The problems of philosophy

by Bertrand Russell

Ebook version

Details  amazon

Started reading 1 May 2008

Finished reading 14 May 2008

A step by step primer on why we need philosophy. Starting from his first sentence “Is there any knowledge in the world which is so certain that no reasonable man could doubt it?” until the last page, the author provokes and cajoles the reader to go beyond his customary comfort zone.

Lucid with many clear examples, we go through the problems faced by all of us. Us, the homo sapiens, the questioning life form.

The last paragraph in the book says it all:

Philosophy is to be studied, not for the sake of any definite answers to its questions, since no definite answers can, as a rule, be known to be true, but rather for the sake of the questions themselves; because these questions enlarge our conception of what is possible, enrich our intellectual imagination and diminish the dogmatic assurance which closes the mind against speculation; but above all because, through the greatness of the universe which philosophy contemplates, the mind also is rendered great, and becomes capable of that union with the universe which constitutes its highest good.