 Bertrand Russell Quotes 366 |
I used to think of sense, and of thought which is built on sense, as a prison from which we can be freed by thought which is emancipated from sense. I now have no such feelings. I think of sense, and of thoughts built on sense, as windows, not as prison bars. I think that we can, however imperfectly, mirror the world, like Leibniz's monads; and I think it is the duty of the philosopher to make himself as undistorting a mirror as he can.
Source: Bertrand Russell: My Philosophical Development, 1959.
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Life cannot survive if it is born insensate. It can survive by responding (reacting) to external stimuli. Therefore, although we must pay as much attention as possible to the imprecision of our sense organs, we cannot ignore the information they provide us with. 'Let us think of the senses and the ideas built on the senses not as prison bars, but as windows! This is a major shift in thinking! I can imagine that the tension in Russell's mind has eased considerably.
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