philip8 wrote: A successful life is one that is inspired by love and is guided by truth.
Wonderful. Didn't Bertrand Russell say something like this?
Correct.
I paraphased Lord Russell in his chapter "Ethics" from his book Philosophy (1927). The actual quote is: "The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge."
This is more than a Chinese cookie aphorism for Russell. He deduces the principle: Act so as to produce hamonius rather than discordant desires. Given that, Russell says that "it is clear that, if harmonious desires are what we should seek, love is better than hate, since, when two people love each other, both can be satisfied, whereas when they hate each other one at most can achieve the object of his desire. It is obvious also that desire for knowledge is to be encouraged, since the knowledge that a man acuires is not obtained by taking it away from some one else; but a desire for (say) large landed estates can only be satisified in a small minority. Desire for power over other people is a potent source of conflict, and is therefore to be discouraged; a respect for the liberty of others is one of the things that ought to be developed by the right kind of education. The impulse towards personal achievement ought to go into such things as artistic creation or scientific discovery or the promotion of useful intitutions-- in a word, into activities that are creative thather than possessive. Knowledge, which may do positive harm where men's desires coflict (for example, by showing how to make war more deadly), will have only good results where men's desires harmonize, since it tends to show how their comon desires are to be realized.
The conclusion may be summed up in a single phrase: The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge."
However, the irony is that Russell's own personal life was a nine-decade long stew of discordant desires and emotions, resulting in multiple marriages and mistresses and madness and suicides of his granddaughters and son. He, like so many philosophers, loved humanity but hated people.
I cannot say that Bertrand Russell lived a good life.
Wonderful. Didn't Bertrand Russell say something like this?
Correct.
I paraphased Lord Russell in his chapter "Ethics" from his book Philosophy (1927). The actual quote is: "The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge."
This is more than a Chinese cookie aphorism for Russell. He deduces the principle: Act so as to produce hamonius rather than discordant desires. Given that, Russell says that "it is clear that, if harmonious desires are what we should seek, love is better than hate, since, when two people love each other, both can be satisfied, whereas when they hate each other one at most can achieve the object of his desire. It is obvious also that desire for knowledge is to be encouraged, since the knowledge that a man acuires is not obtained by taking it away from some one else; but a desire for (say) large landed estates can only be satisified in a small minority. Desire for power over other people is a potent source of conflict, and is therefore to be discouraged; a respect for the liberty of others is one of the things that ought to be developed by the right kind of education. The impulse towards personal achievement ought to go into such things as artistic creation or scientific discovery or the promotion of useful intitutions-- in a word, into activities that are creative thather than possessive. Knowledge, which may do positive harm where men's desires coflict (for example, by showing how to make war more deadly), will have only good results where men's desires harmonize, since it tends to show how their comon desires are to be realized.
The conclusion may be summed up in a single phrase: The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge."
However, the irony is that Russell's own personal life was a nine-decade long stew of discordant desires and emotions, resulting in multiple marriages and mistresses and madness and suicides of his granddaughters and son. He, like so many philosophers, loved humanity but hated people.
I cannot say that Bertrand Russell lived a good life.
Labels: philosophy, Russell
posted by My Mall and News at
7:26 PM
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