Our Knowledge of the External World as a Field for Scientific Method in Philosophy

The author presents a series of lectures that advocate applying logical-analytic and scientific methods to philosophical problems, arguing for precise, piecemeal results rather than sweeping speculation. He examines contemporary philosophical tendencies and defends logic as the core method for attaining objective knowledge. A central concern is the relation between raw sensory data and the space, time, and matter of mathematical physics, offering a program to construct the world of physics from sense-data through mathematical logic. The lectures treat continuity and the problem of the infinite, survey historical and positive approaches, and analyze the notion of causation with implications for the debate over free will. Throughout, proposals are tentative and intended to illustrate method rather than provide final answers.