Explication of Bertrand Russell's the Problems of Philosophy
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Category: Philosophy and Psychology
Date Submitted: 02/16/2013 12:34 PM
Cassandra Chowdhury
PHIL
Explication of “The Problems of Philosophy”
Due: Sunday, January 27th, 2013
The following is an explication of the final chapter of Bertrand Russell's “The Problems of Philosophy”, entitled Chapter XV: The Value of Philosophy.
Many persons lives are primarily influenced by science and tangible events, leading to the generally accepted idea that philosophy is little more than circularly pondering upon irrelevant topics. This negative view stems from two misconceptions; the first being the envisioned goals of a complete life, the second being the envisioned goals of a successful philosopher. Whereas scientific progress can be directly measured and utilized by those oblivious to its inner workings, philosophical progress' sole purpose is to indirectly influence and better the lives of those who study it.
To understand the value of philosophy, one must reconstruct the mental concept of a “practical man” (Russell, para. 3)[1]. Resources of the mind are at minimum of equal value as resources of the body. Hence, an authentically practical man would aspire to obtain equal portions of these resources. It is resources of the mind that the study of philosophy is concerned with.
If one were to ask what “definite body of truth” philosophy has procured, no concrete answers could be given. This is due to the fact that once a basis of “definite knowledge” is formed on a subject, said subject is subsequently categorized into a separate field of study, such as philosophy or astronomy. In this sense, only questions proposed to which no certain answer can be provided create the foundation of philosophy. The most intuitive and profound questions of human existence not only fall into this category of questions - they are discussions to which it seems likely no certain answer may ever be discovered. It is the accepted role of the philosopher to preserve human curiosity towards such universal matters, no matter how slim the chances of unearthing an...
