An Outline of Philosophy

In his controversial book An Outline of Philosophy, first published in 1927, Bertrand Russell argues that humanity demands consideration solely as the instrument by which we acquire knowledge of the universe. From our inner-world to the outer-world, from our physical world to the universe, his argument separates modern scientific knowledge and our ‘seeming’ consciousness. These innovative perspectives on philosophy made a significant contribution to the discourse on the meaning, relevance and function of philosophy which continues to this day.

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970). The leading British Philosopher of the twentieth century, who made major contributions to the area of logic and epistemology. Politically active and habitually outspoken, his ethical principles twice lead to imprisonment.

Introduction 1. Philosophical Doubts Part 1: Man from Without 2. Man and his Environment 3. The Process of Learning in Animals and Infants 4. Language 5. Perception Objectively Regarded 6 . Memory Objectively Regarded 7. Inference as Habit 8. Part 2: The Physical World 9. The Structure of the Atom 10. Relativity 11. Causal Laws in Physics 12. Physics and Perception 13. Physical and Perceptual Space 14. Perception and Physical Causal Laws 15. The Nature of our Knowledge of Physics Part 3: Man from Within 16. Self-observation 17. Images 18. Imagination and Memory 19. The Introspective Analysis of Perception 20. Consciousness? 21. Emotion, Desire, and Will 22. Ethics Part 4: The Universe 23. Some Great Philosophers of the Past 24. Truth and Falsehood 25. The Validity of Inference 26. Events, Matter, and Mind 27. Man’s Place in the Universe Index