Bertrand Russell

[muazjalil]

I bet everyone here knows who he is and if you don't then I guess this thread is not for you. This thread is entirely about Bertrand Russell, the famous British Philosopher, his works, ideas, life, criticism, anything and everything. Please share your views and contribute :)

[muazjalil]

Okay since nobody seems to be in the mood of writing about Russell, it seems, i have to be the first one to do so. Whats your FAVORITE book of Bertrand Russell? There you go, i have asked all you viewers a question, have the courage to answer??? My personal fav is In Praise of Idleness LOL

[johann cruyff]

I have to confess, I've only read The Wisdom of the West, but I really liked it, also found it quite useful. I also have a transcript of a debate between him and Copleston that was broadcast on BBC, if I'm not mistaken. Good stuff.

[Janine]

I picked up two of his books free at my library - I must confess only out of curiostiy, since he and D.H.Lawrence, who is my focus of study, were once friends and then had a huge falling out.

My first impressions of Russell....not sure...really...sort of wishy washy, sad, I thought, but seemed a little extreme; at first glance his work did not really draw me in or interest me that much. Maybe I did not give it enough time.

I also discovered, by reading something on the internet, that the man was quite the lady's man - didn't he marry a number of times? I thought quite honestly he was homosexual. Could someone fill me in on his life and the truth. I guess I should read up about him on Wikipedia to find out more about his life.

[muazjalil]

I think Russell married 5 times or something. To be honest his book Marriage and Morals is quite interesting!! Given his "lifestyle", I guess he knew the boundary of both. So yes you are right janine he was truly a "Lady's Man". Btw he is a very optimistic philosopher and so i am not sure where you got the "Sad" part. In all his books i guess he starts of with some sort of pessimism but later on always comes up with a solution or at least gives a direction.

I found great similarities between Russell's and Huxley's writing style. Now for those of you who are interested in reading more of Russell's stuff, here are my personal Favorites:
1) In Praise of Idleness
2) The impact of Science on Society
3) History of Western Philosophy
4) Conquest of Happiness
5) Marriage and Morals
6) Autobiography
7) Why I am not a Christian

They are NOT arranged in order of preference or liking :). Hope it helps

[TheFifthElement]

I think everyone should read Conquest of Happiness. I'm not a fan of the 'self-help' genre but there was something so soothing about this book that I turn to it at least once a year. Other than this, History of Western Philosophy is a brilliant introduction to the subject of philosophy and In Praise of Idleness is brilliant!

Russell is probably my favourite philosopher.

[wilbur lim]

Russell is literally eminent and smart,behold at his noteworthy books.Fact and Fiction is the book which I fortuitously find it while in the library.

[muazjalil]

johann cruyff, the debate that you are talking about is basically covered in "Why I am not a christian" and yes its a pretty interesting book.

I was really inspired by the first line of Russell's Autobiography : "Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind" :)

Yesterday I bought two books, Russell's Sceptical Essays (eagerly looking forward to reading it) and Sartre's What is Literature ( i have doubt about its legibility :-P)

[Vincent Black]

I've only read his History of Western Philosophy because it was recommended to me as a good introduction to philosophy, however I thought it was excellent. witty and informative.

[blazeofglory]

Russel has been my all times favorite and I like him for two reasons: First he is very direct, honest and unpretending. He writes simple sentences, use very simple words and avoid complex words so that anybody can undersntand his ideas. I am from a non English background and poor at understanding complex sentences and yet I find him very easy.l Second he is honest. Most philosophers, if not all are not honest. Russel is honest. He is critical of many of his predecessors for they are hypocritical for they express things authoratively even if they lack authority on that domain.

For example when it comes to the idea of God he is not supportive of the traditional idea of it and the way philosophers try to assert the existence of God. He becomes silent not an atheist nor as a theist. He somewhere is in favor of Buddhism.

I have gone through most of his books and I never grow tired of reading and admiring this immortal soul. He was a rationally minded person and always stood firmly against dogmas, fanaticsim, fundamentalism. He indeed added great values to our reservoir of knowledge.

[mayneverhave]

I own his History of Western Philosophy, which I've only skimmed through so far, but it seemed quite good.

I have read his collection of essays, however, called "Unpopular Essays", which was both brilliant and thoroughly entertaining.

I did not care for his treatment of Nietzsche in the History of Western Philosophy, however.

[Janine]

I think Russell married 5 times or something. To be honest his book Marriage and Morals is quite interesting!! Given his "lifestyle", I guess he knew the boundary of both. So yes you are right janine he was truly a "Lady's Man". Btw he is a very optimistic philosopher and so i am not sure where you got the "Sad" part. In all his books i guess he starts of with some sort of pessimism but later on always comes up with a solution or at least gives a direction.

I found great similarities between Russell's and Huxley's writing style. Now for those of you who are interested in reading more of Russell's stuff, here are my personal Favorites:
1) In Praise of Idleness
2) The impact of Science on Society
3) History of Western Philosophy
4) Conquest of Happiness
5) Marriage and Morals
6) Autobiography
7) Why I am not a Christian

Thanks for the listing. I just checked my free books and both are authobiographies - one early and one later years. I guess I was unfair making a judgement on the man; I only read a few pages and then set them asside. I did read he was married a number of years and my first impression was that he had never really found the right partner in life. He sounded sad; perhaps that was the earliest autobiography - not sure, but I do recall these lines someone quoted:
"Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind".

Strange to me that he wrote the book "Marriage and Morals" and had been married so many times himself, although maybe after 'five rounds', one does learn something about marriage and morals;):lol:.
I will have to give his works another try.

[muazjalil]

Oh yeah you are right Janine; I guess after 5 rounds his longing for love probably abated a bit and he had sufficient knowledge about one of the main cause for the suffering of mankind , no wonder he had so much pity LOL

One of my other fav quote of Russell is from his book (probably in praise of idleness) where he wrote that Capitalism is a system where half the population is kept unemployed and the other half is made to work twice as much, resulting in an equitable distribution of misery :) . Although he was exaggerating a bit but i loved it.

[blazeofglory]

Bertrand Russel is a real philosopher and he took us to a height from which we can see things clearly. Bertrand Russel was a man of rationality and he made always made rational judgements of things. He is matchless.

[byquist]

Don't care for him much--so what, neither here nor there, BFD. But definitely like his little intro to his autobio, "What I Have Lived For."

[muazjalil]

Just finished another of his book, Sceptical Essays. As usual it was pretty good, lucid witty and insightful. There are two chapters which are pretty interesting, One is value of Scepticism and the other "Harm that good man do".