An Inquiry into Meaning and Truth
Assigned by 1 of the 9 reading lists, catalogue entry only
- Written
- 1940
- Form
- Treatise
- Language
- English
- Length
- Medium · 350 pp120 to 300 pages
- Difficulty
- Difficult4 of 5 for a first-year reader
We recommendAn Inquiry into Meaning and TruthRoutledge, 1995A complete reprint of the 1940 William James Lectures.
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Based on Russell's William James Lectures at Harvard, the book asks what it means for a sentence to be true and how language connects to experience. It works upward from object-words learned by direct confrontation with things, through sentences describing experience, to logical words, egocentric particulars such as this and now, and the basic propositions on which empirical knowledge rests. Russell defends a correspondence theory of truth against the verificationism of the logical positivists, and argues that truth must be allowed to outrun what we can know.
No reading guide yet
The catalogue entry above is complete: the dates, the form, the themes and every program that assigns An Inquiry into Meaning and Truth 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.
