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WillowOne's Positions

The Problems of Philosophy

Overview

A short introduction to epistemology, written to be read in an afternoon. Russell starts with a table and asks what we actually know about it, separating appearance from reality, knowledge by acquaintance from knowledge by description, and the data of the senses from the inferences we draw from them. He goes on to the problem of induction, the nature of a priori knowledge, and the limits of philosophical knowledge, and closes with a chapter on why philosophy is worth doing even though it settles so little.

Notes

The best first book of philosophy I know of, and the one I would hand to anyone who wanted to understand why I keep saying that certainty is not available and that knowledge is a model rather than a possession. The final chapter, on the value of philosophy, is the best short answer to "what is the point of all this?" that I have read.

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