The Problems of Philosophy review

Russell Round Up In chapter IX “The World of Universals” in Russell’s “The Problems of Philosophy”, he describes the Platonic “theory of ideas. He refers to the Platonic “idea” as “universal” because he considers using the term “idea” to be misleading. According to Plato, the term “idea” refers to a concept that is defined against a particular item and that the real world is one of the universals. Plato holds that whatever is declared about perceived reality can only be accurate by the virtue of perceiving that a particular thing participates in the universals. However, Russell states that Plato is led into a world that is supra-sensible and one that is more real compared to the common world of ideas and sense.

He says that there is no satisfactory answer on the question of how to distinguish true and false beliefs. He highlights three main features of the theory of truth as follows; it must take falsehood into account, truth and falsehood is impossible in the world of matter and that the truth and falsehood of a belief depends on something that is outside the belief itself (Russell, 2001). Aristotle’s philosophical ideas were against Plato’s ideas in his “Theory of forms” that held that the idealized essence of a particular object existed differently from that object. According to Plato, physical things represented the idealized perfect forms that exist on another reality plane. However, Aristotle believed that the essence of an object existed within the object (Fine, 1993).