chapter "The Existence of Matter"
E26031
"The Existence of Matter" is a chapter in Bertrand Russell's philosophical work *The Problems of Philosophy* that examines whether and how we can justify belief in a mind-independent material world.
All labels observed (3)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| chapter "The Existence of Matter" canonical | 1 |
| chapter "The Nature of Matter" | 1 |
| chapter "The Nature of Matter" in "The Problems of Philosophy" | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T204101 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: chapter "The Existence of Matter" Context triple: [The Problems of Philosophy, hasPart, chapter "The Existence of Matter"]
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A.
Part VII: Matter and Motion
Part VII: Matter and Motion is a section of Bertrand Russell’s *The Principles of Mathematics* that applies his logical and philosophical analysis to the concepts of physical matter, space, time, and motion.
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B.
Enquire Within Upon Everything
Enquire Within Upon Everything is a 19th-century British household reference book offering practical advice and information on a vast range of everyday topics.
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C.
Fiat Lux
Fiat Lux is a Latin phrase meaning "Let there be light," used as the inspirational motto of the University of California, Berkeley.
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D.
QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter
QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter is a popular science book by physicist Richard Feynman that explains the quantum theory of electrodynamics in an accessible, lecture-based style.
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E.
The Lives of the Stars
"The Lives of the Stars" is an episode of the science documentary series *Cosmos: A Personal Voyage* that explores the birth, evolution, and death of stars and their role in shaping the universe.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: chapter "The Existence of Matter" Target entity description: "The Existence of Matter" is a chapter in Bertrand Russell's philosophical work *The Problems of Philosophy* that examines whether and how we can justify belief in a mind-independent material world.
-
A.
Part VII: Matter and Motion
Part VII: Matter and Motion is a section of Bertrand Russell’s *The Principles of Mathematics* that applies his logical and philosophical analysis to the concepts of physical matter, space, time, and motion.
-
B.
Enquire Within Upon Everything
Enquire Within Upon Everything is a 19th-century British household reference book offering practical advice and information on a vast range of everyday topics.
-
C.
Fiat Lux
Fiat Lux is a Latin phrase meaning "Let there be light," used as the inspirational motto of the University of California, Berkeley.
-
D.
QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter
QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter is a popular science book by physicist Richard Feynman that explains the quantum theory of electrodynamics in an accessible, lecture-based style.
-
E.
The Lives of the Stars
"The Lives of the Stars" is an episode of the science documentary series *Cosmos: A Personal Voyage* that explores the birth, evolution, and death of stars and their role in shaping the universe.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (46)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
book chapter
ⓘ
philosophical text ⓘ |
| addressesQuestion |
Can we know that an external world exists?
ⓘ
How can common-sense beliefs be philosophically justified? ⓘ What is the relation between sense-data and physical objects? ⓘ |
| arguesAgainst |
radical skepticism about the external world
ⓘ
subjective idealism ⓘ |
| author | Bertrand Russell ⓘ |
| contrasts | appearance with reality ⓘ |
| discusses |
Berkeleyan idealism
ⓘ
arguments against naive realism ⓘ arguments for the existence of matter ⓘ common-sense belief in physical objects ⓘ probabilistic justification of beliefs ⓘ representative realism ⓘ |
| epistemicMethod |
analysis of ordinary beliefs
ⓘ
argument from best explanation of experience ⓘ |
| epistemicStance | fallibilism about knowledge of the external world ⓘ |
| genre | philosophy ⓘ |
| influences |
20th-century discussions of sense-data
ⓘ
analytic epistemology of perception ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| locatedInWork | early chapters of "The Problems of Philosophy" ⓘ |
| mainTopic |
appearance and reality distinction
ⓘ
existence of a mind-independent material world ⓘ inference from sense-data to physical objects ⓘ justification of belief in the external world ⓘ sense-data ⓘ skepticism about the external world ⓘ |
| partOf |
The Problems of Philosophy
ⓘ
surface form:
"The Problems of Philosophy"
|
| philosophicalIssue |
nature of perceptual knowledge
ⓘ
problem of the external world ⓘ realism versus idealism ⓘ |
| philosophicalTradition | analytic philosophy ⓘ |
| positionDefended |
belief in matter is rationally justifiable though not demonstrable with certainty
ⓘ
there is a world of physical objects independent of our minds ⓘ |
| publicationYearOfContainingWork | 1912 ⓘ |
| relatedTo |
chapter "Appearance and Reality" in "The Problems of Philosophy"
ⓘ
chapter "The Existence of Matter" self-linksurface differs ⓘ
surface form:
chapter "The Nature of Matter" in "The Problems of Philosophy"
|
| subgenre |
epistemology
ⓘ
metaphysics ⓘ |
| supportsView | physical objects are logical constructions out of sense-data ⓘ |
| targetAudience |
general educated readers
ⓘ
students of philosophy ⓘ |
| usesConcept | sense-data as immediate objects of awareness ⓘ |
| workContainedIn | a popular introduction to philosophy ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: chapter "The Existence of Matter" Description of subject: "The Existence of Matter" is a chapter in Bertrand Russell's philosophical work *The Problems of Philosophy* that examines whether and how we can justify belief in a mind-independent material world.
Referenced by (3)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
chapter "The Nature of Matter"
chapter "The Existence of Matter"
→
relatedTo
→
chapter "The Existence of Matter"
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
subject surface form:
"The Existence of Matter"
this entity surface form:
chapter "The Nature of Matter" in "The Problems of Philosophy"