❞ كتاب An Outline of Philosophy (Routledge Classics) by Bertrand Russell ❝ ⏤ برتراند راسل

THE FAMED PHILOSOPHER PROVIDES A “SCIENTIFIC” BASIS FOR PHILOSOPHY

Bertrand Arthur William Russell (1872-1970) was an influential British philosopher, logician, mathematician, and political activist. In 1950, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, in recognition of his many books. [NOTE: page numbers below refer to a 317-page paperback edition.]

He begins this book (first edition, 1920) by saying, “The definition of ‘philosophy’ will vary… all that we can say to begin with is that there are certain problems… which do not… belong to any of the special sciences. These problems are all such as to raise doubts concerning what commonly passes for knowledge… Philosophy arises from an unusually obstinate attempt to arrive at real knowledge. What passes for knowledge in ordinary life suffers from three defects: it is cocksure, vague, and self-contradictory. The first step towards philosophy consists in becoming aware of these defects… in order to substitute an amended kind of knowledge which shall be tentative, precise, and self-consistent.” (Pg. 1-2)

He observes, “This is something of a difficulty in the Watsonian theory of language… I may say to one person, ‘I met Mr. Jones in the train today,’ and to another ‘Joseph was in the 9:35 this morning.’ With the exception of the words ‘in the’, these two sentences have nothing verbally in common, yet they may relate the same fact, and I may use either indifferently when I recall the fact. Thus my recollection is certainly NOT a definite verbal habit… If the behaviorist … begins by telling me that it is a VERBAL habit, he can be driven by such instances to the admission that it must be some other kind of habit. If he says this, he is abandoning the region of observable fact, and taking refuge in hypothetical bodily movements invoked to save a theory. But these are hardly better than ‘thoughts.’” (Pg. 77)

He notes, “The notion of a ‘place’ is also quite vague. Is London a ‘place’? But the earth is rotating. Is the earth a ‘place’? But it is going around the sun. Is the sun a ‘place’? But it is moving relatively to the stars. At best you could talk of a place at a given time; but then it is ambiguous what is a given time, unless you confine yourself to one place. So the notion of ‘place’ evaporates.” (Pg. 115)

He points out, “We do not, in fact, ‘observe’ what it is here said that we observe; all this is INFERRED. What we observe, in astronomy, is a two-dimensional pattern of points of light, with a few bright surfaces of measurable size when seen through the telescope (the planets)… These are the OBSERVED facts. There is no logical impossibility about the medieval doctrine of spheres rotating round the earth, one for each planet and one for the stars. The modern doctrines are simpler, but not one whit more in accordance with the observed facts; it is our passion for SIMPLE laws that has made us adopt them.” (Pg. 126) برتراند راسل - فيلسوف وعالم منطق ورياضي ومؤرخ وناقد اجتماعي بريطاني. في مراحل مختلفة من حياته، كان راسل ليبرالياً واشتراكياً وداعية سلام، إلا أنه أقر أنه لم يكن أياً من هؤلاء بالمعنى العميق.

وعلى الرغم من قضائه معظم حياته في إنجلترا، وُلد راسل في ويلز وتوفي عن عمر ناهز الـ 100 عاما.

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