Full Idea
The great systems of the past serve a very useful purpose, and are abundantly worthy of study. But something different is required if philosophy is to become a science, and to aim at results independent of the tastes of the philosophers who advocate them.
Gist of Idea
Philosophical systems are interesting, but we now need a more objective scientific philosophy
Source
Bertrand Russell (Our Knowledge of the External World [1914], Pref)
Book Reference
Russell,Bertrand: 'Our Knowledge of the External World' [Routledge 1993], p.10
A Reaction
An interesting product of this move in philosophy is (about sixty years later) the work of David Lewis, who set out to be precise and scientific, and ended up creating a very personal system. Why not a collaborative system?
Related Idea
Idea 21461 I tried to be unsystematic and piecemeal, but failed; my papers presuppose my other views [Lewis]