Last Essay:
"1967"
This is Bertrand Russell's last manuscript.
Untitled, it was annotated "1967" by Russell, at the age
of 95,
two or three years before he died. Ray Monk published it first
in The
Independent of London on the 25th anniversary of the Russell
Archives. The essay's politics are uncannily
prescient.
The time has come to review my life as a whole, and to ask whether
it has served any useful purpose or has been wholly concerned in
futility. Unfortunately, no answer is possible for anyone who does
not know the future. Modern weapons make it practically certain
that the next serious war will exterminate the human race. This is
admitted by all competent authorities, and I shall not waste time
in proving i... (From: mcmaster.ca.) It is impossible to imagine a more dramatic and horrifying combination of scientific triumph with political and moral failure than has been shown to the world in the destruction of Hiroshima. From the scientific point of view, the atomic bomb embodies the results of a combination of genius and patience as remarkable as any in the history of mankind. Atoms are so minute that it might have seemed impossible to know as much as we do about them. A million million bundles, each containing a million million hydrogen atoms, would weigh about a gram and a half. Each hydrogen atom consists of a nucleus, and an electron going round the nucleus, as the earth goes round the sun. The distance from the nucleus to the electron is usually about a hundred-m... (From: mcmaster.ca.) A Free Man's Worship
by Bertrand Russell
A brief introduction: "A Free Man's Worship" (first published
as "The Free Man's Worship" in Dec. 1903) is perhaps Bertrand Russell's
best known and most reprinted essay. Its mood and language have often been
explained, even by Russell himself, as reflecting a particular time in
his life; "it depend(s)," he wrote in 1929, "upon a metaphysic which is
more platonic than that which I now believe in." Yet the essay sounds many
characteristic Russellian themes and preoccupations and deserves consideration--and
further serious study--as an historical landmark of early-twentieth-century
European thought. For a scholarly edition with some documentation, see
Volume 12 of The Collected Papers of... (From: Drew.edu.) Ideas that Have Harmed Mankind from "Unpopular Essays" by
Bertrand Russell
.
The misfortunes of human beings may be divided into two
classes: First, those inflicted by the non-human environment and, second, those inflicted
by other people. As mankind have progressed in knowledge and technique, the second class
has become a continually increasing percentage of the total. In old times, famine, for
example, was due to natural causes, and although people did their best to combat it, large
numbers of them died of starvation. At the present moment large parts of the world are
faced with the threat of famine, but although natural causes have contributed to the
situation, the principal causes are huma... (From: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Oracle/2528/br_ide....) The Impulse to Power introduction to the book
"Power" by Bertrand Russell
.
Between man and other animals there are
various differences, some intellectual, some emotional. One of the chief emotional
differences is that some human desires, unlike those of- animals, are essentially
boundless and incapable of complete satisfaction. The boa constrictor, when he has had his
meal, sleeps until appetite revives; if other animals do not do likewise, it is because
their meals are less adequate or because they fear enemies. The activities of animals,
with few exceptions, are inspired by the primary needs of survival and reproduction, and
do not exceed what these needs make imperative.With men, the... (From: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Oracle/2528/br_pow....) In Praise of Idleness This text was first provided by the Massachusetts Green Party, but I found out that they have moved or deleted their page, so now I'm keeping a "mirror" of their text.
.
In this essay,
Lord Bertrand Russell proposes a cut in the definition of full time to four hours per day.
As this article was written in 1932, he has not the benefit of knowing that, as we added
more wage-earners per family (women entered the work force) and families shrunk (fewer
kids), and the means of production become more efficient (better machines) the number of
hours each wage-earner must work to support the family has stayed constant. These facts
seem to uphold Russell's point. Like most of my generatio (From: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Oracle/2528/br_idl....) A LIBERAL DECALOGUE
By Bertrand Russell
Perhaps the essence of the Liberal outlook could be summed up in a new
decalogue, not intended to replace the old one but only to supplement it.
The Ten Commandments that, as a teacher, I should wish to promulgate, might
be set forth as follows:
1. Do not feel absolutely certain of anything.
2. Do not think it worth while to proceed by concealing evidence,
for the evidence is sure to come to light.
3. Never try to discourage thinking for you are sure to succeed.
4. When you meet with opposition, even if it should be from your
husband or your children, endeavor to overcome it by argument and not by
authority, for a victory dependent upon authority is unreal and illusory.... (From: Drew.edu.) In these days, under the influence of democracy, the virtue of cooperation has taken the place formerly held by obedience. The old-fashioned schoolmaster would say of a boy that he was disobedient; the modern schoolmistress says of an infant that he is non-cooperative. It means the same thing: the child, in either case, fails to do what the teacher wishes, but in the first case the teacher acts as the government and in the second as the representative of the People, i.e. of the other children. The result of the new language, as of the old, is to encourage docility, suggestibility, herd-instinct and conventionality, thereby necessarily discouraging originality, initiative and unusual intelligence. Adults who achieve anything of value have se... (From: SantaFe.edu.) Throughout recent years, a vast amount of money and time and brains has been employed in overcoming sales resistance, i.e. in inducing unoffending persons to waste their money in purchasing objects which they had no desire to possess. It is characteristic of our age that this sort of thing is considered meritorious: lectures are given on salesmanship, and those who possess the art are highly rewarded. Yet, if a moment's consideration is given to the matter, it is clear that the activity is a noxious one which does more harm than good. Some hard-working professional man, for example, who has been saving up with a view to giving his family a pleasant summer holiday, is beset in a weak moment by a highly trained bandit who wants to sell him... I
am persuaded that there is absolutely no limit in the absurdities that can, by government
action, come to be generally believed. Give me an adequate army, with power to provide it
with more pay and better food than falls to the lot of the average man, and I will
undertake, within thirty years, to make the majority of the population believe that two
and two are three, that water freezes when it gets hot and boils when it gets cold, or any
other nonsense that might seem to serve the interest of the State. Of course, even when
these beliefs had been generated, people would not put the kettle in the refrigerator when
they wanted it to boil. That cold makes water boil would be a Sunday truth, sacred and
mystical, to be professed in aw... CHAPTER II
THE EXISTENCE OF MATTER
IN this chapter we have to ask ourselves whether, in any
sense at all, there is such a thing as matter. Is there a table which
has a certain intrinsic nature, and continues to exist when I am not
looking, or is the table merely a product of my imagination, a
dream-table in a very prolonged dream? This question is of the
greatest importance. For if we cannot be sure of the independent
existence of objects, we cannot be sure of the independent existence
of other people's bodies, and therefore still less of other people's
minds, since we have no grounds for believing in their minds except
such as are derived from observing their bodies. Thus if we cannot be
sure of the independent existence o... Proposed Roads
To Freedom
By
Bertrand Russell
PART I -
HISTORICAL
CHAPTER I
MARX AND SOCIALIST DOCTRINE
SOCIALISM, like everything else that is vital, is
rather a tendency than a strictly definable body of
doctrine. A definition of Socialism is sure either to
include some views which many would regard as not
Socialistic, or to exclude others which claim to be
included. But I think we shall come nearest to the
essence of Socialism by defining it as the advocacy
of communal ownership of land and capital. Communal
ownership may mean ownership by a democratic
State, but cannot be held to include ownership
by any State which is not democratic. Communal
ownership may also be understood, as Anarchist
Communism un... (From: Gutenberg.org.) The Century Magazine, July 1929, Vol. 118, No. 3, Pgs. 311-315
The Twilight Of Science
Is The Universe Running Down
Bertrand Russell
It is a curious fact that just when the man in the street has begun to believe thoroughly in science, the man in the laboratory has begun to lose his faith. When I was young, no physicist entertained the slightest doubt that the laws of physics give us real information about the motions of bodies, and that the physical world does really consist of the sort of entities that appear in the physicist's equations. The philosophers, it is true, throw doubt upon this view, and have done so ever since the time of Berkeley; but since their criticism never attached itself to any point in the detai... (From: Anarchy Archives.) V
EDUCATION
NO political theory is adequate unless it is applicable to children as well as to men and women. Theorists are mostly childless, or, if they have children, they are carefully screened from the disturbances which would be caused by youthful turmoil. Some of them have written books on education, but without, as a-rule, having any actual children present to their minds while they wrote. Those educational theorists who have had a knowledge of children, such as the inventors of Kindergarten and the Montessori system,[1] have not always had enough realization of the ultimate goal of education to be able to deal successfully with advanced instruction. I have not the knowledge either of children or of education which would enable me t... (From: WikiSource.org.)
