ANALYSIS OFBERTRAND RUSSELL'S THEORYOFKNOWLEDGE AND ITS TWENTIETH CENTURYOUTLOOK

Abstract

The British philosopher, Bertrand Russell in his epistemology, held that knowledge is a product of sensedatum. He discussed knowledge by Acquaintance and Description, as significant topic dominant in his “On Denoting” (1905) and The Problems of Philosophy (1912) extensively and treated his theory of knowledge in his works on logic, truth, and language. The thinking is that philosophy and language are the bedrock of any philosophical endeavor and must be given a new foundation different from that provided by Aristotle. Russell argues that all knowledge must begin with acquaintance and end with an acquaintance. However, if all acquaintance is an independent medium to which we know, "what is the role of reason or does a priori truths exist," "is appearance everything that exists." Human Knowledge(1962). Any attempt to ascertain truthfulness according to Russell devoid of science, logic, and experience will be nonsensical- therefore rejecting metaphysical truths and constructing and maintaining the empiricist tradition. Again, Russell presented a "reference theory" where subject and object are metaphysically viewed as one in the process of knowing. I argue that this principle will require a metaphysical distinction between the subjects and object that Russell fails to establish. I object to Russell's incoherent theory of acquaintance which unambiguously links the subject and object. Like, recent philosophers in 20th Century- Evans (1946), Davidson (1917), and Campbell (1956), I vigorously argue that, if taken Russell's epistemology seriously, it will be a total denial of Kantian synthetic -apriori and other forms of knowledge and will limit our view of the universe.