Neutral Monism
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The philosophy of logical atomism
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This is a form of phenomenalism, for example, similar to the philosophy advocated by A.J. Ayer and discussed above. The philosophy of logical atomism was advanced by Bertrand Russell, also as a solution simultaneously to problems of perception and to problems of the theory of knowledge. This doctrine depends on the logical analysis of sentences and consequently can only be outlined here, since the formal logical theory required to describe it in full is extensive. Basically, he argues that some senses are compound of other sentences. For example, "Russell is professor of philosophy and Russell has a cat" is a compound sentence made of two sentences ("Russell is professor", "Russell has a cat") and the conjunction and. The basic sentences that cannot be analysed any further into smaller sentences are called atomic sentences. However, sentences that appear to be atomic, such as "Russell has a cat", are in fact disguised compound sentences. This is because both Russell and the cat are composites of sense data. So, logically, the sentence "Russell has a cat" should be analysed into its logically atomic parts, which would be statements about the individual sense-data that make up Russell and the cat. There are lots of difficulties with this philosophy, but the above description makes it clear that it is a form of phenomenalism through the medium of an analysis of logical sentence structure. It is highly representative of the modern tendency to tackle philosophy through the medium of language, and heralds the dawn of the age of linguistic philosophy. However, if phenomenalism is false, so too will be this philosophy of logical atomism.
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Contents of
Neutral Monism
1 Sense data, atoms of perception
2 Hume, sense-data, sense impressions and atoms of experience
3 Entrapment within subjectivity, ideas
4 Neutral monism, realism, Russell, A.J. Ayer, Qualia
5 Is the whole a composite of its parts?
6 Space, time, continuity and atomism
7 Phenomenalism
8 The philosophy of logical atomism
9 Logical atomism, complex sentences and intensional contexts
10 Human identity in the context of naive realism
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