64 pages • 2 hours read
Bertrand RussellA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Summary
Background
Book 1, Introductory
Book 1, Part 1
Book 1, Part 2, Chapters 11-18
Book 1, Part 2, Chapters 19-24
Book 1, Part 3
Book 2, Introduction and Part 1
Book 2, Part 2, Chapters 7-10
Book 2, Part 2, Chapters 11-15
Book 3, Part 1, Chapters 1-5
Book 3, Part 1, Chapters 6-11
Book 3, Part 1, Chapters 12-17
Book 3, Part 2
Key Figures
Index of Terms
Themes
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
Throughout the book, Russell expresses a bias in favor of philosophy that is scientific, empirical, and thoroughly rational in basis. Philosophers who exhibit these qualities tend to be praised by Russell, while those who do not are subject to more stringent criticism. For example, early in the book Russell praises the Pre-Socratic philosopher Anaxagoras for keeping alive “the rationalist and scientific traditions”; by contrast, he accuses Pythagoras and Socrates of bringing in “ethical and religious preoccupations” that constituted an “obscurantist bias” (63) in their philosophy.
Russell implies that this ethical and religious dimension was a bad thing for philosophy because it put science in second place and often led to incorrect conclusions about the physical universe. However, underlying Russell’s view is the positivist assumption that only scientific matters are knowable; therefore, in bringing nonscientific matters to human consciousness, he argues that some philosophers have been guilty of obscurity.
Russell faults even the most celebrated Greek philosophers, Plato and Aristotle, for having metaphysical and ethical preoccupations. He criticizes Plato for rejecting “the world of sense in favour of the self-created world of pure thought” and Aristotle for “the belief in purpose as the fundamental concept in science” (73, emphasis added). Such approaches are illegitimate in light of Russell’s bias in favor of positivism, which rejects
By Bertrand Russell
Books on Justice & Injustice
View Collection
European History
View Collection
Good & Evil
View Collection
Nobel Laureates in Literature
View Collection
Philosophy, Logic, & Ethics
View Collection
Politics & Government
View Collection
Religion & Spirituality
View Collection
SuperSummary Staff Picks
View Collection