Bertrand Russell And The Existence Of Matter

Bertrand Russell had posed the question whether or not physical matter actually exist. He elaborated this point through argumentations and questions seen in his ‘Problems of Philosophy’ specified in the ‘Appearance and Reality’ and the ‘Existence of Matter’ – where he (Russell) claimed that the notion of existence lies in the essence of our sense data (sense-datum), with matter seen as non-existent. Throughout this essay, focus will be laid on Russell’s doubt and scepticism regarding real objects, where he described it as an irrational conception. With this in mind, attention must be put forth on the explanatory reasons used by Russell in the justification of his claim, and the account of whether or not he effectively answers the problem of scepticism in the external world. …show more content…
Russell’s objective is to distinguish whether the physical exists in reality or is just an essence of our imagination when dreaming. This is where the example of the table comes into the picture. According to Russell, it explains that we have beliefs that an observed table has some sort of nature where its existence is permanent and independant to our perception, where if we look away from it, its existence will still be there in the external world or simply just as an object in a dream (non-existent), which forwards the same notion to reality and other beings where the “whole outer world is a dream” (Russell, 1912, p. 6) Here Russell begins to doubt the existence of real-objects (the desk) but not the values of our sense data which primarily brings about the thought of the table. Real-objects are seen from within the sense data which is caused by the