Abstract

ACCORDING to Bertrand Russell—and phenomenalism in general—all the complex constructs of non-scientific and scientific thought are logically derivable from what are termed ‘atomic facts’ or ‘atomic events’. These atomic facts totally constitute what is directly given in sensory experience, in contrast with those elements in knowledge which are logically constructed from these atomic facts. In line with this distinction between the sensory and the conceptual, Russell made a corresponding distinction between ‘knowledge by acquaintance’ and ‘knowledge by description’. Russell stated this two-fold breakdown in the following way.