Chapter 10, On Our Knowledge of Universals Summary and Analysis

Our knowledge of universals can be divided into knowledge by acquaintance and description. Knowledge of universals by acquaintance are represented by universals like white, red, sweet, and sour. They are derived from sense-data and can be called "sensible qualities."

However, there are also relations not exemplified by sense data, such as those which hold between parts of a complex sense-datum. We derive this knowledge from abstract and then acquaint ourselves with the universal relation. "Past and "present" function similarly. Some relations are ones we are immediately aware of, such as the "greater than" relation that we can immediately see.

Russell argues that all a priori knowledge deals exclusively with the relations of universals. This proposition will help us understand how we learn a priori facts. Russell suggests that this principle may...