The Problems of Philosophy

Bertrand Russell was one of the greatest logicians since Aristotle, and one of the most important philosophers of the past two hundred years. His works continue to spark debate, resounding with unmatched timeliness and power.

The Problems of Philosophy, one of the most popular works in Russell's, has become core reading in philosophy. Clear and accessible, this book is an intelligible and stimulating guide to those problems of philosophy which often mistakenly lead to its status
as too lofty and abstruse for the lay mind.
Russell guides the reader through his famous 1910 distinction between knowledge by acquaintance and knowledge by description and introduces important theories of Plato, Aristotle, René Descartes, David Hume, John Locke, Immanuel Kant, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and others to lay the foundation for philosophical inquiry by general readers and scholars alike.

“In the following pages I have confined myself in the main to those problems of philosophy in regard to which I thought it possible to say something positive and constructive, since merely negative criticism seemed out of place. For this reason, theory of knowledge occupies a larger space than metaphysics in the present volume, and some topics much discussed by philosophers are treated very briefly, if at all. ”
— Bertrand Russell, Preface of The Problems of Philosophy.