On “Appearance and Reality” in Russell’s the Problems of Philosophy

Abstract

In the fi rst chapter of the Problems of Philosophy, Russell starts with a common object in daily life—a table, which triggers the discussion of the problems of appearance and reality. He concluded through analysis that what we see about the color, shape, and other aspects of the table is actually a “sense-data”. Through it, we perceive the surface of the table, but behind the surface, there is still a real table, which is a physical object.What Russell wants to explore is the relationship between sense-data and physical object, that is, the relationship between appearance and reality.