author - "Bertrand Russell"
Syndicalists wereachieved.
My own opinion--which I may as well indicateat the outset--is that pure Anarchism, though itshould be the ultimate ideal, to which society shouldcontinually approximate, is for the present impossible,and would not survive more than a year or twoat most if it were adopted. On the other hand, bothMarxian Socialism and Syndicalism, in spite of manydrawbacks, seem to me calculated to give rise to ahappier and better world than that in which we live.I do not, however, regard either of them as the bestpracticable system. Marxian Socialism, I fear,would give far too much power to the State, whileSyndicalism, which aims at abolishing the State,would, I believe, find itself forced to reconstruct acentral authority in order to put an end to therivalries of different groups of producers. The BESTpracticable system, to my mind, is that of GuildSocialism, which concedes what is valid both in theclaims of the State Socialists and in the Syndicalistfear of the State, by adop
table. Our next chapter, therefore, will be concerned with the reasons for supposing that there is a real table at all.
Before we go farther it will be well to consider for a moment what it is that we have discovered so far. It has appeared that, if we take any common object of the sort that is supposed to be known by the senses, what the senses immediately tell us is not the truth about the object as it is apart from us, but only the truth about certain sense-data which, so far as we can see, depend upon the relations between us and the object. Thus what we directly see and feel is merely 'appearance', which we believe to be a sign of some 'reality' behind. But if the reality is not what appears, have we any means of knowing whether there is any reality at all? And if so, have we any means of finding out what it is like?
Such questions are bewildering, and it is difficult to know that even the strangest hypotheses may not be true. Thus our familiar table, which has roused but the slig
suggestions; also to Mr. A. Wohlgemuth for muchvery useful information as regards important literature. I havealso to acknowledge the help of the editor of this Library ofPhilosophy, Professor Muirhead, for several suggestions by whichI have profited.
The work has been given in the form of lectures both in Londonand Peking, and one lecture, that on Desire, has been publishedin the Athenaeum.
There are a few allusions to China in this book, all of whichwere written before I had been in China, and are not intended tobe taken by the reader as geographically accurate. I have used"China" merely as a synonym for "a distant country," when Iwanted illustrations of unfamiliar things.
Peking, January 1921.
CONTENTS
I. Recent Criticisms of "Consciousness" II. Instinct and HabitIII. Desire and Feeling IV. Influence of Past History on PresentOccurrences in Living Organisms V. Psychological andPhysical Causal Laws VI. Introspection VII. The Definition ofPerception VIII.Sensati
Syndicalists wereachieved.
My own opinion--which I may as well indicateat the outset--is that pure Anarchism, though itshould be the ultimate ideal, to which society shouldcontinually approximate, is for the present impossible,and would not survive more than a year or twoat most if it were adopted. On the other hand, bothMarxian Socialism and Syndicalism, in spite of manydrawbacks, seem to me calculated to give rise to ahappier and better world than that in which we live.I do not, however, regard either of them as the bestpracticable system. Marxian Socialism, I fear,would give far too much power to the State, whileSyndicalism, which aims at abolishing the State,would, I believe, find itself forced to reconstruct acentral authority in order to put an end to therivalries of different groups of producers. The BESTpracticable system, to my mind, is that of GuildSocialism, which concedes what is valid both in theclaims of the State Socialists and in the Syndicalistfear of the State, by adop
table. Our next chapter, therefore, will be concerned with the reasons for supposing that there is a real table at all.
Before we go farther it will be well to consider for a moment what it is that we have discovered so far. It has appeared that, if we take any common object of the sort that is supposed to be known by the senses, what the senses immediately tell us is not the truth about the object as it is apart from us, but only the truth about certain sense-data which, so far as we can see, depend upon the relations between us and the object. Thus what we directly see and feel is merely 'appearance', which we believe to be a sign of some 'reality' behind. But if the reality is not what appears, have we any means of knowing whether there is any reality at all? And if so, have we any means of finding out what it is like?
Such questions are bewildering, and it is difficult to know that even the strangest hypotheses may not be true. Thus our familiar table, which has roused but the slig
suggestions; also to Mr. A. Wohlgemuth for muchvery useful information as regards important literature. I havealso to acknowledge the help of the editor of this Library ofPhilosophy, Professor Muirhead, for several suggestions by whichI have profited.
The work has been given in the form of lectures both in Londonand Peking, and one lecture, that on Desire, has been publishedin the Athenaeum.
There are a few allusions to China in this book, all of whichwere written before I had been in China, and are not intended tobe taken by the reader as geographically accurate. I have used"China" merely as a synonym for "a distant country," when Iwanted illustrations of unfamiliar things.
Peking, January 1921.
CONTENTS
I. Recent Criticisms of "Consciousness" II. Instinct and HabitIII. Desire and Feeling IV. Influence of Past History on PresentOccurrences in Living Organisms V. Psychological andPhysical Causal Laws VI. Introspection VII. The Definition ofPerception VIII.Sensati