Topic > Analysis of The Problems of Philosophy by Bertrand Russell

064554011) The philosopher Bertrand Russell in his work “The Problems of Philosophy” reaches some conclusions about the truth of objects in our world. By questioning some ideas and problems in our world, he analyzes what he can know about what really exists in the world and what doesn't. Russell, an empiricist, believes that through our sensory perception of our environment. However, our individual perception can be distorted and therefore susceptible to errors. Russell gives an example of three people, one is color blind, one is sick and one is drunk, sick and the other is drunk, and you ask them to describe the same chair, they will all give you slightly different answers. So if you take that chair and put it behind a distorted glass plane, or under water, it will look more and more different. Therefore there must be a difference between appearance and reality. If our perception can be so distorted, what can we actually conclude is real and what isn't? Russell uses a method of cross-referencing our sense data and our knowledge of certain realities to define what we can actually know about what exists. Russell uses the phrase “sense data to differentiate the difference between reality and appearance. Sensory data is information that our senses acquire during an act of sensation, such as smelling or seeing. When you walk into a kitchen, smell the food, see the color of the table tops, and feel the heat of the stove, you take in different sensory data of the kitchen. Sensory data are the mental images and memories we get from a particular object in the real physical world. As shown in the chair example, an object can have a multitude of sensory data. Sensory data are related to the objects they represent. However... half the paper... just about "There is an x ​​such that x is the current king of France, nothing other than x is the current king of France, ex is bald," (On the mind denoted 1905). This is an example of how his view of the senses influences his view of knowledge, we cannot take the original quote for what it is, just as we cannot truly accept the fact that something is a sofa and not a bed, we have to break it down and use our logic about other things and deduce a conclusion from this information. We must make sure that every single aspect of the statement is true before concluding that the entire statement is true, otherwise we may be misled into believing something that is not true. Thus, through Russell's search for true knowledge we can infer certain truths and ideas from our senses. With the data received from our senses we can use our facets of knowledge to reach conclusions about an object.