Our Knowledge of the External World as a Field for Scientific Method in PhilosophyRussell, Bertrand
Philosophy
Our Knowledge of the External World as a Field for Scientific Method in Philosophy
Russell, Bertrand
Knowledge, Theory of; Logical atomism
outcome does not make any very great difference in our main problem.
The next step in our analysis must be the consideration of how the
derivative parts of our common knowledge arise. Here we become involved
in a somewhat puzzling entanglement of logic and psychology.
Psychologically, a belief may be called derivative whenever it is caused
by one or more other beliefs, or by some fact of sense which is not
simply what the belief asserts. Derivative beliefs in this sense
constantly arise without any process of logical inference, merely by
association of ideas or some equally extra-logical process. From the
expression of a man's face we judge as to what he is feeling: we say we
_see_ that he is angry, when in fact we only see a frown. We do not
judge as to his state of mind by any logical process: the judgment grows
up, often without our being able to say what physical mark of emotion we
actually saw. In such a case, the knowledge is derivative
psychologically; but logically it is in a sense primitive, since it is
not the result of any logical deduction. There may or may not be a
possible deduction leading to the same result, but whether there is or
not, we certainly do not employ it. If we call a belief "logically
primitive" when it is not actually arrived at by a logical inference,
then innumerable beliefs are logically primitive which psychologically
are derivative. The separation of these two kinds of primitiveness is
vitally important to our present discussion.
When we reflect upon the beliefs which are logically but not
psychologically primitive, we find that, unless they can on reflection
be deduced by a logical process from beliefs which are also
psychologically primitive, our confidence in their truth tends to
diminish the more we think about them. We naturally believe, for
example, that tables and chairs, trees and mountains, are still there
when we turn our backs upon them. I do not wish for a moment to maintain
that this is certainly not the case, but I do maintain that the question
whether it is the case is not to be settled off-hand on any supposed
ground of obviousness. The belief that they persist is, in all men
except a few philosophers, logically primitive, but it is not
psychologically primitive; psychologically, it arises only through our
having seen those tables and chairs, trees and mountains. As soon as the
question is seriously raised whether, because we have seen them, we have
a right to suppose that they are there still, we feel that some kind of
argument must be produced, and that if none is forthcoming, our belief
can be no more than a pious opinion. We do not feel this as regards the
immediate objects of sense: there they are, and as far as their
momentary existence is concerned, no further argument is required. There
is accordingly more need of justifying our psychologically derivative
beliefs than of justifying those that are primitive.
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