Technical Style Meditation

The research of mathematics is the starting point of Russell's career. He initially established an identical relationship between mathematics and logic, then applied this logicism to his research on knowledge, ontology and language philosophy.At least on three levels, Russell used the concept of knowledge.First of all, he traced the acquisition of knowledge to the immediate first-person experience.For knowledge, acquaintance is the basis, and perception is the source, but neither is its definition. Secondly, mathematics is a model of knowledge. Starting from the self-evident premises, depending on the analytic-synthetic method, we can found the originally main body of knowledge. However, Russell was not satisfied with this definition of knowledge.To Russell, the true knowledge should bring beatitudes to human beings. In three ways our soul connects with the world:the union in thought is knowledge, the union in feeling is love and the union in will is service. For each one of us, good life means being inspired by love and guided by knowledge. In public and private life, the supreme principle by which we should abide is to promote all creative things and diminish all covetous desires.Influenced by the psychology of behaviorism, Russell's research on knowledge emphasized the continuity between animals and our minds, thus the mind world doesn't seem more sublime than the physical world. Russell took a positive attitude to the methodology of behaviorism, but confirmed the introspective material including images which was abandoned by behaviorism. His analysis of image concerns not only words, but propositions.For Russell, the core of the theory of knowledge is the logical atomism, the principle of acquaintance and the hierarchy of language. According to the principle of acquaintance, if the knowledge concerning what there is in the world doesn't originate from perception and memory, at least one of its premises originates from such sort of acquaintance. Russell divided words into three sorts:object words, logic words, and dictionary words. By illustrating the empirically psychological meaning of logic words, he attempted to set aside the unspeakable which was imposed on the proposition form by Wittgenstein.Russell claimed that, comparing with any particular theory, he was more confident on his own methods, and that we could obtain new knowledge by the analytical methods. There are two levels for the methods. First of all, on the expression of language, Russell traced the history of his problems and then displayed his own position; secondly, for a specific science, Russell begot the analytic-synthetic method.There are two parts of the analytic-synthetic method:(1)in the backwards stage, we apply logical analysis to examine the foundation of knowledge, tracing the main body of knowledge to its premises; (2) in the forwards stage, we apply logical synthesis to reconstruct the whole building of knowledge. Russell first used this method in his mathematical study, such as POM(1903) and PM(1910-13), and then gradually used it in other fields, such as the theory of knowledge, metaphysics, language philosophy, and science philosophy and so on.According to Russell's research, this analysis can not reach its end once and for all, just because it's always possible to find new premises. In the strict sense, a premise only means a proposition. However, Russell used this term broadly, which included proposition, concept or idea. For example, in the analysis of theory of natural numbers, Piano used three original concepts (0, number, successor), and five original propositions.In the field of social life, Russell also used this analytic-synthetic method, and traced human activity to its three kinds of source:instinct, mind, and spirit. He even thought that these three should merge into a whole one. Among them, the instinct gives a force, the mind directs the force to an end, and the spirit enlightens an impersonal use of the force. For a good life, instinct, mind and spirit are all necessary, though each has its own advantage and defect.Today, it is absolutely not outdated to reexamine Russell's inquiry of knowledge. In this dissertation, I put Russell's thoughts back into the western tradition of philosophy initiated by Plato and Aristotle; pay much attention on the inner connection between them. On the other hand, in the light of the contrast between technical reason and critical reason, I attempt to reevaluate Russell's "philosophy as a science", and his theory of knowledge which always stresses the association between knowledge and good life.