Page:Russell - The Problems of Philosophy, 1912.djvu/71

Rh and something other than the mind; it is this that constitutes the mind's power of knowing things. If we say that the things known must be in the mind, we are either unduly limiting the mind's power of knowing, or we are uttering a mere tautology. We are uttering a mere tautology if we mean by "in the mind" the same as by "before the mind," i.e. if we mean merely being apprehended by the mind, But if we mean this, we shall have to admit that what, in this sense, is in the mind, may nevertheless be not mental. Thus when we realise the nature of knowledge, Berkeley's argument is seen to be wrong in substance as well as in form, and his grounds for supposing that "ideas"—i.e. the objects apprehended—must be mental, are found to have no validity whatever. Hence his grounds in favour of idealism may be dismissed. It remains to see whether there are any other grounds.

It is often said, as though it were a self-evident truism, that we cannot know that anything exists which we do not know. It is inferred that whatever can in any way be