Bertrand Russell: Logic as the Essence of Philosophy

For this session, we'll be reading the first two lectures of Bertrand Russell's Our Knowledge of the External World. In this book, Russell advocates for a logical-analytical approach to philosophy (which he calls "logical atomism") in contrast to the classical/idealist (e.g., Kant, Hegel) and "evolutionist" (e.g., Spencer, James, Bergson). This approach attempts to ground philosophy and our knowledge of the physical world in sense data and mathematical logic.

In Lecture One (Current Tendencies), Russell criticizes both idealism and evolutionism for relying on vague, sweeping syntheses rather than precise analysis, and argues that philosophy has suffered from attempting grand metaphysical systems built on questionable foundations. Russell proposes that philosophy should instead adopt the methods of science—building on verifiable results rather than aspiring to a single comprehensive worldview.

In Lecture Two (Logic as the Essence of Philosophy), Russell demonstrates how philosophers can gain precision and clarity in their arguments by replacing traditional syllogistic logic with modern mathematical logic. He argues that classical philosophical problems can be reduced to logical problems, and that the central task of philosophy should be the analysis of logical forms that reveal the true structure of facts and propositions

The reading can be found here. We will focus on the first two chapters of the text.