The Problems of Philosophy

by Bertrand Russell (1912)

In the following pages I have confined myself in the main to those problems of philosophy in regard to which I thought it possible to say something positive and constructive, since merely negative criticism seemed out of place. For this reason, theory of knowledge occupies a larger space than metaphysics in the present volume, and some topics much discussed by philosophers are treated very briefly, if at all.

I have derived valuable assistance from unpublished writings of G. E. Moore and J. M. Keynes: from the former, as regards the relations of sense-data to physical objects, and from the latter as regards probability and induction. I have also profited greatly by the criticisms and suggestions of Professor Gilbert Murray.

  1. Appearance and Reality
  2. The Existence of Matter
  3. The Nature of Matter
  4. Idealism
  5. Knowledge by Acquaintance and Knowledge by Description
  6. On Induction
  7. On Our Knowledge of General Principles
  8. How A Priori Knowledge Is Possible
  9. The World of Universals
  10. On Our Knowledge of Universals
  11. On Intuitive Knowledge
  12. Truth and Falsehood
  13. Knowledge, Error, and Probable Opinion
  14. The Limits of Philosophical Knowledge
  15. The Value of Philosophy

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