BRACERS Record Detail for 134226

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Collection code
RA3
Recent acquisition no.
1860
Box no.
16.80
Source if not BR
Portal Site for Russellian in Japan
Recipient(s)
Tsuchida, Kyoson
Sender(s)
BR
Date
1921/08/03
Form of letter
PD
Pieces
1
BR's address code (if sender)
SHP
Notes and topics

The text of the letter appears on the site of the Japanese Bertrand Russell Society, https://russell-j.com/cool/L001.HTM. The earliest known version is at https://russell-j.com/cool/TUTIDA-K.HTM.

SS Empress of Asia, Aug. 3, 1921

Dear Sir,
I must regret that during my brief stay in Japan I had no time to answer your kind letter. I will attempt to do so now.

1. With regard to sense-data and sensation, I have somewhat modified my position, as you see from my The Analysis of Mind, now on sale at Maruzen in Tokyo. I do not distinguish two words, one 'real' and the other 'ideal'. I think there is only the 'real' world.
2. Sense-data are defined as those sensibilia of what we are aware. Presumably there are innumerable sensibilia of which we are not aware, but by definition we can have no empirical evidence of their existence.
3. I do not believe in a dualism of matter and spirit. Both matter and spirit are to my thinking, logical constructions not existing things. This point also you will find explained in The Analysis of Mind.
4. I think there are no logical grounds for either asserting or denying the existence of an external world. Psychology only explains why, in fact, most people do assert it.
5. I think very likely your criticism of guild socialism may be sound in theory, but in practice I do not know of any better system suitable for industrially backward countries such as Russia and China.
6. I do not believe in the 'general will'. I think it is a fiction. In philosophy I am an atomist. Even the individual seems to be already a complete logical structure. I think all government is essentially the imposition of the will of the strong upon the weak.

Yours faithfully
Bertrand Russell

Russell letter no.
0244
Permission
Everyone
Transcription Public Access
No
Record no.
134226
Record created
Dec 13, 2023
Record last modified
Jan 29, 2025
Created/last modified by
blackwk