Bertrand Russell - The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell

The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell

'I am in no degree ashamed of having changed my opinions. What physicist who was active in 1900 would dream of boasting that his opinions had not changed?'

Bertrand Russell

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The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell

Bertrand Russell

Edited by Robert E. Egner and Lester E. Denonn

With an introduction by John G. Slater

London and New York

This edition first published 1961
by George Allen & Unwin Ltd, London

First published in Routledge Classics 2009
by Routledge
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Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
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This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2009.

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2009 The Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation Ltd

Introduction 1992 John G. Slater

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted
or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic,
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Russell, Bertrand, 18721970.
The basic writings of Bertrand Russell / Bertrand Russell.
p. cm. (Routledge classics)
Originally published as: Basic writings, 19031959, London :
George Allen & Unwin, 1961.
Includes index.
1. Philosphy. I. Title.
B1649.R91 2009
192dc22
2008052126

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The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell was first published in 1961. Although Russell wrote a preface for it, he had no hand in selecting its contents; that daunting task fell to its editors, Robert Egner and Lester Denonn. The importance of the book lies in the picture it gives of Russell's broad and diverse interests. If any twentieth-century author is a polymath, then Russell is one. Just about the only traditional branch of philosophy he did not write on is aesthetics. In a letter to Lucy Donnelly, written on 19 October 1913, he told her that the pupil she had sent him from Bryn Mawr had turned up and wanted to study aesthetics. Unfortunately, Cambridge had no one who could help her with aesthetics. 'I feel sure learned aesthetics is rubbish,' he wrote, 'and that it ought to be a matter of literature and taste rather than science. But I don't know whether to tell her so.' Little wonder, then, that he never wrote on the subject.

Russell's wide interests developed gradually over the years. From his grandmother he acquired a love of history and an interest in politics in all of its forms. A Russell was expected to take an interest in political matters and to make his opinion known. Russell wrote on a bewildering variety of public controversies, beginning with free trade and women's suffrage and ending with the Kennedy assassination and the Vietnam war. None of these writings was philosophical, although he often used philosophical techniques to demolish an opponent's argument. In his studies at Cambridge he developed his talents in mathematics, philosophy, and economics. His first degree was in mathematics, which he capped with a year's study of philosophy. Undecided whether to pursue philosophy or economics as a career, he finally picked the former and wrote a successful Fellowship dissertation for Trinity College on non-Euclidean geometry, which made use of both of his undergraduate subjects. But he continued to read economics books, which helped him in his researches on German social democracy, the topic of his first book; after that, economics tends to fade from the picture. While a fellow at Cambridge he wondered whether he had any talent for experimental science, so he arranged to spend some time working in the Cavendish Laboratory, but he quickly discovered that he had no such talent. He did, however, keep abreast with the new physics as it developed, at least until the early 1930s. After that there is no evidence that he continued to read original articles as they came out, although right through the 1950s he continued to read books on physics. His interest in science was not confined to physics; he studied it widely enough to be comfortable generalizing about its method; he adopted a version of the scientific method as his guide to philosophizing.

One question to which he applied his scientific method concerned the nature of mind. To prepare himself to analyse mental concepts he read very widely in the psychological literature of his day, especially the writings of the behaviourists. At about the same time, he was becoming increasingly interested in the philosophy of education. This interest arose from the need to provide an education for his own children. None of the available schools seemed suitable, so he and his second wife decided to open their own school. Running a school proved a formidable task. Russell tried to give guidance to his teachers and others by writing on education; his books and articles defend what is called the progressive view of education.

His school made a heavy drain on his resources, which he had to make up by writing and lecturing for payment. During the 1920s he regularly made lecture tours of the United States, where he was paid much better than elsewhere. And he accepted nearly every offer to write for cash. For a long period, to cite one remarkable example, he wrote a short article every week for the Hearst newspapers. These little pieces usually took some catchy topic'Who May Use Lipstick?' or 'Do Dogs Think?'and discussed it wittily. In a few of them there is quite serious philosophical argument, but mostly they are just fun. As the examples suggest, they range widely, and accordingly add greatly to the sweep of Russell's writings. What is really impressive about them is their erudition; Russell, it seems, never forgot a word he had read.