Bertrand Russell's message to the future

February 17, 2011 10:32 PM

For me, Bertrand Russell's remarks seem prescient and as relevant today as they did in 1959. Lessons from BR's life in summary: 1) Be unremittingly evidence-based. 2) Embrace love. 3) Reject hatred. 4) Tolerate difference. I came across an edited version of this clip in BBC4's The Culture Show. Available on iPlayer from UK DNS addresses and likely to turn up on UK Nova sooner or later if you live elsewhere.

For those who don't know it. UK Nova is a good repository for non-commercial British TV whether you live outside the UK or, like me, simply forget to set 'record' in time and want an enduring copy of a programme rather than the time-limited one on iPlayer. I use some of these materials for teaching so something that is unavailable after 30 days is of little use. An avi file, on the other hand, is forever...

posted by Neil Hunt (25 comments total)

Did you read the comic book? I thought it was fantastic. Neat show, BTW.
posted by joelf at 10:54 PM on February 17, 2011 [2 favorites]

Makes me think about what Vonnegut said: "There's only one rule that I know of, babies-"God damn it, you've got to be kind."
posted by Sphinx at 11:24 PM on February 17, 2011

Something tells me that that was not unrehearsed. Great sentiments.
posted by StickyCarpet at 11:29 PM on February 17, 2011

I love that guy so much. I'm reading his book The Conquest of Happiness right now. You'd never know it was written 80 years ago. He's brilliant and funny and I want to underline almost every sentence. A lot of the concepts he presents remind me of aspects of cognitive behavior therapy.
posted by needs more cowbell at 11:33 PM on February 17, 2011 [1 favorite]

I don't have heroes but if I did, he'd be one.
posted by Decani at 2:43 AM on February 18, 2011

I do have heroes, Decani, and Russell is one of them.

Never a more lucid writer have I read. Absolute clarity, profound and compassionate wisdom, unfaltering intellectual rigor. I look forward to re-reading his books every few years.
posted by jet_manifesto at 5:02 AM on February 18, 2011

I love Russell. So brilliant, so insightful... and chillingly prescient, given the level of intolerance exhibited by much of the populace and, most tragically, by too many of their leaders. Those who most need to absorb Russell won't ever do so--either he's perceived as "too intellectual" or viewed as a dusty old thinker without relevance. I've seen more than my share of anti-intellectualism and have on occasion been vilified simply for having an education. Such, at least, is the America of 2011... a place where the term "elite" has become deprecatory.
posted by kinnakeet at 5:40 AM on February 18, 2011

Uh, I don't know if you've ever read a biography of the guy, but he wasn't really all that great of a person, especially in his relationships with women.
posted by nasreddin at 7:45 AM on February 18, 2011

Just to be clear--sure, as an intellectual he was one of the shining lights of his generation, but his personal life was such a shitshow that I'd be reluctant to have him as a hero.
posted by nasreddin at 7:50 AM on February 18, 2011

Uh, I don't know if you've ever read a biography of the guy, but he wasn't really all that great of a person, especially in his relationships with women.

Yeah yeah, the same could be said of MLK. Luckily, we have the ability to distinguish someone's works and achievements from their personal life!
posted by FatherDagon at 7:52 AM on February 18, 2011 [2 favorites]

To follow up on nasreddin, Clive James has a New Yorker review of a biography of Russell that is just devastating and makes Russell look like a total buffoon.

Russell was a great philosopher of logic, language, and epistemology. "On Denoting" has so many great and new ideas in it, it's like it came from the future. And his political views, and what he was willing to do for them, were respectable. But I don't think he had that many insights into happiness or the good life.
posted by painquale at 9:07 AM on February 18, 2011

nasreddin, would you elaborate? Did he abuse women, or just have sex with many of them?
posted by needs more cowbell at 9:27 AM on February 18, 2011

nasreddin, would you elaborate? Did he abuse women, or just have sex with many of them?

I'm sorry, I'm trying and failing to find the long article I was meaning to link to. I don't think it was the Clive James piece. This gets across something of what I was getting at, though.
posted by nasreddin at 9:46 AM on February 18, 2011

Since the nuclear stalemate became apparent, the governments of East and West have adopted the policy which Mr. Dulles calls 'brinksmanship.' This is a policy adapted from a sport which, I am told, is practiced by some youthful degenerates. This sport is called 'Chicken!'


Even if the open windows of science at first make us shiver ... in the end, the fresh air brings vigor, and the great spaces have a splendor of their own.

posted by ersatz at 10:46 AM on February 18, 2011 [1 favorite]

painquale: But I don't think he had that many insights into happiness or the good life.

au contraire: In Praise of Idleness
posted by anarch at 10:56 AM on February 18, 2011 [3 favorites]

Thanks for this.

on facebook my religion is listed as "bertrand russell"
posted by jtron at 11:14 AM on February 18, 2011

After more than 50 years, I'm still continously impressed* by the steady flow of books, music, art and ideas that I know almost nothing about and which produce unexpected seams to mine. So today I have ended up buying 'Logicomix' and 'The conquest of happiness' even though I had heard of neither when I got out of bed this morning (and 'Teach Yourself Albanian' but that's another story regarding the maximum number of times you can visit a country without knowing even the most basic rudiments of conversation). Thanks for these tips. I'm curious to see how Russell's thoughts on happiness compare to the picture that emerges from the more recent book by Richard Layard.

*TBH Amazon, Ebay and so on are probably even more impressed, but for a different reason...
posted by Neil Hunt at 11:49 AM on February 18, 2011

Nice find. Thanks for posting this.
posted by homunculus at 2:11 PM on February 18, 2011

Uh, I don't know if you've ever read a biography of the guy, but he wasn't really all that great of a person, especially in his relationships with women.


Me neither, mate. You perfect? I think what Russell achieved with his life more than compensated for the fact that he had his share of personal fuck-ups, you know? To say the least.
posted by Decani at 2:41 PM on February 18, 2011 [1 favorite]

Six less commandments. Works for me.
posted by Twang at 3:10 PM on February 18, 2011

I'll always have a soft spot for "An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish" . I came across it in my late teens and was so delighted to find a philosopher who was entertaining, funny and had something worthwhile to say.
posted by storybored at 8:42 PM on February 18, 2011

I am glad to see so many people interested in BR - I've been a fan for a long time.

For free online essays, try:
http://users.drew.edu/jlenz/brtexts.html
Not all links work, but it's fun to look around.

Some free ebooks by BR (and biography):
http://www.readcentral.com/author/Bertrand-Russell

As regards the "devastating" biography of BR, that refers to the 2nd volume of a work by Ray Monk. The 1st volume is fascinating. The 2nd is just plain nutty. I have chatted at a BR Annual Conference (google it!) with some people who know RM. The guesses were:
- after a very good biography of Wittgenstein and the 1st volume of BR, RM was exhausted and lost his way
- vol 2 contains much detail of BR's womanising, and RM (a staunch catholic) lost his cool.

As for happiness, BR fought long and hard (avg 3,000 words a day for 70 yrs) to help mankind. There are so many essays...
http://www.zona-pellucida.com/essay-russel.html

If anyone wants more info, I am happy to see what I can do...
posted by avonw at 11:14 AM on February 20, 2011 [1 favorite]

- vol 2 contains much detail of BR's womanising, and RM (a staunch catholic) lost his cool.

Huh, that's an interesting interpretation. I didn't know much about Monk beyond his reputation as a biographer... a staunch Catholic would not exactly be the ideal chronicler of Russell's life.

I still like the James piece.
posted by painquale at 1:48 PM on February 20, 2011

I'd love to know more about the negative sentiment toward his personal life. I know he had ideas about sex and marriage that were pretty different from those of most of his contemporaries and that he was dismissed from City College for his beliefs, but
a) I haven't read much of his writing on that (yet) and b) I'm not sure if people are talking about something beyond that.

Does Monk (and do some of you in this thread) look down on him for following his own moral guidelines, with which you disagree, or did Russell break his own moral guidelines? Did his behavior conflict with, say, how modern-day honest and communicative polyamorous people conduct their lives?
posted by needs more cowbell at 8:01 PM on February 20, 2011

I think this discussion might benefit from some clarification.

After BR's parents died, he was brought up in a deeply religious household. Any form of personal pleasure (such has hot showers or sitting down during the day!) were disapproved of. He acquired a sensation of shame as regards sexual matters at a young age.

After he married a Quaker (Alice), things didn't work out so well and he became tortured with worry - was it right to have sex with a woman he did not love? He decided one could not, and was very unhappy.

Shortly after, he met Lady Ottoline Morrell, who was groupie to just about all the intellectuals in Oxford/Cambridge/London. She converted him (and a great many others) into a sex-nut, and BR went all-out to make up for lost time. He agreed with his 4th wife that it was time to cease attempts at sexual intercourse after he turned 89.

As one woman wrote, "To sit in the back seat of a taxi with Bertie is to court disaster. Only a few moments go by before one hears a dry rustle as of dead leaves, as he slides across..."

As for BR's moral guidelines, for the most part, I do not disagree with them. Yes, he handled some personal matters poorly (for example, he wanted to divorce Alice. Beforehand, he was unkind to her on purpose, so that she might feel better about being without him). Still, hands up all those who have NOT made a goose of themselves in some personal relationship...

Monk's criticism of BR in vol 2 has to be seen to be believed. It is clear he is deeply offended by BR for some sins or other and cannot stop his bias gushing out. For example, the nutty abuse of BR for his (quite reasonable) handling of his schizophrenic son (who believed that BR was really Christine Keeler in disguise) is appalling.

Still, I forgive Monk... the biography of Wittgenstein is a masterpiece. And so is vol 1 of BR, where BR mostly keeps his dick in his pants and doesn't upset Monk.

Anyone who wants a good introduction to BR's general "social improvement" work can download a copy of Unpopular Essays here:
http://www.archive.org/details/unpopularessays027477mbp

To see what he had to say about personal relationships/sex/marriage/personal rights etc, here is a full copy of Marriage and Morals:
http://tinyurl.com/6laqmlq

There is an intelligent discussion of some of BR's work, with extracts and many good links here:
http://readingrussell.blogspot.com/

And the definitive work on BR's dismissal from City College is here:
http://www.amazon.com/Appointment-Denied-Inquisition-Bertrand-Russell/dp/1573927880
posted by avonw at 10:41 PM on February 20, 2011 [3 favorites]