Note 255 — Chapter VIII · LATER DEVELOPMENTS

Dewey is here dealing with the 'epistemological' realists, among whom he includes such writers as Bertrand Russell. In an article entitled "The Existence of the World as a Problem" (Philosophical Review, Vol. XXIV, 1915, pp. 357-370), Dewey argues that Russell, in making a problem of the existence of the external world, implies its existence in his formulation of the problem. Dewey argues that, since the existence of the world is presupposed in every such formulation, it cannot be called in question. This is like disposing of Zeno's paradox on the ground that arrows fly anyway.