Bertrand Russell 18721970

1
Bertrand Russell(1872-1970)

• From The Problems of Philosophy (1912)
• Truth Falsehood
• Knowledge, Error, Probable Opinion
• The Limits of Philosophical Knowledge

(Text, 439-451)
Under construction as of 9/1/08
2
Introduction

• Russells philosophical work
• Russells political activism
• The content purposes of The Problems of
  Philosophy

3
Truth Falsehood (439-433)

• How are we to distinguish between true beliefs
  and false beliefs? (269)
• This is not the same as asking what beliefs are
  true and what beliefs are false. The question is,
  what do we mean by truth and falsity?
• We need a theory of truth.
• A satisfactory theory of truth must meet three
  requirements (269-71)
• It must include a theory of falsity (the opposite
  of truth).
• It must recognize that truth and falsity are
  properties of beliefs.
• It must acknowledge that the truth or falsity of
  a belief is completely dependent on the relation
  of the belief to something outside of the belief
  itself.

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Truth Falsehood, contd

• Rs defense of the correspondence theory of truth
  as opposed to the coherence theory of truth.
• The correspondence theory truth as
  correspondence of belief with fact ( falsity as
  non-correspondence of belief with fact)
• The coherence theory A belief is true when it
  coheres is consistent with the body of our
  beliefs and a belief is false when it fails to
  cohere is inconsistent with the body of our
  beliefs.
• Rs criticisms of the coherence theory
• There is no proof that there is only one coherent
  system of beliefs. In fact, it seems that, in
  various fields, there is more than one coherent
  body of beliefs.
• The concept of coherence is based on the laws of
  logic (e.g., the law of non-contradiction) but
  the laws of logic themselves cannot be
  established by this the coherence test.
• For the above two reasons, coherence cannot be
  accepted as giving the meaning of truth, though
  it is often a most important test of truth after
  a certain amount of truth has become known. What
  does this mean? Explain.

5
Truth Falsehood, contd

• In order to make clear the distinction between
  truth and falsity, Russell now focuses on the
  relations that beliefs can have to things outside
  of themselves.

• Belief cannot be a relation between the mind and
  a single object. Why not?

6
Knowledge, Error, Probable Opinion (443-447)

• To be continued.

7
The Limits of Philosophical Knowledge (447-451)

• To be continued.

8
Summary

• To be continued.