3 quotations linked to The Problems of Philosophy by or associated with Bertrand Russell, with source notes, explanations and related topics.
Knowledge, appearance and reality, doubt, truth, universals, limits of knowledge and the intellectual value of philosophical questioning.
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“The value of philosophy is, in fact, to be sought largely in its very uncertainty.”
Russell argues that uncertainty can be intellectually valuable because it loosens inherited assumptions and makes room for examined alternatives.
Source note: The Problems of Philosophy, Chapter XV, “The Value of Philosophy.” Project Gutenberg #5827. The sentence opens Russell’s concluding case for philosophy as an antidote to unexamined prejudice and dogmatic certainty.
“These questions enlarge our conception of what is possible, enrich our intellectual imagination and diminish the dogmatic assurance which closes the mind against speculation.”
Questions matter even without final answers because sustained inquiry expands intellectual possibility and weakens premature certainty about what can be true.
Source note: The Problems of Philosophy, final paragraph of Chapter XV. Russell is explaining why philosophical questions remain valuable even when definite answers cannot usually be established.
“The man who has no tincture of philosophy goes through life imprisoned in the prejudices derived from common sense, from the habitual beliefs of his age or his nation, and from convictions which have grown up in his mind without the co-operation or consent of his deliberate reason.”
Unexamined common sense can become a prison when inherited assumptions are accepted automatically instead of being tested by deliberate reasoning.
Source note: The Problems of Philosophy, Chapter XV. This is the opening clause of a longer sentence that also names habitual beliefs of one’s age or nation and convictions formed without deliberate reason.