russell knew about nuclei and electrons, photons, quantum theory, isotopes. But, not about the neutron, which was discovered in I found it fascinating to read a very accomplished discussion of atomic theory weaving around this quite major missing detail. I'm sure I'll come back to that chapter to amaze myself again. I should come back to the rest of the book as well, to see if I can assimilate a bit more of the vast amount of sensible philosophising included. One of the great pleasures in reading Bertrand Russell for me was when he discusses the role of philosophy in a society where science has been the approach to finding out what is real and true in our universe. As science plays a greater role in our lives, there seems to be less space for philosophy. The other was when Russell plainly says that he doesn't understand Kant. As someone who openly praises science over philosophy, I take a certain joy in this. However, it should be understood that sci One of the great pleasures in reading Bertrand Russell for me was when he discusses the role of philosophy in a society where science has been the approach to finding out what is real and true in our universe. However, it should be understood that science is good at answering the small questions in life, not the large ones. Sometimes it's good to step back and see exactly what the larger picture is of the small questions science has been answering. And that's where Russell's Outline of Philosophy comes in. Although much has changed since this book was written in , some of the philosophical questions Russell examines are still worthwhile considering given what we've learnt about the world around us. Philosophy becomes important when we realize that when we ask a really precise question, we come to uncertainty of some kind, and so we depend on larger 'philosophical' to make sense of our world sometimes. How does an eye work is easier than asking how a certain wavelength causes a certain cell in the retina to send a signal to the brain. Outline of Philosophy is broken down into question relating to, among other things, man sic and his environment and his focus on manipulating the earth into making more human beings , the process of learning how he is able to labor in the present for reward in the future, and focus on behavior that maximizes the amount of offspring , language what words can mean, how it relates to physics and relativity how do we know that's really there and how can two people experience something the exact same way? Though some of these questions are more interesting than others, on the whole the topics are discussed by Russell in a very interesting fashion. And although I thought this book would serve as an appetizer for Russell's History of Western Philosophy, the truth is that Outline of Philosophy is no supplement but stands on its own. Jun 08, Bogdan Balostin rated it liked it Shelves: public-library. Okay, I didn't understand half of this book and it's supposed to be written for the general audience. Or maybe I understood it but there are no big ideas here. Just the recycled ones, the reality is an illusion, our way of knowing is limited by our perception, etc, etc. What Bertrand Russel tried to do in this book is I think to argue that the only way to do philosophy is through science and so every new scientific discovery is treated as a new way of seeing the world. Mind you, it was wri Okay, I didn't understand half of this book and it's supposed to be written for the general audience. Mind you, it was written at a time when quantum physics messed with everyone's brain. Nowadays, we are not so impressed with quantum physics, if it works it works, we don't need to think more, right? And while the same questions arise, the answers turn out to be not so impressive. And the biggest flaw of this book is the same science it tries to explain. When philosophy is based on science, it is quickly outdated, as science finds the answers to philosophical questions. On the other hand, when philosophy is based on thought and introspection, it appears we still deal with the same dilemma the ancient philosophers had. So, does it mean science doesn't have any role in philosophy? Quite the contrary! It's the only sure way to find sure answers to uncomfortable questions. But Bertrand Russel treats anything other than science as wrong way to do philosophy and I disagree. It's true that through other means we don't get quick answers but it proves the questions are timeless. And that is scary. No matter how much science evolves, we still don't have answers to some of the questions that troubled ancient civilizations. The Outline of Philosophy was my first venture into the realm of philosophy. I took up the book as an introduction into this world with which I am completely unfamiliar, absolutely unalarmed owing to the rather welcoming title , expecting a breezy and unimpeded read of, well, the outlines of philosophy. A majority of the book was spent re-reading over and over, taking in incrementally what Russell hopefully meant. Thankfully, I could make sense of and relate to most of the book, albeit comple The Outline of Philosophy was my first venture into the realm of philosophy. Thankfully, I could make sense of and relate to most of the book, albeit completely making sense of what Russell intended to convey did not come easy; I will not attempt to fool myself and maintain that I did not brush over concepts which were, in the end, to tedious to grasp. To that end, maybe this is the level of attention philosophy and its intracies warrant. Russell's narration on notions such as ethics, the atom and particularly relativity was wonderfully insightful; it was a welcome refresher course despite my admitted hate for the Chemistry with a lovely historical run- through. Perhaps it is owing to my naivety, or my literary incompetence for which I thoroughly apologize due to which I have not been able to enjoy this book to the unfettered extent I had hoped; it was nonetheless, an enlightening read. I do hope to come back to this book one day, and pick it up rather prepared. May 17, Tanvir Sady rated it liked it. One of the short work of Russel targetting mainly general reader. Here Russel tried to bring the connection of philosophy, psychology, science, especially in his days. To construct a comprehensive view on the subject like philosophy one needs to scrutinize the capacity to which extend one can explore by which method. That is what the book strived to do. It was very much engrossed in the process how we know something when we say we know from the context of science, philosophy, psychology. But Russe One of the short work of Russel targetting mainly general reader. But Russel seemed to lost in the arguments, sometimes unnecessarily elaborated some topic which is obvious. Had a tough time reading Russel's long sentences. Russell accepts the offer and writes a book in 3 months. Human beings are questioned at the level of atomic structure, from the outside, from inside to the physical world, with the discoveries of time. While it is interesting that the atomic structure and electron movements are studied and interpreted philosophically at the level of Bohr atomic theorists, those who read Russell's other books are going to recapture in some parts. Nov 05, Andres Cardona rated it it was amazing. An incredibly clear explanation for the hardest concepts to explain, those that we use every day to define reality but we didn't pay enough attention to even consider what they mean, what is consciousness, what is though, what is memory, learning, language, emotions, inference, etc Bertrand transport us in a structured even poetic way into the purpose and basis for philosophy, giving us a good stand inside the universe and our challenges to understand it. Oct 14, Talha Absurd Minhas rated it really liked it. As a Philosophy student, I like to think of ways I can get my hands on all quality philosophical works available to me. One thing that this book enables you is to identify a good book from an okay one; this is definitely a good one. Russell's goal in this book is to characteristically organize human thought and its value in its "universality". So, the book opens with a nice introduction to some of the philosophical doubts and develops into an analysis of psychological dynamics of human understan As a Philosophy student, I like to think of ways I can get my hands on all quality philosophical works available to me. So, the book opens with a nice introduction to some of the philosophical doubts and develops into an analysis of psychological dynamics of human understandings; language and memory is regarded as most crucial in this section of the book. The next section, he deals with the physical world, the constituents of reality and the relations built in physical laws. He ends this section with an analysis of human insight of this apparent reality. In the next section, the discussion moves to an intesional analysis of human self and learning. The last section is a general remark of Russell's views on a few mathematical rules involving operations and inferences, and the insights on regularities of physical laws. I recommend this book to all those who enjoy thinking about how mice learn to escape a maze in lesser time in each successing attempt. And don't forget to keep a cup of coffee with yourself and a pack of cigarettes. Sep 24, Shane rated it liked it Shelves: owned. Back in its day when the relevant new sciences were being discussed and worldviews altered to accommodate, this book would have been quite a revelation for most people. Today it is quite dated in some areas and the language a little too technical and wordy to be an easy read, plus the science has moved on since the s? The core ideas are still interesting and I think, the dated science aside, that this would be an interesting book for someone who hasn't spent Back in its day when the relevant new sciences were being discussed and worldviews altered to accommodate, this book would have been quite a revelation for most people. The core ideas are still interesting and I think, the dated science aside, that this would be an interesting book for someone who hasn't spent a lot of time pondering the nature of reality in light of last centuries bold scientific strides. The only thing wrong with this book is that Russell tackles such a wide array of topics that one chapter heading itself could be expanded into a full length novel. However arcane some philosophical texts may be … the ability to formulate questions and follow arguments is the essence of education. The integrity of these divisions cannot be rigidly maintained, for one area overlaps into the others. : the study of value; the investigation of its nature, criteria, and metaphysical status. Some significant questions in axiology include the following: Nature of value : is value a fulfillment of desire, a pleasure, a preference, a behavioral disposition, or simply a human interest of some kind? Criteria of value : de gustibus non est disputandum i. Status of value : how are values related to scientific facts? What ultimate worth, if any, do human values have? Axiology is usually divided into two main parts. Ethics : the study of values in human behavior or the study of moral problems: e. Consider this example analyzed by J. Urmson in his well-known essay, "Saints and Heroes" : "We may imagine a squad of soldiers to be practicing the throwing of live hand grenades; a grenade slips from the hand of one of them and rolls on the ground near the squad; one of them sacrifices his life by throwing himself on the grenade and protecting his comrades with his own body. It is quite unreasonable to suppose that such a man must be impelled by the sort of emotion that he might be impelled by if his best friend were in the squad. If he did not cover the grenade, several soldiers might be injured or be killed. His action probably saved lives; certainly an action which saves lives is a morally correct action. One might even be inclined to conclude that saving lives is a duty. But if this were so, wouldn't each of the soldiers have the moral obligation or duty to save his comrades? Would we thereby expect each of the soldiers to vie for the opportunity to cover the grenade? Philosophy of art is concerned with judgments of sense, taste, and emotion. What would the realistic representations in pop art represent? Does art represent sensible objects or ideal objects? Is artistic value objective? Is it merely coincidental that many forms in architecture and painting seem to illustrate mathematical principles? Are there standards of taste? Is there a clear distinction between art and reality? Epistemology : the study of knowledge. In particular, epistemology is the study of the nature, scope, and limits of human knowledge. Epistemology investigates the origin, structure, methods, and integrity of knowledge. Consider the degree of truth of the statement, "The earth is round. For example, this statement can be successively more accurately translated as … "The earth is spherical" "The earth is an oblate spheroid" i. But what about the Himalayas and the Marianas Trench? Even if we surveyed exactly the shape of the earth, our process of surveying would alter the surface by the footprints left and the impressions of the survey stakes and instruments. Hence, the exact shape of the earth cannot be known. Every rain shower changes the shape. Note here as well the implications for skepticism and relativism: simply because we cannot exactly describe the exact shape of the earth, the conclusion does not logically follow that the earth does not have a shape. Furthermore, consider two well-known problems in epistemology: Russell's Five-Minute-World Hypothesis : Suppose the earth were created five minutes ago, complete with memory images, history books, records, etc. As Russell wrote in The Analysis of Mind , "There is no logical impossibility in the hypothesis that the world sprang into being five minutes ago, exactly as it then was, with a population that "remembered" a wholly unreal past. There is no logically necessary connection between events at different times; therefore nothing that is happening now or will happen in the future can disprove the hypothesis that the world began five minutes ago. Any evidence to the contrary would be evidence created by God five minutes ago. Suppose everything in the universe including all spatial relations were to expand uniformly a thousand times larger. How could we ever know it? A moment's thought reveals that the mass of objects increases by the cube whereas the distance among them increases linearly. Hence, if such an expansion were possible, changes in the measurement of gravity and the speed of light would be evident, if, indeed, life would be possible. Russell's Five-Minute-World Hypothesis is a philosophical problem; the impossibility of the objects in the universe expanding is a scientific problem since the latter problem can, in fact, be answered by principles of elementary physics. or Metaphysics : the study of what is really real.

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