The Philosophy of Mind

THE PHILOSOPHY OF MIND (Special eBook Edition)

BY BERTRAND RUSSELL

[The Analysis of Mind]


Winner of the NOBEL PRIZE

(Author of A History of Western Philosophy, Why I Am Not A Christian, The Problems of Philosophy and More)


OVERVIEW

This book collects 15 seminal essays and lectures on the philosophy of mind by Bertrand Russell.  In the book, Russell reconciles "the materialistic tendency of psychology with the anti-materialistic tendency of physics ... according to which the "stuff" of the world is neither mental nor material, but a "neutral stuff," out of which both are constructed."


CONTENTS

LECTURE I. RECENT CRITICISMS OF "CONSCIOUSNESS"

LECTURE II. INSTINCT AND HABIT

LECTURE III. DESIRE AND FEELING

LECTURE IV. INFLUENCE OF PAST HISTORY ON PRESENT OCCURRENCES IN LIVING

LECTURE V. PSYCHOLOGICAL AND PHYSICAL CAUSAL LAWS

LECTURE VI. INTROSPECTION

LECTURE VII. THE DEFINITION OF PERCEPTION

LECTURE VIII. SENSATIONS AND IMAGES

LECTURE IX. MEMORY

LECTURE X. WORDS AND MEANING

LECTURE XI. GENERAL IDEAS AND THOUGHT

LECTURE XII. BELIEF

LECTURE XIII.   TRUTH AND FALSEHOOD

LECTURE XIV. EMOTIONS AND WILL

LECTURE XV. CHARACTERISTICS OF MENTAL PHENOMENA


EXCERPT

The definition of truth and falsehood, which is our topic to-day, lies strictly outside our general subject, namely the analysis of mind. From the psychological standpoint, there may be different kinds of belief, and different degrees of certainty, but there cannot be any purely psychological means of distinguishing between true and false beliefs.