Entertain a Thought!

Hey all, Bertrand Russell. Credit: Wikimedia Commons . I just finished reading (or rather, listening to) Bertrand Russell's book: The Problems of Philosophy .  The book was included in  project Gutenberg  and Librivox , which means it is in the public domain, and you can read it or listen to it for free.  Whenever I quote text, the bold emphasis  is mine, not the author's. Hope you enjoy it! I learned quite a number of new and interesting concepts and insights. Below are some of the notes I wrote, and some interesting bits from the book as well, which I encourage you to read/listen to because it really is very interesting.  On the Theory of Knowledge While the idea that we may be dreaming, and that nothing exists in the world except for ourselves, is a logical possibility, there is no good reason to believe so. It is almost like applying occam's razor to this idea. It is a logical possibility, just like the possibility that a flying teapot orbits jup

Quick thought ... Credit: Wikimedia Commons . Perhaps there are no laws "of" nature. Perhaps what we call "laws" or "relations/universalities" (to use more appropriate philosophical terms) are but mere descriptions of the universe ITSELF, just like descriptions of matter and energy. In other words, could it be that it is an ESSENTIAL property of objects (including matter/energy/dark matter/dark energy etc.) to behave this way? Could it be that "laws" or "universalities" are but mere mental constructs? If this was indeed the case, the question  "Why is gravity attractive and not repulsive?" is purely scientific and not metaphysical. It would be conceivable that other universes exist whereby matter has essential properties different from our universe's. In this sense, the questions "What is matter?" and "What laws govern matter?" would be essentially equivalent. Let us ask ourselve