Bertrand Russell Society
From Philosopedia
Bertrand Russell Society
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Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Arthur William Russell (b.1872 - d.1970) was a British philosopher, logician, essayist, and social critic, best known for his work in mathematical logic and analytic philosophy. His most influential contributions include his defense of logicism (the view that mathematics is in some important sense reducible to logic), and his theories of definite descriptions and logical atomism. Along with G.E. Moore, Russell is generally recognized as one of the founders of analytic philosophy. Along with Kurt Gödel, he is also regularly credited with being one of the two most important logicians of the twentieth century. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/russell/
Sound Clips of Russell Speaking
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/russell/russell-soundclips.html
- The Early Years
- The Marriages
- The Later Years
- On Humanism
- Russell's Key Role in the Development of the Peace Symbol
- Humor Of
- His Views
- His Impact
- Archives and Audio Materials
The Bertrand Russell Society
Journal of the Bertrand Russell Archives
Russell: the Journal of the Bertrand Russell Archives is published by McMaster University Press twice a year, in the summer and the winter.
The editor is Kenneth Blackwell.
Chapters and Groups
- Following is a listing of present chapters and groups that have been inspired by Lord Russell.
- Those that have not officially joined the BRS, and those that want to do so, are invited to join
by contacting John Ongley : <mailto:ongley@iit.edu>
United States of America
1. Greater Rochester Russell Set [formed 1996]
- http://www.wab.org/events/bertrand-russell-society.shtml
- Contact: David White <mailto:dwhite@sjfc.edu>
2. Greater New York City Chapter of the BRS (GNYCBRS) [formed 1 Aug 2002]
- Contact: Warren Allen Smith <ericwalther1@juno.com>
3. Bay Area Russell Set, Stanford, California [formed 2004]
- Contact: Peter Stone <mailto:bay_brs@hotmail.com>
OTHER
4. Bertrand Russell Society Group, Roseau, Dominica
- [formed July 2003]
- Contact: Basil Fadipe <mailto:fadipeb@cwdom.dm>
INACTIVE GROUPS
- Banaras Hindu University Chapter of the BRS, Varanasi, India
- [Formed June 1990, Chandrakala Padia in Varanasi]
- BRS Chapter, Makati City, Metro Manila, Philippines
- [Formed 1992, Puch Suzara]
- Korean Bertrand Russell Meeting
- [Formed 2005 by Dong-in Bae]
Russell, Humor Of
The late Trevor Banks opined that Russell was “by far the wittiest of the major philosophers,” admitting with a smile that this “is a bit like saying Margaret Thatcher was the prettiest of the British Prime Ministers.”
Examples he gave of Lord Russell’s humor during some of his stage monologues entitled “Bertie” are as follows:
• Solemnity is a condition precedent to believing anything without evidence.
• When you take from a man all sense of humor there will only be enough left to make a bigot.
• It is not surprising then that Whitehead once observed: “The total absence of humor from the Bible is one of the most singular things in all literature.”
• What a queer work the Bible is. Abraham (who is a pattern of all the virtues) twice over, when he is going abroad, says to his wife, “Sarah my dear, you are a very good-looking person, and the King is very likely to fall in love with you. If he thinks I am your husband, he will put me to death, so as to be able to marry you, so you shall travel as my sister, which you are, by the way.”
• So far as I can remember, there is not one word in the Gospels in praise of intelligence; in this respect ministers of religion follow gospel authority more closely than in some others.
• Children should be sent to boarding schools to get them away from mother love.
• The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who deny themselves ordinary pleasures and seek compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others.
• There was supposed to be some mystic virtue about gold that made it worthwhile to dig it up in the Transvaal and put it underground again in bank vaults in America.
• Some of the Gnostics held that the world was made by the devil while God wasn’t looking. There is a good deal to be said for that theory, and I am not concerned to refute it.
• Truly high-minded people are indifferent to happiness, especially other people’s.
• An honest politician will not be tolerated by a democracy unless he is very stupid . . . because only a very stupid man can honestly share the prejudices of more than half the nation.
• I was told that the Chinese said they would bury me by the Western Lake and build a shrine to my memory. I have some slight regret that this did not happen, as I might have become a god, which would have been very chic for an atheist.
• I heard Lytton Strachey read his Eminent Victorians, which he considered a very serious historical work . . . and I read it again to myself in prison. It caused me to laugh so loud that the officer came round to my cell, saying I must remember that prison is a place of punishment.
• [G. E.] Moore was the most honest person I have ever met. I only once succeeded in making him tell a lie, and that was by a subterfuge. “Moore,” I said, “do you always speak the truth?” “No,” he replied. I believe this was the only lie he had ever told.
• There are nuns who never take a bath without wearing a bathrobe. When asked why, since no man can see them, they reply: “Oh, but you forget the good God.” Apparently they conceive of the deity as a Peeping Tom whose omnipotence enables him to see through bathroom walls, but who is foiled by bathrobes.”
• Many Chinese have that refinement of humor which consists in enjoying a joke more when the other person cannot see it.
• Leibniz wished to be thought well of, so he published only his second-rate work. All his best work remained in manuscript.
• It is sometimes said that a very large part of my writing has been about sexual relations. Actually only about 1% of my writings are concerned with sex, but the conventional public is so obsessed with sex that they haven’t noticed the other 99%.
• Protestants tell us . . . that it is contrary to the will of God to work on Sundays. But Jews say that it is on Saturdays that God objects to work. Disagreement on this point has persisted for 19 centuries, and I know no method of putting an end to the disagreement except Hitler’s lethal chambers, which would not generally be regarded as a legitimate method in scientific controversy.
• If you wish to be happy yourself, you must resign yourself to seeing others happy.
Russell, Writings Of - Texts Online
See [1]
