Human Knowledge
Its Scope and Limits
Assigned by 1 of the 9 reading lists, catalogue entry only
- Written
- 1948
- Form
- Treatise
- Language
- English
- Length
- Long · 540 pp300 to 700 pages
- Difficulty
- Difficult4 of 5 for a first-year reader
We recommendHuman Knowledge: Its Scope and LimitsRoutledge, 2009The current complete reprint of Russell's last major philosophical work.
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Russell's last big book asks how the confident claims of science can be justified from the scraps of private experience on which they rest. In six parts it surveys the world of science, language, science and perception, scientific concepts, probability, and the postulates of scientific inference. Its conclusion is that induction alone cannot ground science and that five postulates, such as the quasi-permanence of things and the existence of causal lines, must be assumed because animals and humans in fact rely on them and survive.
No reading guide yet
The catalogue entry above is complete: the dates, the form, the themes and every program that assigns Human Knowledge are verified against each program's published list.
What is missing is the part that takes real work: the summary, the key passages, and a recommended translation. The edition named below is the one most programs assign, so the buy links are useful already.
