Category Archives: Bertrand Russell
The Grand Logician — Bertrand Russell Speaks
The following concerns the tendency of an otherwise useful word’s meaning to be semantically hijacked when neglected, in this case, a word often used by believers as a catch-all justification for their claims, and a form of ‘evidence’ often subject to misconstrual as unerring in it’s accuracy, unaware of the many ways it may mislead us if we are without care in assessing what it tells us.
In the revolt against idealism, the ambiguities of the word “experience” have been perceived, with the result that realists have more and more avoided the word. It is to be feared, however, that if the word is avoided the confusions of thought with which it has been associated may persist.
Russell and I would probably get along splendidly seeing that his views of science, despite the failure of the Unity of Science program, very much match my own in some important respects. Then again, the Logical Positivists, though ultimately unsuccessful, did provide some very important ground rules for modern science, and that’s something to bear in mind.
It seems to me that science has a much greater likelihood of being true in the main than any philosophy hitherto advanced (I do not, of course, except my own). In science there are many matters about which people are agreed; in philosophy there are none. Therefore, although each proposition in a science may be false, and it is practically certain that there are some that are false, yet we shall be wise to build our philosophy upon science, because the risk of error in philosophy is pretty sure to be greater than in science. If we could hope for certainty in philosophy, the matter would be otherwise, but so far as I can see such a hope would be chimerical.
This last deals with a common theme (trope?) on this blog, the eternal struggle waged by those who wish reality to support their presuppositions, rather than to base their suppositions on reality, very much putting ‘Descartes before de horse…’
We all have a tendency to think that the world must conform to our prejudices. The opposite view involves some effort of thought, and most people would die sooner than think — in fact they do so.
Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell (1872-05-18 – 1970-02-02) was a British mathematician, philosopher and logician.
Bertrand Russell – to our descendants
The 3rd Earl Russell offers two bits of advice for future generations, one intellectual and one moral, both of which I find agreeable.
The 3rd Earl Russell on Educational Goals
Image via Wikipedia
Here’s something once said by twentieth century philosopher Bertrand Russell, a fellow with some interesting ideas whom I’ve not posted on enough on this site for my taste.
I never heard of him prior to getting involved as a skeptic, but he rather seems to me to have had his proverbial act together, and in any event, was someone I can learn from.
Here he puts forth his views of the proper goals of a good educational system, and what sort of understanding it should instill, very far indeed from mere indoctrination, I’d say.
Considering the date for this quote, his usage of the terms skepticism and dogma are contemporary for the period and may not be as applicable in the modern sense…
…so anyhoo here’s Bert’s 25 cents worth…
…and no, Ernie is not available for comment!
Neither acquiescence in skepticism nor acquiescence in dogma is what education should produce. What it should produce is a belief that knowledge is attainable in a measure, though with difficulty; that much of what passes for knowledge at any given time is likely to be more or less mistaken, but that the mistakes can be rectified by care and industry. In acting upon our beliefs, we should be very cautious where a small error would mean disaster; nevertheless it is upon our beliefs that we must act. This state of mind is rather difficult: it requires a high degree of intellectual culture without emotional atrophy. But though difficult, it is not impossible; it is in fact the scientific temper. Knowledge, like other good things, is difficult, but not impossible; the dogmatist forgets the difficulty, the skeptic denies the possibility. Both are mistaken, and their errors, when widespread, produce social disaster.
~ Bertrand Arthur William Russell (1872-1970) On Education, Especially in Early Childhood (1926)
Related Articles
- Bertrand Russell on God (1959) (new.exchristian.net)
- Can philosophy be our main source of ethics and morality? (or ‘Some musings on Musonius Rufus’) (beinghuman.blogs.fi)
- Symphony of Science: A Wave of Reason (guardian.co.uk)
- Are non-skeptical atheists really atheists? (redux) (barefootbum.blogspot.com)
- Symphony of Science: A Wave of Reason (kestalusrealm.wordpress.com)
- Philosophy Word of the Day – Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorem (greatcloud.wordpress.com)
- Is Philosophy Dead? (psychologytoday.com)
