Bertrand Russell
Overview
This is about Bertrand Russell.
Bertrand Russell on Appearance & Reality
To work on this question, Russell made a distinction between appearance and reality. Putting things simply, he argued that appearance is what we gather from our senses.
Unfortunately, or fortunately if you're into philosophical puzzles, appearance is not always reality. Case in point, that day in the mall, it APPEARED I had run into an acquaintance. In REALITY, I had come across a stranger.
To try to explain this, Russell used the idea of a table. While sitting at a table, he'd say a wooden one, the table appears brown. However, if you stand up and look at it in a different light, it might look lighter than what you consider brown. If you turn off the lights and look at it in the moonlight, it might appear black! Based on all these different appearances, how can you really know the table is brown?
Moving away from the sense of sight, he turned to texture. When you rub your hand across the table, it feels smooth. However, what if you looked at it under a microscope? Although it feels smooth, it would appear to be rough under the microscope. So, how can you realistically be certain whether the table is smooth or rough?
My Thoughts On Bertrand Russel on Appearance & Reality
When considering Russels point of view on appearance and reality I take in my own experiances and thought. Though I understand Russels persepective I believe that apperance this someones reality but reality is based on someones experiances and world view. For example, poeople base attrativness on appearance but that is relative to that person. So in turn in one persons reality someone can be attractive based on appearance but someone might not think that. Over all I believe appearance and reality are both relative and unqiue to each person. We cant generalize it by shared experanices and thoughts.