Magical Realist
Valued Senior Member
I would say it is. It is a simple yet powerful argument. Empiricism asserts that all knowledge is derived from sense experience. But if this is true, then there is at least one thing that can be known without sense experience, namely that all knowledge is derived from sense experience. Therefore the claim that all knowledge is derived from sense experience, if true, becomes false. Here's Bertrand Russell's take on it:
"I will observe, however, that empiricism, as a theory of knowledge, is self-refuting. For, however it may be formulated, it must involve some general proposition about the dependence of knowledge upon experience; and any such proposition, if true, must have as a consequence that [it] itself cannot be known. While therefore, empiricism may be true, it cannot, if true, be known to be so. This, however, is a large problem."---- Bertrand Russell, An Inquiry into Meaning and Truth (1940), 1969 Pelican ed., pp. 156-157
https://maverickphilosopher.typepad.com/maverick_philosopher/2015/04/bertrand-russell-empiricism-is-self-refuting.html#:~:text=I will observe, however, that,it] itself cannot be known.
"I will observe, however, that empiricism, as a theory of knowledge, is self-refuting. For, however it may be formulated, it must involve some general proposition about the dependence of knowledge upon experience; and any such proposition, if true, must have as a consequence that [it] itself cannot be known. While therefore, empiricism may be true, it cannot, if true, be known to be so. This, however, is a large problem."---- Bertrand Russell, An Inquiry into Meaning and Truth (1940), 1969 Pelican ed., pp. 156-157
https://maverickphilosopher.typepad.com/maverick_philosopher/2015/04/bertrand-russell-empiricism-is-self-refuting.html#:~:text=I will observe, however, that,it] itself cannot be known.
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