This essay examines Bertrand Russell's defense of philosophy as a discipline, drawing on Chapter 15 of The Problems of Philosophy. It argues that so-called "common sense" is not a reliable guide to truth but rather a collection of inherited prejudices and uncritical habits. Russell contends that philosophy's value lies not in providing definitive answers but in the quality of questions it forces us to ask. The essay also highlights how philosophical thinking cultivates intellectual humility, mindfulness, and the capacity to act with greater purpose — making it practically, not merely abstractly, valuable to everyday human life.
According to Chapter 15 of The Problems of Philosophy by Bertrand Russell: "The value of philosophy is, in fact, to be sought largely in its very uncertainty. The man who has no tincture of philosophy goes through life imprisoned in the prejudices derived from common sense, from the habitual beliefs of his age or his nation, and from convictions which have grown up in his mind without the co-operation or consent of his deliberate reason" (Russell, Chapter 15). One of the most common objections to studying philosophy is that it is a violation of common sense. Critics argue that philosophy has little or no use because philosophical debates do not address "real" issues. Along such lines of thinking, "real issues" include feeding the hungry, economic problems, and other materially related concerns that philosophy's focus on abstraction does not address.
Russell's argument, however, is that common sense has frequently led human beings astray. Not so many years ago in human history, it was common sense that slavery was necessary, that African Americans were unequal to whites, and that women were fundamentally different from men. Only by questioning one's prejudices — questioning every accepted truth, including one's innate assumptions about reality — can someone be free of prejudice and truly conceptualize new ideas. Philosophy enables us to do this.
In the eyes of common sense, "what it calls knowledge is not a union with the not-Self, but a set of prejudices, habits, and desires, making an impenetrable veil between us and the world beyond" (Russell, Chapter 15). In other words, when we acquire knowledge in a common-sense fashion, without the guiding intelligence of philosophy, we are merely looking into a mirror of our contemporary era's ideas and ideals. We are not truly getting to the bottom of what is truth; we are merely confirming our existing, and likely erroneous, assumptions.
But if common sense is not truth, will philosophy yield absolute truth? Russell admits that "philosophy is to be studied, not for the sake of any definite answers to its questions — since no definite answers can, as a rule, be known to be true — but rather for the sake of the questions themselves" (Russell, Chapter 15). Philosophy should not be viewed as a goal-directed exercise. Indeed, one of its greatest values is precisely that it is not goal-directed; instead, it is useful in forcing us to question our goals — for example, the notion that monetary success is the most important achievement to which we can aspire, or the belief that one's race is superior to all others.
"Philosophy valued for questions, not definite answers"
"Philosophical thinking sharpens intellect and judgment"
"Philosophy fosters purposeful, emotionally aware action"
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