“Naive realism leads to physics, and physics, if true, shows naive realism to be false. Therefore naive realism, if true, is false; therefore it is false.”

— Bertrand Russell

An Inquiry into Meaning and Truth (1940), Introduction, p. 15
1940s
Context: Science seems to be at war with itself.... Naive realism leads to physics, and physics, if true, shows naive realism to be false. Therefore naive realism, if true, is false; therefore it is false.

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logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and politi… 1872–1970

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