Quotation
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“Philosophy is to be studied not for the sake of any definite answers to its questions, since no definite answers can, as a rule, be known to be true, but rather for the sake of the questions themselves.”
Bertrand Russell · Analytic philosophy · Modern · 1912
What does it mean?
Philosophy, Russell says at the end of the little book, is to be studied not for definite answers, since those can as a rule not be known true, but for the sake of the questions. The questions enlarge what we can imagine and cut down the dogmatic assurance that closes a mind. A rival reading, impatient and sometimes justified, says this is a counsel of permanent inconclusiveness, a way to feel serious without ever having to decide. He is not saying answers never matter.
Did Bertrand Russell really say this?
The library’s label is Well attested. Russell's English, near the end of the book. He adds that the questions enlarge our conception of what is possible, enrich our imagination, and diminish the dogmatic assurance that closes the mind.
Where it comes from
The Problems of Philosophy, chapter 15
Approximate date: 1912.
How to use it
Keep one question open on purpose this month in a reading group in Norwich, about knowledge or fairness or what a person is, and judge the month by whether your imagination got larger, not by whether you finished. If the question is a practical one with a deadline, his last chapter is the wrong tool, and he would not pretend otherwise.
A mindset reading
Answers matter outside this claim, and some philosophical answers matter inside it. The sentence is a defence of the activity against the charge of uselessness. It is not a ban on concluding.
Understand the philosophy
The Problems of Philosophy ends by defending the subject. It is a better source for him than the smoothed proverb about fools and fanatics, which is a later paraphrase of a different essay and should not be swapped in as if it were this page.
- knowledge
- meaning
- mind
FAQ
What does it mean?
Philosophy, Russell says at the end of the little book, is to be studied not for definite answers, since those can as a rule not be known true, but for the sake of the questions. The questions enlarge what we can imagine and cut down the dogmatic assurance that closes a mind. A rival reading, impatient and sometimes justified, says this is a counsel of permanent inconclusiveness, a way to feel serious without ever having to decide. He is not saying answers never matter.
Did Bertrand Russell really say this?
Well attested. Russell's English, near the end of the book. He adds that the questions enlarge our conception of what is possible, enrich our imagination, and diminish the dogmatic assurance that closes the mind.
Which work is it in?
The Problems of Philosophy, chapter 15 Approximate date: 1912.