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RUSSELL ON LOGIC AND ANALYTIC PHILOSOPHY
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- RUSSELL ON KNOWLEDGE OF THE EXTERNAL WORLD
- RUSSELL ON MORALITY
RUSSELL ON LOGIC AND ANALYTIC PHILOSOPHYRussell’s most seminal discovery in logic was “Russell’s Paradox,” which arises in connection with the set of all sets that are not members of themselves. Such a set, if it exists, will be a member of itself if and only if it is not a member of itself. Thus, all sentences are contradictions. Andrew Irvine explains that: “Russell's own response to the paradox came with the development of his theory of types in 1903. It was clear to Russell that some restrictions needed to be placed upon the original comprehension (or abstraction) axiom of naive set theory, the axiom that formalizes the intuition that any coherent condition may be used to determine a set (or class). Russell's basic idea was that reference to sets such as the set of all sets that are not members of themselves could be avoided by arranging all sentences into a hierarchy, beginning with sentences about individuals at the lowest level, sentences about sets of individuals at the next lowest level, sentences about sets of sets of individuals at the next lowest level, and so on.” “Using a vicious circle principle similar to that adopted by the mathematician Henri Poincaré, and his own so-called "no class" theory of classes, Russell was able to explain why the unrestricted comprehension axiom fails: propositional functions, such as the function "x is a set," may not be applied to themselves since self-application would involve a vicious circle. On Russell's view, all objects for which a given condition (or predicate) holds must be at the same level or of the same." Russell also was famous for his belief that all mathematical truths could be recast as logical proofs. Just as Russell used logic to color his approach to mathematics, he attempted to use logic as a tool to clarify issues in philosophy as he sought to discover whether humans really could possess knowledge. Irvine continues: “Russell's conception of philosophy arose in part from his idealist origins. This is so, even though he believed that his one, true revolution in philosophy came about as a result of his break from idealism. Russell saw that the idealist doctrine of internal relations led to a series of contradictions regarding asymmetrical (and other) relations necessary for mathematics. Thus, in 1898, he abandoned the idealism that he had encountered as a student at Cambridge, together with his Kantian methodology, in favour of a pluralistic realism. As a result, he soon became famous as an advocate of the ‘new realism’ and for his ‘new philosophy of logic,’ emphasizing as it did the importance of modern logic for philosophical analysis. The underlying themes of this ‘revolution,’ including his belief in pluralism, his emphasis upon anti-psychologism, and the importance of science, remained central to Russell's philosophy for the remainder of his life.” RUSSELL ON KNOWLEDGE OF THE EXTERNAL WORLDOver the course of historical thought on truth and the attainment of knowledge, Russell has earned his place as the rightful and direct heir of the British empiricists. In his work, The Problems of Philosophy Russell explains how we can attain knowledge. He explains that empirical knowledge is based on direct acquaintance with sense data. Basically, this means that the way that we know and can explain a specific situation or item or thing is through the senses. We can never describe other sensations to other people, or tell how we feel about a specific situation. Instead, the way to achieve knowledge about different things is through our senses. RUSSELL ON MORALITYRussell received his Nobel Prize for a work of literature that he wrote in the field on mortality. His book was entitled Marriage and Morals. It covered the area of discussing the role of morality throughout our society in an observant manner that many newspapers felt reflected the sense that Russell was ahead of his time in this field of discourse. He cites specific examples within our daily lives that cause us to be confused. In one essay, he wrote of the dilemma facing children. If a child points to a person in the park referring to them as a funny old man, the parent’s reaction to be quiet makes the child realize several important things. The child realizes that he or she has done something wrong, but is not clear exactly what the problem is. He explains that we walk a very fine line between being tactful and hypocritical. In his book Marriage and Morals, Russell delves deeper into this discussion of morality in the family construct. He highlights the issue of sexuality and the principles of sexuality in the family structure. In Russell’s opinion, the two principal sources of sexual morality are men’s desire to be sure that they are truly the fathers of the children that their wives give birth, and the religious based belief that sex is sinful. While Russell establishes that these are the two core beliefs and roles of sexuality in our society, he does not necessarily agree with the fact that these two values and statements are good. In response to the first, Russell agrees that the protection of two parent families is absolutely necessary to raising a family. He explains that if a family is not responsible for the up bringing of children it is left to the role of the state. Russell has problems with this because it results in too much uniformity of belief. Russell does not, however, agree with the second tenet about sexuality being sinful in nature. Instead, Russell explains that this belief is what has lead to untold harms within our society. He remarks that we are taught to be afraid of sex as children. He further explains that these fears express themselves later in life in the form of inhibitions and the stresses that they cause. Russell goes even further on speaking about this topic by explaining how it relates to the discussion of morality. He explains that the repression of sexuality causes individuals within society to be more distant and makes people less generous. 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