Our Knowledge of the External World / Edition 1

by Bertrand Russell

Overview

Our Knowledge of the External World is a compilation of lectures Bertrand Russell delivered in the US in which he questions the very relevance and legitimacy of philosophy. In it he investigates the relationship between ‘individual’ and ‘scientific’ knowledge and questions the means in which we have come to understand our physical world. This is an explosive and controversial work that illustrates instances where the claims of philosophers have been excessive, and examines why their achievements have not been greater.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415473774
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	02/20/2009
Series:	Routledge Classics
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	232
Product dimensions:	5.06(w) x 7.81(h) x (d)

About the Author

Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) was one of the most formidable thinkers of the modern era. A philosopher, mathematician, educational innovator, champion of intellectual, social and sexual freedom, and a campaigner for peace and human rights, he was also a prolific writer of popular and influential books, essays and lectures on an extensive range of subjects.

Considered to be one of the most controversial figures of the twentieth century, Bertrand Russell is widely renowned for his provocative writings. These definitive works offer profound insights and forward-thinking perspectives on a changing western society progressively shaped, most significantly, by two world wars, the decline of British imperialism and an evolving moral landscape.

Read an Excerpt

LECTURE V THE THEORY OF CONTINUITY The theory of continuity, with which we shall be occupied in the present lecture, is, in most of its refinements and developments, a purely mathematical subject very beautiful, very important, and very delightful, but not, strictly speaking, a part of philosophy. The logical basis of the theory alone belongs to philosophy, and alone will occupy us to-night. The way the problem of continuity enters into philosophy is, broadly speaking, the following : Space and time are treated by mathematicians as consisting of points and instants, but they also have a property, easier to feel than to define, which is called continuity, and is thought by many philosophers to be destroyed when they are resolved into points and instants. Zeno, as we shall see, proved that analysis into points and instants was impossible if we adhered to the view that the number of points or instants in a finite space or time must be finite. Later philosophers, believing infinite number to be self-contradictory, have found here an antinomy : Spaces and times could not consist of a finite number of points and instants, for such reasons as Zeno's ; they could not consist of an infinite number of points and instants, because infinite numbers were supposed to be self-contradictory. Therefore spaces and times, if real at all, must not be regarded as composed of points and instants. But even when points and instants, as independent entities, are discarded, as they were by the theory advocated in our last lecture, the problems of continuity, as I shall try to show presently, remain, in a practically unchanged form. Let us therefore, to begin with, admit points and instants, andconsider the problems in connection with this simpler or at least more familiar hypothesis. The argu...

Table of Contents

Introduction Preface 1. Current Tendencies 2. Logic as the Essence of Philosophy 3. On Our Knowledge of the External World 3. The World of Physics and the World of Sense 4. The Theory of Continuity 5. The Problem of Infinity Considered Historically 6. The Positive Theory of Infinity 7. On the Notion of Cause, with Applications to the Free-Will Problem Index

Editorial Reviews

‘It is in every sense an epoch-making book: one that has been needed and expected for years.’ - Cambridge Magazine

‘The author maintains a fresh and brilliant yet easy style which always makes his writings a pleasure to read.’ - Nature

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