In an impassioned defence of the importance of our own thoughts, feelings and experiences, the renowned philosopher Mary Midgley shows that there’s much more to our selves than a jumble of brain cells. Exploring the remarkable gap that has opened up between our understanding of our sense of self and today’s science, Midgley argues powerfully and persuasively that the rich variety of our imaginative life cannot be contained in the narrow bounds of a highly puritanical materialism that simply equates brain and self.

Engaging with the work of prominent thinkers, Midgley investigates the source of our current attitudes to the self and reveals how ideas, traditions and myths have been twisted to fit in, seemingly naturally, with science’s current preoccupation with the physical and material. Midgley shows that the subjective sources of thought – our own experiences – are every bit as necessary in helping to explain the world as the objective ones such as brain cells.

Are You an Illusion? offers a salutary analysis of science’s claim to have done away with the self and a characteristic injection of common sense from one of our most respected philosophers into a debate increasingly in need of it.

This Routledge Classics edition includes a new Foreword by Stephen Cave.

Table of Contents

Foreword to the Routledge Classics Edition Stephen Cave

Preface

Introduction: Are We Losing Ourselves?

1. Changing Relations to the Cosmos

2. Sciencephobia and its Sources

3. Transcendent Numbers: Pythagoras and Plato

4. What Explanation Is

5. Why the Idea of Purpose Won't Go Away

6. Is Sexual Selection Natural?

7. The Search for Senselessness

8. The Beasts That Perish

9. Free Will, Not Just Free Won't

10. How Divided Selves Live

11. Hemispheres and Holism

12. The Supernatural Aspects of Physics

Conclusion: On Being Still Here.

Index

In the fiftieth anniversary of this book’s first release, Winch’s argument remains as crucial as ever. Originally published in 1958, The Idea of a Social Science and Its Relation to Philosophy was a landmark exploration of the social sciences, written at a time when that field was still young and had not yet joined the Humanities and the Natural Sciences as the third great domain of the Academy.

A passionate defender of the importance of philosophy to a full understanding of 'society' against those who would deem it an irrelevant 'ivory towers' pursuit, Winch draws from the works of such thinkers as Ludwig Wittgenstein, J.S. Mill and Max Weber to make his case. In so doing he addresses the possibility and practice of a comprehensive 'science of society'.

Table of Contents

Preface to the second edition, Introduction to the Routledge Classics edition, 1. Philosophical Bearings, 2. The Nature of Meaningful Behaviour, 3. The Social Studies as Science, 4. The Mind and Society, 5. Concepts and Actions, Bibliography, Index

In this ground-breaking and influential study Fredric Jameson explores the complex place and function of literature within culture. At the time Jameson was actually writing the book, in the mid to late seventies, there was a major reaction against deconstruction and poststructuralism. As one of the most significant literary theorists, Jameson found himself in the unenviable position of wanting to defend his intellectual past yet keep an eye on the future. With this book he carried it off beautifully. A landmark publication, The Political Unconscious takes its place as one of the most meaningful works of the twentieth century.century.

Table of Contents

PREFACE 1 On Interpretation: Literature as a Socially Symbolic Act 2 Magical Narratives: On the Dialectical Use of Genre Criticism 3 Realism and Desire: Balzac and the Problem of the Subject 4 Authentic Ressentiment: Generic Discontinuities and Ideologemes in the Experimental Novels of George Gissing 5 Romance and Reification: Plot Construction and Ideological Closure in Joseph Conrad 6 Conclusion: The Dialectic of Utopia and Ideology INDEX

The Analysis of Matter is the product of thirty years of thinking by one of the twentieth century's best-known philosophers. An inquiry into the philosophical foundations of physics, it was written against the background of stunning new developments in physics earlier in the century, above all relativity, as well as the excitement around quantum theory, which was just being developed.

Concerned to place physics on a stable footing at a time of great theoretical change, Russell argues that the concept of matter itself can be replaced by a logical construction whose basic foundations are events. He is careful to point out that this does not prove that matter does not exist, but it does show that physicists can get on with their work without assuming that matter does exist. Russell argues that fundamental bits of ''matter'', such as electrons and protons, are simply groups of events connected in a certain way and their properties are all that are required for physics.

This Routledge Classics edition includes the 1992 Introduction by John G. Slater.

Table of Contents

Introduction to the Routledge Classics edition John G. Slater

Preface

1. The Nature of the Problem

Part 1: The Logical Analysis of Physics

2. Pre-Relativity Physics

3. Electrons and Protons

4. The Theory of Quanta

5. The Special Theory of Relativity

6. The General Theory of Relativity

7. The Method of Tensors

8. Geodesics

9. Invariants and Their Physical Interpretation

10. Weyl’s Theory

11. The Principle of Differential Laws

12. Measurement

13. Matter and Space

14. The Abstractness of Physics

Part 2: Physics and Perception

15. From Primitive Perception to Common Sense

16. From Common Sense to Physics

17. What is an Empirical Science

18. Our Knowledge of Particular Matters of Fact

19. Data, Inferences, Hypotheses, and Theories

20. The Causal Theory of Perception

21. Perception and Objectivity

22. The Belief in General Laws

23. Substance

24. Importance of Structure in Scientific Inference

25. Perception From the Standpoint of Physics

26. Non-Mental Analogues to Perception

Part 3: The Structure of the Physical World

27. Particulars and Events

28. The Construction of Points

29. Space-Time Order

30. Causal Lines

31. Extrinsic Causal Laws

32. Physical and Perceptual Space-Time

33. Periodicity and Qualitative Series

34. Types of Physical Occurrences

35. Causality and Interval

36. The Genesis of Space-Time

37. Physics and Neutral Monism

38. Summary and Conclusion.

Index

On its publication in 1957, The Poverty of Historicism was hailed by Arthur Koestler as 'probably the only book published this year which will outlive the century.'
A devastating criticism of fixed and predictable laws in history, Popper dedicated the book to all those 'who fell victim to the fascist and communist belief in Inexorable Laws of Historical Destiny.' Short and beautifully written, it has inspired generations of readers, intellectuals and policy makers. One of the most important books on the social sciences since the Second World War, it is a searing insight into the ideas of this great thinker.

Discover for yourself the pleasures of philosophy! Written both for the seasoned student of philosophy as well as the general reader, the renowned writer Roger Scruton provides a survey of modern philosophy. Always engaging, Scruton takes us on a fascinating tour of the subject, from founding father Descartes to the most important and famous philosopher of the twentieth century, Ludwig Wittgenstein. He identifies all the principal figures and outlines the main intellectual preoccupations that have informed western philosophy. Painting a portrait of modern philosophy that is vivid and animated, Scruton introduces us to some of the greatest philosophical problems invented in this period and pursued ever since. Including material on recent debates, A Short History of Modern Philosophy is already established as the classic introduction. Read it and find out why.

In the 1960s a radical concept emerged from the great French thinker Jacques Derrida. Read the book that changed the way we think; read Writing and Difference, the classic introduction.

Table of Contents

Translator’s Introduction 1 Force and Signification 2 Cogito and the History of Madness 3 Edmond Jabès and the Question of the Book 4 Violence and Metaphysics: An Essay on the Thought of Emmanuel Levinas 5 ‘Genesis and Structure’ and Phenomenology 6 La parole soufflée 7 Freud and the Scene of Writing 8 The Theater of Cruelty and the Closure of Representation 9 From Restricted to General Economy: A Hegelianism without Reserve 10 Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences 11 Ellipsis. Notes; Sources

Content and Consciousness is an original and ground-breaking attempt to elucidate a problem integral to the history of Western philosophical thought: the relationship of the mind and body. In this formative work, Dennett sought to develop a theory of the human mind and consciousness based on new and challenging advances in the field that came to be known as cognitive science. This important and illuminating work is widely-regarded as the book from which all of Dennett’s future ideas developed. It is his first explosive rebuttal of Cartesian dualism and one of the founding texts of philosophy of mind.

Table of Contents

Preface to the Routledge Classics Edition Preface to the Second Edition Preface to the First Edition Part 1: The Language of the Mind I. The Ontological Problem of the Mind 1. The Mind and Science 2. Existence and Identity II. Intentionality 3. The Problem of Intentionality 4. Two Blind Alleys 5. The Way Out III. Evolution of the Brain 6. The Intelligent Use of Information 7. The Evolution of Appropriate Structures 8. Goal-directed Behaviour IV. The Ascription of Content 9. Function and Content 10. Language and Content 11. Personal and Sub-Personal Levels and Explanation: Pain Part 2: Consciousness V. Introspective Certainty 12. The Certainty of Certain Utterances 13. A Perceiving Machine VI. Awareness and Consciousness 14. The Ordinary Words 15. Awareness and Control 16. Consciousness VII. Mental Imagery 17. The Name of Images and the Introspective Trap 18. Colours VIII Thinking and Reasoning 19. People and Processes 20. Reasons and Causes IX. Actions and Intentions 21. Intentional Actions 22. Willing 23. The Importance of Intentional Actions X. Language and Understanding 24. Knowing and Understanding 25. Language and Information 26. Conclusions Index

The key to human nature that Marx found in wealth and Freud in sex, Bertrand Russell finds in power. Power, he argues, is man's ultimate goal, and is, in its many guises, the single most important element in the development of any society. Writting in the late 1930s when Europe was being torn apart by extremist ideologies and the world was on the brink of war, Russell set out to found a 'new science' to make sense of the traumatic events of the day and explain those that would follow.

The result was Power, a remarkable book that Russell regarded as one of the most important of his long career. Countering the totalitarian desire to dominate, Russell shows how political enlightenment and human understanding can lead to peace - his book is a passionate call for independence of mind and a celebration of the instinctive joy of human life.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 THE IMPULSE TO POWER; Chapter 2 LEADERS AND FOLLOWERS; Chapter 3 THE FORMS OF POWER; Chapter 4 PRIESTLY POWER; Chapter 5 KINGLY POWER; Chapter 6 NAKED POWER; Chapter 7 REVOLUTIONARY POWER; Chapter 8 ECONOMIC POWER; Chapter 9 POWER OVER OPINION; Chapter 10 CREEDS AS SOURCES OF POWER; Chapter 11 THE BIOLOGY OF ORGANISATIONS; Chapter 12 POWERS AND FORMS OF GOVERNMENTS; Chapter 13 ORGANISATIONS AND THE INDIVIDUAL; Chapter 14 COMPETITION; Chapter 15 POWER AND MORAL CODES; Chapter 16 POWER PHILOSOPHIES; Chapter 17 THE ETHICS OF POWER; Chapter 18 THE TAMING OF POWER INDEX;

Iris Murdoch once observed: 'philosophy is often a matter of finding occasions on which to say the obvious'. What was obvious to Murdoch, and to all those who read her work, is that Good transcends everything - even God. Throughout her distinguished and prolific writing career, she explored questions of good and bad, myth and morality. The framework for Murdoch's questions - and her own conclusions - can be found in the Sovereignty of Good. The Boston Review hailed these essays as 'her most influential pieces of philosophy'.

Written at the height of the Cold War in 1959, Common Sense and Nuclear Warfare was published in an effort 'to prevent the catastrophe which would result from a large scale H-bomb war'. Bertrand Russell’s staunch anti-war stance is made very clear in this highly controversial text, which outlines his sharp insights into the threat of nuclear conflict and what should be done to avoid it. Russell’s argument, that the only way to end the threat of nuclear war is to end war itself, is as relevant today as it was on first publication.

Table of Contents

Foreword Preface Introduction 1. If Brinkmanship Continues 2. If Nuclear War Comes 3. Methods of Settling Disputes in the Nuclear Age 4. Programme of Steps Towards Peace 5. New Outlook Needed Before Negotiations 6. Disarmament 7. Steps Towards Conciliation 8. Territorial Adjustments 9. Approach to an International Authority 10. Some Necessary Changes in Outlook Appendix 1. Unilateral Disarmament Appendix 2. Inconsistency? Index

In Bodies That Matter, renowned theorist and philosopher Judith Butler argues that theories of gender need to return to the most material dimension of sex and sexuality: the body. Butler offers a brilliant reworking of the body, examining how the power of heterosexual hegemony forms the "matter" of bodies, sex, and gender. Butler argues that power operates to constrain sex from the start, delimiting what counts as a viable sex. She clarifies the notion of "performativity" introduced in Gender Trouble and via bold readings of Plato, Irigaray, Lacan, and Freud explores the meaning of a citational politics. She also draws on documentary and literature with compelling interpretations of the film Paris is Burning, Nella Larsen's Passing, and short stories by Willa Cather.

Table of Contents

Preface Acknowledgements Part 1: 1. Bodies that Matter 2. The Lesbian Phallus and the Morphological Imaginary 3. Phantasmatic Identification and the Assumption of Sex 4. Gender is Burning: Questions of Appropriation and Subversion Part 2: 5. 'Dangerous Crossing': Willa Cather's Masculine Names 6. Queering, Passing: Nella Larsen Rewrites Psychoanalysis 7. Arguing with the Real 8. Critically Queer. Notes. Index

Time's 'Man of the Century', Albert Einstein is the unquestioned founder of modern physics, and relativity the most important scientific idea of the modern era. In this famous short book Einstein explains clearly, using the minimum amount of mathematical terms, the basic ideas and principles of the theory which has shaped the world we live in today. Unsurpassed by any subsequent books on relativity, this remains the most popular and useful exposition of Einstein's immense contribution to human knowledge.

Hailed as the 'Guru of the New Left' and a leading figure of 1960s counterculture and liberation movements, the philosopher Herbert Marcuse is amongst the most renowned and controversial thinkers of the twentieth century. Eros and Civilization is one of his best-known books and brought him international fame.

Taking his cue from Freud's view that repression of the instincts is a defining characteristic of the human mind, Marcuse fuses Freud's insight with Marx's theories of alienation and oppression. He argues that rather than our instincts turned in on themselves, it is modern capitalism itself that is preventing us from reaching the freedom we can find in a non-repressive society.

A sweeping indictment of modern capitalism and consumerism that remains fresh and insightful, Eros and Civilization is a classic of activist and radical thinking that continues to fire debate and controversy today.

This Routledge Classics edition includes a new Foreword by Douglas Kellner.

Table of Contents

Foreword to the Routledge Classics Edition Douglas Kellner

Preface

Introduction

Part 1: Under the Rule of the Reality Principle

1. The Hidden Trend in Psychoanalysis

2. The Origin of the Repressed Individual (Ontogenesis)

3. The Origin of Repressive Civilization (Phylogenesis)

4. The Dialectic of Civilization

5. Philosophical Interlude

Part 2: Beyond the Reality Principle

6. The Historical Limits of the Established Reality Principle

7. Phantasy and Utopia

8. The Images of Orpheus and Narcissus

9. The Aesthetic Dimension

10. The Transformation of Sexuality into Eros

11. Eros and Thanatos

Epilogue: Critique of Neo-Freudian Revisionism.

Index

Few philosophers have had a more lasting impact on the philosophy of history than Friedrich Hegel. Reason and Revolution is Herbert Marcuse's brilliant interpretation of Hegel's philosophy and the influence it has had on political thought, from the French Revolution to the twentieth century.

In a masterpiece of dialectical thought, Marcuse superbly illuminates the implications of Hegel's philosophy, rescuing it from the taint of reactionary thought that distorted or dismissed it for the early part of the twentieth century. After a masterful survey of the main elements of Hegel's philosophical system, Marcuse argues that it is Hegel the rationalist and progressive who stands in contrast to the irrationalism of Nazism, providing the crucial platform on which Marxist thought would later build and take Hegel's thought in a radical and explosive new direction.

A vital book in the development of critical theory and for understanding the great battle between liberal and reactionary thought, Reason and Revolution remains essential reading today.

This Routledge Classics edition includes a new Foreword by J.M. Bernstein.

Table of Contents

Foreword to the Routledge Classics Edition Jay Bernstein

Part 1: The Foundations of Hegel’s Philosophy

Introduction

1. Hegel’s Early Theological Writings (1790–1800)

2. Towards the System of Philosophy (1800–1802)

3. Hegel’s First System (1802–1806)

4. The Phenomenology of Mind (1807)

5. The Science of Logic (1812–16)

6. The Political Philosophy (1816–1821)

7. The Philosophy of History

Part 2: The Rise of Social Theory

Introduction

8. The Foundations of the Dialectical Theory of Society

9. The Foundations of Positivism and the Rise of Sociology

Conclusion: The End of Hegelianism.

Index

D. M. Armstrong's A Materialist Theory of the Mind is widely known as one of the most important defences of the view that mental states are nothing but physical states of the brain. A landmark of twentieth-century philosophy of mind, it launched the physicalist revolution in approaches to the mind and has been engaged with, debated and puzzled over ever since its first publication over fifty years ago.

Ranging over a remarkable number of topics, from behaviourism, the will and knowledge to perception, bodily sensation and introspection, Armstrong argues that mental states play a causally intermediate role between stimuli, other mental states and behavioural responses. He uses several illuminating examples to illustrate this, such as the classic case of pain.

This Routledge Classics edition includes a new Foreword by Peter Anstey, placing Armstrong's book in helpful philosophical and historical context.

Table of Contents

Foreword to the Routledge Classics Edition Peter Anstey

Acknowledgements

Preface to the 1993 Edition

Introduction

Part 1: Theories of Mind

1. A Classification of Theories of Mind

2. Dualism

3. The Attribute Theory

4. A Difficulty for any Non-Materialist Theory of Mind

5. Behaviourism

6. The Central-State Theory

Part 2: The Concept of Mind

7. The Will (1)

8. The Will (2)

9. Knowledge and Inference

10. Perception and Belief

11. Perception and Behaviour

12. The Secondary Qualities

13. Mental Images

14. Bodily Sensations

15. Introspection

16. Belief and Thought

Part 3: The Nature of Mind

17. Identification of the Mental with the Physical

Bibliography

Index

The Conquest of Happiness is Bertrand Russell’s recipe for good living. First published in 1930, it pre-dates the current obsession with self-help by decades. Leading the reader step by step through the causes of unhappiness and the personal choices, compromises and sacrifices that (may) lead to the final, affirmative conclusion of ‘The Happy Man’, this is popular philosophy, or even self-help, as it should be written.

Table of Contents

PART I CAUSES OF UNHAPPINESS 1 What Makes People Unhappy 2 Byronic Unhappiness 3 Competition 4 Boredom and Excitement 5 Fatigue 6 Envy 7 The Sense of Sin 8 Persecution Mania 9 Fear of Public OpinionPART II CAUSES OF HAPPINESS 10 Is Happiness Still Possible? 11 Zest 12 Affection 13 The Family 14 Work 15 Impersonal Interests 16 Effort and Resignation 17 The Happy Man

Also published under the title of Principals of Social Reconstruction, and written in response to the devastation of World War I, Why Men Fight lays out Bertrand Russell's ideas on war, pacifism, reason, impulse, and personal liberty. He argues that the individualistic approach of traditional liberalism has reached its limits and that when individuals live passionately, they will have no desire for war or killing. Conversely, excessive restraint or reason causes us to live unnaturally and with hostility toward those who are unlike ourselves. This formidable work greatly contributed to Russell’s fame as a formidable social critic and anti-war activist.

Table of Contents

Introduction Preface 1. The Principle of Growth 2. The State 3. War as Institution 4. Property 5. Education 6. Marriage and the Population Question 7. Religion and the Churches 8. What can we Do Index

Environmental disasters, from wildfires and vanishing species to flooding and drought, have increased dramatically in recent years and debates about the environment are rarely far from the headlines. There is growing awareness that these disasters are connected – indeed, that in the fabric of nature everything is interconnected. However, until the publication of Freya Mathews' The Ecological Self, there had been remarkably few attempts to provide a conceptual foundation for such interconnectedness that brought together philosophy and science.

In this acclaimed book, Mathews skilfully weaves together a thought-provoking metaphysics of the environment. She connects the ideas of the seventeenth-century philosopher Spinoza with twentieth-century systems theory and Einstein’s physics to argue that the atomistic cosmology inherited from Newton gave credence to a picture of the universe as fragmented, rather than as whole. Furthermore, it is such faulty thinking that presents human beings as similarly disconnected and individualistic, with the dire consequence that they regard nature as of purely instrumental rather than intrinsic value. She concludes by arguing for an ethics of ecological interdependence and for a basic egalitarianism among living species.

A compelling and fascinating account of how we must change our thinking about the environment, The Ecological Self is a classic of ecological and environmental thinking.

This Routledge Classics edition includes a substantial new Introduction by the author.

Table of Contents

Introduction to the Routledge Classics Edition

1. Atomism and its Ideological Implications

2. Geometrodynamics: A Monistic Metaphysic

3. System and Substance: Alternative Principles of Individuation

4. Value in Nature and Meaning in Life.

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Creativity is fundamental to human experience. In On Creativity David Bohm, the world-renowned scientist, investigates the phenomenon from all sides: not only the creativity of invention and of imagination but also that of perception and of discovery. This is a remarkable and life-affirming book by one of the most far-sighted thinkers of modern times.

Table of Contents

Preface to the Routledge Classics Edition, Foreword, Acknowledgements, 1 On creativity, 2 On the relationships of science and art, 2 The range of imagination, 3 The art of perceiving movement, 4 Art, dialogue, and the implicate order, 5 Bibliography, Index

First published in 1925, Bertrand Russell’s ABC of Relativity was considered a masterwork of its time, contributing significantly to the mass popularisation of science. Authoritative and accessible, it provides a remarkable introductory guide to Einstein’s theory of Relativity for a general readership. One of the most definitive reference guides of its kind, and written by one of the twentieth century’s most influential philosophers, ABC of Relativity continues to be as relevant today as it was on first publication.

Table of Contents

Preface Introduction 1. Touch and Sight: The Earth and the Heavens 2. What Happens and What is Observed 3. The Velocity of Light 4. Clocks and Foot-rules 5. Space-Time 6. The Special Theory of Relativity 7. Intervals in Space-Time 8. Einstein’s Law of Gravitation 9. Proofs of Einstein’s Law of Graviation 10. Mass, Momentum, Energy, and Action 11. The Expanding Universe 12. Conventions and Natural Laws 13. The Abolution of ‘Force’ 14. What is Matter? 15. Physical Consequences Index

How do we know what we "know"? How did we –as individuals and as a society – come to accept certain knowledge as fact? In Human Knowledge, Bertrand Russell questions the reliability of our assumptions on knowledge. This brilliant and controversial work investigates the relationship between ‘individual’ and ‘scientific’ knowledge. First published in 1948, this provocative work contributed significantly to an explosive intellectual discourse that continues to this day.

Table of Contents

Introduction; Part 1 The World of Science; Chapter I-1 Individual and Social Knowledge; Chapter I-2 The Universe of Astronomy; Chapter I-3 The World of Physics; Chapter I-4 Biological Evolution; Chapter I-5 The Physiology of Sensation and Volition; Chapter I-6 The Science of Mind; Part 2 Language; Chapter II-1 The Uses of Language; Chapter II-2 Ostensive Definition; Chapter II-3 Proper Names; Chapter II-4 Egocentric Particulars; Chapter II-5 Suspended Reactions: Knowledge and Belief; Chapter II-6 Sentences; Chapter II-7 External Reference of Ideas and Beliefs; Chapter II-8 Truth: Elementary Forms; Chapter II-9 Logical Words and Falsehood; Chapter II-10 General Knowledge; Chapter II-11 Fact, Belief, Truth, and Knowledge; Part 3 Science and Perception; introduction3 Introduction; Chapter III-1 Knowledge of Facts and Knowledge of Laws; Chapter III-2 Solipsism; Chapter III-3 Probable Inference in Common-Sense Practice; Chapter III-4 Physics and Experience; Chapter III-5 Time in Experience; Chapter III-6 Space in Psychology; Chapter III-7 Mind and Matter; Part 4 Scientific Concepts; Chapter IV-1 Interpretation; Chapter IV-2 Minimum Vocabularies; Chapter IV-3 Structure; Chapter IV-4 Structure and Minimum Vocabularies; Chapter IV-5 Time, Public and Private; Chapter IV-6 Space in Classical Physics; Chapter IV-7 Space–Time; Chapter IV-8 The Principle of Individuation; Chapter IV-9 Causal Laws; Chapter IV-10 Space–Time and Causality; Part 5 Probability; introduction5 Introduction; Chapter V-1 Kinds of Probability; Chapter V-2 Mathematical Probability; Chapter V-3 The Finite-Frequency Theory; Chapter V-4 The Mises–Reichenbach Theory; Chapter V-5 Keynes's Theory of Probability; Chapter V-6 Degrees of Credibility; Chapter V-7 Probability and Induction; Part 6 Postulates of Scientific Inference; Chapter VI-1 Kinds of Knowledge; Chapter VI-2 The Role of Induction; Chapter VI-3 The Postulate of Natural Kinds, or of Limited Variety; Chapter VI-4 Knowledge Transcending Experience; Chapter VI-5 Causal Lines; Chapter VI-6 Structure and Causal Laws; Chapter VI-7 Interaction; Chapter VI-8 Analogy; Chapter VI-9 Summary of Postulates; Chapter VI-10 The Limits of Empiricism;

My Philosophical Development is Russell's intellectual autobiography and provides a fascinating insight into the extraordinary energy and philosophical ambition that saw him write over 40 books. As well as offering some fascinating glimpses into the changing nature of his philosophical beliefs, Russell also reflects on the fundamental themes that governed his thinking in later life.

Beginning with an account of his decisive turn against the philosophical idealism that was prevalent in Cambridge at the turn of the century, Russell takes us through his engagement with the foundations of mathematics and the writing, with A.N. Whitehead, of Principia Mathematica. Russell also provides important insights into his theory of knowledge and the mind and conscious experience, before finishing with reflections on his work on language, universals and particulars and his theory of truth.

An ideal philosophical companion to Russell's own Autobiography, My Philosophical Development is testament to one of the greatest minds of the 20th century.

This Routledge Classics edition includes a new Foreword by Nicholas Griffin.

Table of Contents

Foreword to the Routledge Classics Edition Nicholas Griffin

Prefatory note

1. Introductory Outline

2. My Present View of the World

3. First Efforts

4. Excursion into Idealism

5. Revolt into Pluralism

6. Logical Technique in Mathematics

7. Principia Mathematica: Philosophical Aspects

8. Principia Mathematica: Mathematical Aspects

9. The External World

10. The Impact of Wittgenstein

11. Theory of Knowledge

12. Consciousness and Experience

13. Language

14. Universals and Particulars and Names

15. The Definition of 'Truth'

16. Non-Demonstrative Inference

17. The Retreat from Pythagoras

18. Some Replies to Criticism

Russell's Philosophy: A Study of its Development Alan Wood.

Index

"The philosophy of mathematics will naturally be expected to deal with questions at the frontier of knowledge, as to which comparative certainty is not yet attained. But separation of such questions is hardly likely to be fruitful unless the more scientific parts of mathematics are known. A book dealing with those parts may, therefore, claim to be an introduction to mathematical philosophy..." - Bertrand Russell, from the Preface

First published in 1919, Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy shows Russell drawing on his formidable knowledge of philosophy and mathematics to write a brilliant introduction to the subject. Russell explains that mathematics can be approached in two distinct directions: one that is driven by a mechanical kind of simplicity and builds towards complexity, from integers to fractions and real numbers to complex ones; and one that searches for abstractness and logical simplicity by asking what general principles underlie mathematics.

From here Russell introduces and explains, in his customary pellucid prose, the definition of numbers, finitude, correlation and relation, mathematical limits, infinity, propositional descriptions and classes. Russell concludes with a fascinating summary of the relationship between mathematics and logic, of which he states "logic is the youth of mathematics."

This Routledge Classics edition includes a new Foreword by Michael Potter.

Table of Contents

Foreword to the Routledge Classics Edition Michael Potter

Preface

1. The Series of Natural Numbers

2. Definition of Number

3. Finitude and Mathematical Induction

4. The Definition of Order

5. Kinds of Relations

6. Similarity of Relations

7. Rational, Real, and Complex Numbers

8. Infinite Cardinal Numbers

9. Infinite Series and Ordinals

10. Limits and Continuity

11. Limits and Continuity of Functions

12. Selections and the Multiplicative Axiom

13. The Axiom of Infinity and Logical Types

14. Incompatibility and the Theory of Deduction

15. Propositional Functions

16. Descriptions

17. Classes

18. Mathematics and Logic.

Index

'The - Tractatus is one of the fundamental texts of twentieth-century philosophy - short, bold, cryptic, and remarkable in its power to stir the imagination of philosophers and non-philosophers alike.'

'Beautifully strange ... an icy, gnomic, compact work of mystical logic.' - Steven Poole, Guardian

'Among the productions of the twentieth century the Tractatus continues to stand out for its beauty and its power.' - A.J. Ayer

'Mr Wittgenstein, in his preface, tells us that his book is not a textbook, and that its object will be attained if there is one person who reads it with understanding and to whom it affords pleasure. We think there are many persons who will read it with understanding and enjoy it. The treatise is clear and lucid. The author is continually arresting us with new and striking thoughts, and he closes on a note of mystical exaltation.' - Times Literary Supplement

'Quite as exciting as we had been led to suppose it to be.' - New Statesman

'Pears and McGuinness can claim our gratitude not for doing merely this (a better translation) but for doing it with such a near approach to perfection.' - Mind