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Bertrand Russell - The Problems of Philosophy – Reality is not what it seems
Identifier
026729
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
The Problems of Philosophy – Bertrand Russell
We have seen that even if physical objects do have an independent existence they must differ very widely from sense-data and can only have a correspondence with sense-data in the same sort of way in which a catalogue has a correspondence with the thing catalogued.
Hence, common sense leaves us completely in the dark as to the true intrinsic nature of physical objects, and if there were good reason to regard them as mental, we could not legitimately reject this opinion merely because it strikes us as strange.
The truth about physical objects must be strange. It may be unattainable, but if any philosopher believes that he has attained it, the fact that what he offers as the truth is strange ought not to be made a ground of objection to his opinion."