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Bertrand Russell's Best
Mass Market Paperback
Published January 1, 1971
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May 28, 2024
WHO SAYS THAT PHILOSOPHY HAS TO BE DULL, AND POORLY-WRITTEN?
Not without reason was Bertrand Russell given the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1950; a rather unusual honor for a modern philosopher---and particularly one known for his work in mathematical logic---but then, Russell was not your "typical" philosopher. He actually supported himself by his writing at many periods in his life (such as when he was running a "Free School" with his wife), rather than as a professor of philosophy (which is the norm, these days), and so he continually honed and refined his writing style over the years, so that it is always a pleasure to read. Even his self-described "potboilers"---which he admittedly wrote for the money---such as 'The Conquest of Happiness,' are a pleasure to read, for Russell's delightful prose style.
It should also be noticed that Russell was often FUNNY---at times, devastatingly so, with an acerbic wit combined with a keen philosophical intellect that effectively skewered his target. This collection consists of short (ranging from virtual "one-liners" to nearly a page) excerpts from the full spectrum of Russell's huge output of books over an enormously long (he died at age 97) and productive career. Topics include Politics, Ethics, Education, Religion, and of course Sex. It's remarkable to see that Russell's once-horrifyingly controversial comments on such topics as what we would now call "Serial Monogamy" now seem almost genteel. Here are some choice examples:
“Opponents of Darwin… [said] The world… was created in 4004 BC, complete with fossils, which were inserted to try our faith… There is no logical impossibility about this view. And similarly there is no logical impossibility in the view that the world was created five minutes ago, complete with memories and records. This may seem an improbable hypothesis, but it is not logically refutable.” (An Outline of Philosophy)
“ALL faiths do harm. We may define ‘faith’ as a firm belief in something for which there is no evidence. When there is evidence, no one speaks of ‘faith.’ We do not speak of faith that two and two are four, of that the earth is round. We only speak of faith when we wish to substitute emotion for evidence. The substitution of emotion for evidence is apt to lead to strife, since different groups substitute different emotions.” (Human Society in Ethics and Politics)
“Since evolution became fashionable, the glorification of Man has taken a new form. We are told that evolution has been guided by one great Purpose: through the millions of years when there was only slime…. God was preparing the Great Climax…. He produced Man, including such specimens as Nero and Caligula, Hitler and Mussolini, whose transcendent glory justified the long painful process. For my part, I find even eternal damnation less incredible… than this lame and impotent conclusion which we are asked to admire as the supreme effort of Omnipotence.” (Unpopular Essays)
“I do not understand where the ‘beauty’ and ‘harmony’ of nature are supposed to be found. Throughout the animal kingdom, animals ruthlessly prey upon each other. Most of them are either cruelly killed by other animals or slowly die of hunger. For my part, I am unable to see any very great beauty or harmony in the tapeworm… I suppose that what is meant … are such things as the beauty of the starry heavens. But one should remember that the stars every now and again explode and reduce everything in their neighborhood to a vague mist.” [‘What is an Agnostic?’ essay]
“The earth … is likely to remain habitable for some considerable time, but not for ever… we shall … be all destroyed when the sun explodes and becomes a cold white dwarf … in about a million million years… [This] gives us some time to prepare… and we may hope that in the meantime both astronomy and gunnery will have made considerable progress. The astronomers may have discovered another star with habitable planets, and the gunners may be able to fire us off to it with a speed approaching that of light, in which case… some [of the passengers] might arrive before dying of old age. It is perhaps a slender hope, but let us make the best of it.” (Religion and Science)
“I think that in philosophical strictness at the level where one doubts the existence of material objects… I ought to call myself an agnostic; but for all practical purposes, I am an atheist. I do not think the existence of the Christian God any more probable than the existence of the Gods of Olympus… nobody can prove that there is not between Earth and Mars a teapot revolving in an elliptical orbit, but nobody thinks this sufficiently likely to be taken into account in practice. I think the Christian God just as unlikely.” (Dear Bertrand Russell)
This collection makes for a marvelous introduction to Russell, and will surely whet one's appetite to read at least some of the books these excerpts were taken from.
Not without reason was Bertrand Russell given the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1950; a rather unusual honor for a modern philosopher---and particularly one known for his work in mathematical logic---but then, Russell was not your "typical" philosopher. He actually supported himself by his writing at many periods in his life (such as when he was running a "Free School" with his wife), rather than as a professor of philosophy (which is the norm, these days), and so he continually honed and refined his writing style over the years, so that it is always a pleasure to read. Even his self-described "potboilers"---which he admittedly wrote for the money---such as 'The Conquest of Happiness,' are a pleasure to read, for Russell's delightful prose style.
It should also be noticed that Russell was often FUNNY---at times, devastatingly so, with an acerbic wit combined with a keen philosophical intellect that effectively skewered his target. This collection consists of short (ranging from virtual "one-liners" to nearly a page) excerpts from the full spectrum of Russell's huge output of books over an enormously long (he died at age 97) and productive career. Topics include Politics, Ethics, Education, Religion, and of course Sex. It's remarkable to see that Russell's once-horrifyingly controversial comments on such topics as what we would now call "Serial Monogamy" now seem almost genteel. Here are some choice examples:
“Opponents of Darwin… [said] The world… was created in 4004 BC, complete with fossils, which were inserted to try our faith… There is no logical impossibility about this view. And similarly there is no logical impossibility in the view that the world was created five minutes ago, complete with memories and records. This may seem an improbable hypothesis, but it is not logically refutable.” (An Outline of Philosophy)
“ALL faiths do harm. We may define ‘faith’ as a firm belief in something for which there is no evidence. When there is evidence, no one speaks of ‘faith.’ We do not speak of faith that two and two are four, of that the earth is round. We only speak of faith when we wish to substitute emotion for evidence. The substitution of emotion for evidence is apt to lead to strife, since different groups substitute different emotions.” (Human Society in Ethics and Politics)
“Since evolution became fashionable, the glorification of Man has taken a new form. We are told that evolution has been guided by one great Purpose: through the millions of years when there was only slime…. God was preparing the Great Climax…. He produced Man, including such specimens as Nero and Caligula, Hitler and Mussolini, whose transcendent glory justified the long painful process. For my part, I find even eternal damnation less incredible… than this lame and impotent conclusion which we are asked to admire as the supreme effort of Omnipotence.” (Unpopular Essays)
“I do not understand where the ‘beauty’ and ‘harmony’ of nature are supposed to be found. Throughout the animal kingdom, animals ruthlessly prey upon each other. Most of them are either cruelly killed by other animals or slowly die of hunger. For my part, I am unable to see any very great beauty or harmony in the tapeworm… I suppose that what is meant … are such things as the beauty of the starry heavens. But one should remember that the stars every now and again explode and reduce everything in their neighborhood to a vague mist.” [‘What is an Agnostic?’ essay]
“The earth … is likely to remain habitable for some considerable time, but not for ever… we shall … be all destroyed when the sun explodes and becomes a cold white dwarf … in about a million million years… [This] gives us some time to prepare… and we may hope that in the meantime both astronomy and gunnery will have made considerable progress. The astronomers may have discovered another star with habitable planets, and the gunners may be able to fire us off to it with a speed approaching that of light, in which case… some [of the passengers] might arrive before dying of old age. It is perhaps a slender hope, but let us make the best of it.” (Religion and Science)
“I think that in philosophical strictness at the level where one doubts the existence of material objects… I ought to call myself an agnostic; but for all practical purposes, I am an atheist. I do not think the existence of the Christian God any more probable than the existence of the Gods of Olympus… nobody can prove that there is not between Earth and Mars a teapot revolving in an elliptical orbit, but nobody thinks this sufficiently likely to be taken into account in practice. I think the Christian God just as unlikely.” (Dear Bertrand Russell)
This collection makes for a marvelous introduction to Russell, and will surely whet one's appetite to read at least some of the books these excerpts were taken from.
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