more from Bertrand Russell

Single Idea 7290

[catalogued under 12. Knowledge Sources / D. Empiricism / 1. Empiricism]

Full Idea

If Russell rejects innate ideas, and he even thinks the laws of thought must by triggered by experiences (e.g. of a beech tree), and he doesn't embrace associations, this implies that he thinks the mind begins as a tabula rasa.

Clarification

'tabula rasa' is a blank mind

Gist of Idea

If Russell rejects innate ideas and direct a priori knowledge, he is left with a tabula rasa

Source

report of Bertrand Russell (Problems of Philosophy [1912]) by George Thompson - talk


A Reaction

This nice observation places Russell as (in my view) a rather old-fashioned empiricist, who ignores Hume and Kant, and is not willing to speculate about how the mind can turn acquaintances with sense-data into knowledge