Single Idea 6465

[catalogued under 9. Objects / B. Unity of Objects / 2. Substance / e. Substance critique]

Full Idea

It is not necessary to deny a substance or substratum underlying appearances; it is merely expedient (by the application of Occam's Razor) to abstain from asserting this unnecessary entity.

Gist of Idea

We need not deny substance, but there seems no reason to assert it

Source

Bertrand Russell (The Relation of Sense-Data to Physics [1914], §V)

Book Reference

Russell,Bertrand: 'Mysticism and Logic' [Unwin 1989], p.149


A Reaction

Russell then goes on to struggle heroically in attempts to give accounts of 'matter' and 'objects' entirely in terms of 'sense-data'. If he failed, as many think he did, should we go back to belief in Aristotelian substance?