The Problems of Philosophy

In the following pages I have confined myself in the main to those problems of philosophy in regard...

I have derived valuable assistance from unpublished writings of G. E. Moore and J. M. Keynes. from...

Is there any knowledge in the world which is so certain that no reasonable man could doubt it. This...

In daily life, we assume as certain many things which, on a closer scrutiny, are found to be so...

To make our difficulties plain, let us concentrate attention on the table. To the eye it is oblong,...

For most practical purposes these differences are unimportant, but to the painter they are all...

To return to the table. It is evident from what we have found, that there is no colour which pre...

The same thing applies to the texture. With the naked eye one can see the grain, but otherwise the...

The shape of the table is no better. We are all in the habit of judging as to the real shapes of...

Similar difficulties arise when we consider the sense of touch. It is true that the table always...

Thus it becomes evident that the real table, if there is one, is not the same as what we...

It will help us in considering these questions to have a few simple terms of which the meaning is...

The real table, if it exists, we will call a physical object. Thus we have to consider the relation...

The philosopher who first brought prominently forward the reasons for regarding the immediate...

There are two different questions involved when we ask whether matter exists, and it is important...

Other philosophers since Berkeley have also held that, although the table does not depend for its...

Such an argument, in my opinion, is fallacious; and of course those who advance it do not put it so...

But these philosophers, though they deny matter as opposed to mind, nevertheless, in another sense,...

Now obviously this point in which the philosophers are agreed the view that there is a real table,...

Before we go farther it will be well to consider for a moment what it is that we have discovered so...

Such questions are bewildering, and it is difficult to know that even the strangest hypotheses may...

Among these surprising possibilities, doubt suggests that perhaps there is no table at all....

In this chapter we have to ask ourselves whether, in any sense at all, there is such a thing as...

Before we embark upon doubtful matters, let us try to find some more or less fixed point from which...

Descartes 1596 1650, the founder of modern philosophy, invented a method which may still be used...

But doubt concerning his own existence was not possible, for if he did not exist, no demon could...

But some care is needed in using Descartes argument. I think, therefore I am says rather more than...

Thus it is our particular thoughts and feelings that have primitive certainty. And this applies to...

The problem we have to consider is this. Granted that we are certain of our own sense data, have we...

One great reason why it is felt that we must secure a physical object in addition to the sense...

The first answer that naturally occurs to one is that, although different people may see the table...

Now in so far as the above considerations depend upon supposing that there are other people besides...

In one sense it must be admitted that we can never prove the existence of things other than...

The way in which simplicity comes in from supposing that there really are physical objects is...

But the difficulty in the case of the cat is nothing compared to the difficulty in the case of...

Of course it is not by argument that we originally come by our belief in an independent external...

The argument which has led us to this conclusion is doubtless less strong than we could wish, but...

Philosophy should show us the hierarchy of our instinctive beliefs, beginning with those we hold...

It is of course possible that all or any of our beliefs may be mistaken, and therefore all ought to...

This function, at least, philosophy can perform. Most philosophers, rightly or wrongly, believe...

In the preceding chapter we agreed, though without being able to find demonstrative reasons, that...

To this question physical science gives an answer, somewhat incomplete it is true, and in part...

It is sometimes said that light is a form of wave motion, but this is misleading, for the light...

Now this something, which all of us who are not blind know, is not, according to science, really to...

It is not only colours and sounds and so on that are absent from the scientific world of matter,...

Again, different people see the same object as of different shapes, according to their point of...

We agreed provisionally that physical objects cannot be quite like our sense data, but may be...

Now our sense data are situated in our private spaces, either the space of sight or the space of...

Assuming that there is physical space, and that it does thus correspond to private spaces, what can...

With regard to time, our feeling of duration or of the lapse of time is notoriously an unsafe guide...

In saying that the time order which events seem to have is the same as the time order which they...

What we have found as regards space is much the same as what we find in relation to the...

The most natural, though not ultimately the most defensible, hypothesis to adopt in the first...

Such a theory is perhaps not capable of being definitely refuted, but it can be shown to be...

It remains to ask whether there are any general philosophical arguments enabling us to say that, if...

The word idealism is used by different philosophers in somewhat different senses. We shall...

Those who are unaccustomed to philosophical speculation may be inclined to dismiss such a doctrine...

We have seen that, even if physical objects do have an independent existence, they must differ very...

The grounds on which idealism is advocated are generally grounds derived from the theory of...

In order to understand his argument, it is necessary to understand his use of the word idea. He...

He then proceeds to consider common objects, such as a tree, for instance. He shows that all we...

There are in this argument a good many fallacies which have been important in the history of...

Before taking up the general question of the nature of ideas, we must disentangle two entirely...

Taking the word idea in Berkeleys sense, there are two quite distinct things to be considered...

Berkeleys view, that obviously the colour must be in the mind, seems to depend for its plausibility...

This question of the distinction between act and object in our apprehending of things is vitally...

It is often said, as though it were a self evident truism, that we cannot know that anything exists...

To go into this argument fully at our present stage would be impossible, since it raises points...

Again, it is by no means a truism, and is in fact false, that we cannot know that anything exists...

Thus the statement which seemed like a truism becomes, when re stated, the following. We can never...

If I am acquainted with a thing which exists, my acquaintance gives me the knowledge that it...

In the preceding chapter we saw that there are two sorts of knowledge. knowledge of things, and...

We shall say that we have acquaintance with anything of which we are directly aware, without the...

My knowledge of the table as a physical object, on the contrary, is not direct knowledge. Such as...

Sense data, as we have already seen, are among the things with which we are acquainted; in fact,...

The first extension beyond sense data to be considered is acquaintance by memory. It is obvious...

The next extension to be considered is acquaintance by introspection. We are not only aware of...

We have spoken of acquaintance with the contents of our minds as self consciousness, but it is not,...

When I am acquainted with my seeing the sun, it seems plain that I am acquainted with two different...

Further, we know the truth I am acquainted with this sense datum. It is hard to see how we could...

We may therefore sum up as follows what has been said concerning acquaintance with things that...

In addition to our acquaintance with particular existing things, we also have acquaintance with...

It will be seen that among the objects with which we are acquainted are not included physical...

By a description I mean any phrase of the form a so and so or the so and so. A phrase of the form a...

We shall say that an object is known by description when we know that it is the so and so, i.e....

When we say the so and so exists, we mean that there is just one object which is the so and so. The...

Common words, even proper names, are usually really descriptions. That is to say, the thought in...

Let us take some illustrations. Suppose some statement made about Bismarck. Assuming that there is...

When we, who did not know Bismarck, make a judgement about him, the description in our minds will...

All names of places London, England, Europe, the Earth, the Solar System similarly involve, when...

It would seem that, when we make a statement about something only known by description, we often...

It will be seen that there are various stages in the removal from acquaintance with particulars....

We shall not at this stage attempt to answer all the objections which may be urged against this...

The chief importance of knowledge by description is that it enables us to pass beyond the limits of...

In almost all our previous discussions we have been concerned in the attempt to get clear as to our...

But if we are to be able to draw inferences from these data if we are to know of the existence of...

Let us take as an illustration a matter about which none of us, in fact, feel the slightest doubt....

It is obvious that if we are asked why we believe that the sun will rise to morrow, we shall...

The only reason for believing that the laws of motion will remain in operation is that they have...

Now in dealing with this question we must, to begin with, make an important distinction, without...

And this kind of association is not confined to men; in animals also it is very strong. A horse...

But in spite of the misleadingness of such expectations, they nevertheless exist. The mere fact...

The problem we have to discuss is whether there is any reason for believing in what is called the...

The belief that the sun will rise to morrow might be falsified if the earth came suddenly into...

It has been argued that we have reason to know that the future will resemble the past, because what...

The reference to the future in this question is not essential. The same question arises when we...

It must be conceded, to begin with, that the fact that two things have been found often together...

It might be urged, as against the view we are advocating, that we know all natural phenomena to be...

a When a thing of a certain sort A has been found to be associated with a thing of a certain other...

As just stated, the principle applies only to the verification of our expectation in a single fresh...

a The greater the number of cases in which a thing of the sort A has been found associated with a...

It should be noted that probability is always relative to certain data. In our case, the data are...

The inductive principle, however, is equally incapable of being proved by an appeal to experience....

The general principles of science, such as the belief in the reign of law, and the belief that...

Thus all knowledge which, on a basis of experience tells us something about what is not...

We saw in the preceding chapter that the principle of induction, while necessary to the validity of...

Some of these principles have even greater evidence than the principle of induction, and the...

In all our knowledge of general principles, what actually happens is that first of all we realize...

Now such an argument is not hard to follow; and if it is granted that its premisses are true in...

This principle is really involved at least, concrete instances of it are involved in all...

The above principle is merely one of a certain number of self evident logical principles. Some at...

These three laws are samples of self evident logical principles, but are not really more...

In addition to the logical principles which enable us to prove from a given premiss that something...

One of the great historic controversies in philosophy is the controversy between the two schools...

On the other hand, even that part of our knowledge which is logically independent of experience in...

There is another point of great importance, in which the empiricists were in the right as against...

A priori knowledge is not all of the logical kind we have been hitherto considering. Perhaps the...

We judge, for example, that happiness is more desirable than misery, knowledge than ignorance,...

All pure mathematics is a priori, like logic. This was strenuously denied by the empirical...

The same thing is exemplified in geometry. If we want to prove some property of all triangles, we...

The case may be made clearer by considering a genuinely empirical generalization, such as All men...

The fact is that, in simple mathematical judgements such as two and two are four, and also in many...

But the newness of the knowledge is much less certain if we take the stock instance of deduction...

This illustrates the difference between general propositions known a priori such as two and two are...

We have now seen that there are propositions known a priori, and that among them are the...

Immanuel Kant is generally regarded as the greatest of the modern philosophers. Though he lived...

Before the time of Kant, it was generally held that whatever knowledge was a priori must be...

Hume 1711 76, who preceded Kant, accepting the usual view as to what makes knowledge a priori,...

The question which Kant put at the beginning of his philosophy, namely How is pure mathematics...

The problem arises through the fact that such knowledge is general, whereas all experience is...

What Kant maintained was that in all our experience there are two elements to be distinguished, the...

The physical object, which he calls the thing in itself,1 he regards as essentially unknowable;...

1 Kants thing in itself is identical in definition with the physical object, namely, it is the...

Apart from minor grounds on which Kants philosophy may be criticized, there is one main objection...

Reflection, moreover, seems to make it clear that, if there is any truth in our arithmetical...

Apart from the special doctrines advocated by Kant, it is very common among philosophers to regard...

Now what makes it natural to call this principle a law of thought is that it is by thought rather...

A similar argument applies to any other a priori judgement. When we judge that two and two are...

The fact seems to be that all our a priori knowledge is concerned with entities which do not,...

This view, however, seems open to objections similar to those which we urged before against Kant....