Russell and the Nature of Sense-Data

Abstract

In the first three chapters I have tried to outline three related points in connection with the Controversy. The first point was with regard to the way in which Stout not only played a central and influential role in the development of this Controversy, but also in the very articulation of his adversaries’ doctrines, and thereby, in the formation of the British New Realism. The second point I tried to disentangle was the respective ways the three philosophers discussed so far tried to solve the problem of the external world. And finally, the third point, extensively discussed, was the nature of sensible objects, whether they were mental or non-mental. Especially in relation to Bertrand Russell and the notion of sense-data, it will be this last point that I will now focus on.