"Is there any knowledge in the world which is so certain that no reasonable man could doubt it? This question, which at first sight might not seem difficult, is really one of the most difficult that can be asked. When we have realized the obstacles in the way of a straightforward and confident answer we shall be well launched on the study of philosophy, for philosophy is merely the attempt to answer such ultimate questions, not carelessly and dogmatically, as we do in ordinary life and even in the sciences, but critically, after exploring all that makes such questions puzzling, and after...

2015 Reprint of 1922 Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition. Not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. The "Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus" (Latin for "Logical-Philosophical Treatise") is the only book-length philosophical work published by the German-Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein in his lifetime. It was an ambitious project - to identify the relationship between language and reality and to define the limits of science - and is recognized as a significant philosophical work of the twentieth century. Considered by some to be the greatest philosopher of the 20th...

In dark days, men need a clear faith and a well-grounded hope; and as the outcome of these, the calm courage which takes no account of hardships by the way. The times through which we are passing have afforded to many of us a confirmation of our faith. We see that the things we had thought evil are really evil, and we know more definitely than we ever did before the directions in which men must move if a better world is to arise on the ruins of the one which is now hurling itself into destruction. We see that men's political dealings with one another are based on wholly wrong ideals, and can...

A European lately arrived in China, if he is of a receptive and reflective disposition, finds himself confronted with a number of very puzzling questions, for many of which the problems of Western Europe will not have prepared him. Russian problems, it is true, have important affinities with those of China, but they have also important differences; moreover they are decidedly less complex. Chinese problems, even if they affected no one outside China, would be of vast importance, since the Chinese are estimated to constitute about a quarter of the human race. In fact, however, all the world...

THE attempt to conceive imaginatively a better ordering of human society than the destructive and cruel chaos in which mankind has hitherto existed is by no means modern: it is at least as old as Plato, whose Republic'' set the model for the Utopias of subsequent philosophers. Whoever contemplates the world in the light of an ideal-whether what he seeks be intellect, or art, or love, or simple happiness, or all together-must feel a great sorrow in the evils that men needlessly allow to continue, and-if he be a man of force and vital energy-an urgent desire to lead men to the realization of...

Bertrand Russel's The Problems of Philosophy is a classic text that both analyzes and explains the best ways to approach philosophical discussion. First published in 1912, the book is a must read because it does not simply look at one set philosophy, but rather all thinking styles, ranging from the early days of Aristotle and Plato up through David Hume and John Locke. In this way, the text lays out many thought provoking questions, and, focusing on the birth of knowledge, brings many questions to light that are applicable to all people regardless of background or age.