“ Knowledge is certain and infallible; opinion is not merely fallible, but is necessarily mistaken, since it assumes the reality of what is only appearance. ”
Bertrand Russell, A History of Western Philosophy (1945). copy citation
| Author | Bertrand Russell |
|---|---|
| Source | A History of Western Philosophy |
| Topic | appearance reality |
| Date | 1945 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | |
| Weblink | http://www.ntslibrary.com/PDF%20Books/History%20of%20Western%20Philosoph... |
Context
“if later I see it snowing, that is knowledge; but the subject-matter is the same on both occasions. Plato, however, thinks that what can at any time be a matter of opinion can never be a matter of knowledge. Knowledge is certain and infallible; opinion is not merely fallible, but is necessarily mistaken, since it assumes the reality of what is only appearance. All this repeats what had been said by Parmenides.
There is one respect in which Plato’s metaphysic is apparently different from that of Parmenides. For Parmenides there is only the One; for Plato, there are many ideas.”
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