Religion and Science
2. The Views of Bertrand Russell
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Russell: ‘Logic and mathematics ... are the alphabet of
the book of nature, not the book itself.’
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Russell holds that knowledge is of two kinds:
‘knowledge of things and knowledge of truths.’
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Expressed differently, knowledge of things is the
knowledge of sensible facts. But sensible facts alone
are not all that there is to the matter. There are
truths which are inherent in the nature of things but
which cannot, in themselves, be perceived. The way
to arrive at these truths is by inference based on
sensible facts. To Russell, inference can be valid, but
it must be scientific inference.
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Of things, which we learn by direct observation,
with no recourse to inference, he says: “I have come
to accept the facts of sense and the broad truths of
science as things which the philosophers should
take as data.” This data consists of our observed
sensations: visual, auditory, tactile, etc. But he then
goes on to say that our scientific ideas, or concepts
about the universe are not knowable through our
observed sensations. Rather, our knowledge of the
world is the result of inference. He even adds:
‘People’s thoughts are in their heads.’
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