“ Nothing can be known to exist except by the help of experience. ”
Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy (1912). copy citation
| Author | Bertrand Russell |
|---|---|
| Source | The Problems of Philosophy |
| Topic | experience help |
| Date | 1912 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | |
| Weblink | http://www.gutenberg.org/files/5827/5827-h/5827-h.htm |
Context
“Thus, while admitting that all knowledge is elicited and caused by experience, we shall nevertheless hold that some knowledge is a priori, in the sense that the experience which makes us think of it does not suffice to prove it, but merely so directs our attention that we see its truth without requiring any proof from experience.
There is another point of great importance, in which the empiricists were in the right as against the rationalists. Nothing can be known to exist except by the help of experience. That is to say, if we wish to prove that something of which we have no direct experience exists, we must have among our premisses the existence of one or more things of which we have direct experience.”
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