The Problems of Philosophy Quotes by Bertrand Russell: Context & Meanings

The Problems of Philosophy, Chapter XV, “The Value of Philosophy,” printed page 242 / scan leaf 246 in the 1912 Williams & Norgate edition on Wikisource, cross-checked against Project Gutenberg #5827. “The value of philosophy is, in fact, to be sought largely in its very uncertainty” begins Russell’s concluding account of how philosophical doubt can loosen unexamined certainty; this is philosophical argument, not an empirical psychological finding.

The Problems of Philosophy, Chapter XV, “The Value of Philosophy,” closing paragraph, beginning on printed page 249 / scan leaf 253 in the fully validated 1912 Williams & Norgate Wikisource scan, cross-checked against Project Gutenberg #5827. “These questions enlarge our conception of what is possible...” explains why Russell values philosophical questions even when definite answers cannot usually be established; it remains an epistemological and educational-philosophical claim rather than a measured outcome guarantee.

The Problems of Philosophy, Chapter XV, “The Value of Philosophy,” beginning on printed page 242 / scan leaf 246 and continuing onto printed page 243 / scan leaf 247 in the fully validated 1912 Williams & Norgate Wikisource scan, cross-checked against Project Gutenberg #5827. The “no tincture of philosophy” sentence criticizes inherited common-sense, national and habitual prejudices that have not been examined by deliberate reason; it remains Russell’s philosophical argument rather than a diagnosis of people who do not study philosophy.