Philosophical questions

Author: [British] Bertrand Russell
Publisher:
Publish Date: 1999-05-01
Features: The author of this book, Bertrand Russell (1872–1970), a major figure in the analytic school and one of the most renowned and influential philosophers in the Western world, is also one of the most well-known Western philosophers to Chinese readers. He made pioneering contributions to the field of mathematical logic and was also a social activist and political commentator. Due to his multifaceted achievements, he received numerous honors in his lifetime, including the Nobel Prize in 1950. In philosophy, his views were largely New Realist in his early years but gradually shifted toward logical positivism in his later life. This book is one of his last works from the early period, where he comprehensively elaborates on his arguments regarding many philosophical issues, serving as a summary of his early philosophical thought. In the chapters of this book, I have primarily focused on those issues where I believe I can offer some positive and constructive opinions, as purely negative criticism seems inappropriate. For this reason, epistemology occupies more space in this book than metaphysics, and some topics frequently discussed by philosophers are treated very briefly if addressed at all. The unpublished works of G. E. Moore and J. M. Keynes have been of great help to me: the former in dealing with the relationship between sense data and material objects, and the latter in addressing probability and induction. The criticisms and suggestions proposed by Professor Gilbert Murray have also been immensely beneficial to me.