8' - The Analysis of Mind

Bertrand Russell's 1921 book, The Analysis of Mind, argues against the traditional view of consciousness and examines the nature of mind in relation to both psychology and physics. He criticizes the notion of a "stuff" of consciousness and proposes a "neutral stuff" out of which both mind and matter are constructed. Russell analyzes mental phenomena, including perception, memory, desire, and emotion, arguing that they are not fundamentally different from physical phenomena, and instead, are characterized by their causal laws. He proposes a behaviourist approach to understanding mental phenomena and rejects the traditional view of introspection as a separate method of knowing. Russell also examines the relationship between language and thought, arguing that the use of words in expressing beliefs can be misleading and that the meaning of words is constituted by mnemic causal laws rather than by likeness.