Bertrand Russell's views on society
Encyclopedia
The aspects of Bertrand Russell's views on society cover the changing viewpoints of philosopher/mathematician and social activist Bertrand Russell
(1872–1970), from his early writings in 1896 and long-term political or social activism, until his death in February 1970.
occupied much of Russell's time for most of his long life, which makes his prodigious and seminal writing on a wide range of technical and non-technical subjects all the more remarkable.
Russell remained politically active to the end of his life, writing to and exhorting world leaders and lending his name to various causes. Some maintain that during his last few years he gave his youthful followers too much license and that they used his name for some outlandish purposes that a more attentive Russell would not have approved. There is evidence to show that he became aware of this when he fired his private secretary, Ralph Schoenman
, then a young firebrand of the radical left.
. He resisted specific wars on the grounds that they were contrary to the interests of civilization, and thus immoral. On the other hand, his 1915 article on "The Ethics of War," he defended wars of colonization on the same utilitarian grounds: he felt conquest was justified if the side with the more advanced civilization could put the land to better use.
Russell's activism against British participation in World War I
led to fines, a loss of freedom of travel within Britain, and the non-renewal of his fellowship at Trinity College
, Cambridge
. and he was eventually sentenced to prison in 1918 on the tenuous grounds that he had interfered in British Foreign Policy — he had argued that British workers should be wary of the United States Army, for it had experience in strike-breaking. He was released after serving six months, but was still closely supervised until the end of the war.
In 1943 Russell called his stance towards warfare "relative political pacifism"—he held that war was always a great evil
, but in some particularly extreme circumstances (such as when Adolf Hitler
threatened to take over Europe
) it might be a lesser of multiple evils. In the years leading to World War II
, he supported the policy of appeasement
; but by 1940 he acknowledged that in order to preserve democracy, Hitler had to be defeated. This same reluctant value compromise was shared by his acquaintance A.A. Milne.
Russell was fairly consistently opposed to the continued existence of nuclear weapons from the time of their first use. However, on 20 November 1948, in a public speech at Westminster School
, addressing a gathering arranged by the New Commonwealth, Russell shocked some observers with comments that seemed to suggest a preemptive nuclear strike
on the Soviet Union
might be justified. Russell apparently argued that the threat of war between the United States
and the Soviet Union would enable the United States to force the Soviet Union to accept the Baruch Plan
for international atomic energy control. (Earlier in the year he had written in the same vein to Walter W. Marseille
.) Russell felt this plan "had very great merits and showed considerable generosity, when it is remembered that America still had an unbroken nuclear monopoly." (Has Man a Future?, 1961). However Nicholas Griffin of McMaster University, in his book The Selected Letters of Bertrand Russell: The Public Years, 1914–1970, has claimed (after obtaining a transcript of the speech) that Russell's wording implies he didn't advocate the actual use of the atom bomb, but merely its diplomatic use as a massive source of leverage over the actions of the Soviets. Griffin's interpretation was disputed by Nigel Lawson
, the former British Chancellor, who was present at the speech, claims it was quite clear that Russell was advocating an actual First Strike. Whichever interpretation is correct, Russell later relented, instead arguing for mutual disarmament by the nuclear powers, possibly linked to some form of world government
.
In 1955, Russell released the Russell-Einstein Manifesto
, co-signed by Albert Einstein
and nine other leading scientists and intellectuals, a document which led to the first of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs
in 1957. In 1958, Russell became the first president of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
. He resigned two years later when the CND would not support civil disobedience
, and formed the Committee of 100. In September 1961 he was imprisoned for a week for inciting civil disobedience, when he took part in a huge ban-the-bomb demonstration at the Ministry of Defence
but the sentence was quashed on account of his age.
During the Cuban Missile Crisis
, Russell sent telegrams to U.S. President
John F. Kennedy
, Nikita Khrushchev
, the UN Secretary-General U Thant
and British Prime Minister
Harold Macmillan
. His telegrams were greatly critical of Kennedy, who he had already singled out earlier as "more dangerous than Hitler", and tolerant of Khrushchev. Khrushchev replied with a long letter, published by the Russian news agency ITAR-TASS, which was mainly addressed to Kennedy and the Western world.
Increasingly concerned about the potential danger to humanity arising from nuclear weapons and other scientific discoveries, he also joined with Einstein, Robert Oppenheimer
, Joseph Rotblat
and other eminent scientists of the day to establish the World Academy of Art and Science
which was formally constituted in 1960.
The Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation
and its publishing imprint Spokesman Books began work in 1963 to carry forward Russell's work for peace, human rights and social justice. He began public opposition to US policy in Vietnam
with a letter to The New York Times
dated 28 March 1963. By the autumn of 1966, he had completed the manuscript War Crimes in Vietnam. Then, using the American justifications for the Nuremberg Trials, Russell, along with Jean-Paul Sartre
, organised what he called an international War Crimes Tribunal, the Russell Tribunal
.
Russell criticized the official account of the assassination of John F. Kennedy in "16 Questions on the Assassination
," 1964.
and met Vladimir Lenin
in 1920, he was unimpressed with the system in place. On his return he wrote a critical tract, The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism. He was "infinitely unhappy in this atmosphere—stifled by its utilitarianism, its indifference to love and beauty and the life of impulse." He believed Lenin to be similar to a religious zealot, cold and possessing "no love of liberty."
In the 1922
and 1923 general elections Russell stood as a Labour Party
candidate in the Chelsea constituency
, but only on the basis that he knew he was extremely unlikely to be elected in such a safe Conservative seat, and he was not on either occasion.
He was strongly critical of Stalin's regime, and referred to Marxism as a "system of dogma." Between 1945 and 1947, together with A. J. Ayer and George Orwell
, he contributed a series of articles to Polemic
, a short-lived British "Magazine of Philosophy, Psychology, and Aesthetics" edited by the ex-Communist Humphrey Slater
.
Russell was a consistent enthusiast for democracy and world government
, and he advocated the establishment of a democratic international government in some of the essays collected in In Praise of Idleness (1935), and also in Has Man a Future? (1961); he also discussed the matter of world government in a series of lectures titled "Why Men Fight"(1916).
and wrote in favor of women's suffrage
. In his 1910 pamphlet, Anti-Suffragist Anxieties, Russell wrote that some men opposed suffrage because they "fear that their liberty to act in ways that are injurious to women will be curtailed." In May 1907 Russell stood for Parliament as a Woman's suffrage candidate in Wimbledon
, but was not elected.
notions of morality. Marriage and Morals
(1929) expressed his opinion that sex between a man and woman who are not married to each other is not necessarily immoral if they truly love one another, and advocated "trial marriages" or "companionate marriage," formalized relationships whereby young people could legitimately have sexual intercourse without being expected to remain married in the long term or to have children (an idea first proposed by Judge Ben Lindsey). This was enough to raise vigorous protests and denunciations against him during his visit to the United States
shortly after the book's publication. Russell was also one of the first intellectuals to advocate open sex education
and widespread access to contraception
. He also advocated easy divorce
, but only if the marriage had produced no children — Russell's view was that parents should remain married but tolerant of each other's sexual infidelity, if they had children. This reflected his life at the time — his second wife Dora was openly having an affair, and would soon become pregnant by another man, but Russell was keen for their children John and Kate to have a "normal" family life.
Russell was also an active supporter of the Homosexual Law Reform Society
, being one of the signatories of A.E. Dyson's 1958 letter to The Times calling for a change in the law regarding male homosexual practices, which were partly legalized in 1967, when Russell was still alive.
Passages in some of his early writings support birth control
. On 16 November 1922, for instance, he gave a lecture to the General Meeting of Dr. Marie Stopes
's Society for Constructive Birth Control and Racial Progress on "Birth Control and International Relations," in which he described the importance of extending Western birth control worldwide; his remarks anticipated the population control movement of the 1960s and the role of the United Nations.
Another passage from early editions of his book Marriage and Morals (1929), which Russell later claimed to be referring only to environmental conditioning, and which he significantly modified in later editions, reads:
Russell later criticized eugenic programs for their vulnerability to corruption, and, in 1932, he condemned the "unwarranted assumption" that "Negroes are congenitally inferior to white men" (Education and the Social Order, Chap. 3).
Responding in 1964 to a correspondent's inquiry, "Do you still consider the Negroes an inferior race, as you did when you wrote Marriage and Morals?", Russell replied:
) have called his "journalism
," than they are with his technical, philosophical work. There is a marked tendency to conflate these matters, and to judge Russell the philosopher on what he himself would certainly consider to be his non-philosophical opinions. Russell often cautioned people to make this distinction. Beginning in the 1920s, Russell wrote frequently for The Nation
on changing morals, nuclear disarmament
and literature
. In 1965, he wrote that the magazine "...has been one of the few voices which has been heard on behalf of individual liberty and social justice
consistently throughout its existence."
Russell left a large assortment of writing. From his adolescent years, he wrote about 3,000 words a day, with relatively few corrections; his first draft nearly always was his last, even on the most complex, technical matters. His previously unpublished work is an immense treasure trove, and scholars continue to gain new insights into Russell's thought.
Note: This is a mere sampling, for Russell also wrote many pamphlets, introductions, articles and letters to the editor. His works also can be found in any number of anthologies and collections, perhaps most notably The Collected Papers of Bertrand Russell, which McMaster University
began publishing in 1983. This collection of his shorter and previously unpublished works is now up to 16 volumes, and many more are forthcoming. An additional three volumes are used to catalogue just his bibliography. The Russell Archives at McMaster University
also have more than 30,000 letters that he wrote.
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Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, OM, FRS was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, and social critic. At various points in his life he considered himself a liberal, a socialist, and a pacifist, but he also admitted that he had never been any of these things...
(1872–1970), from his early writings in 1896 and long-term political or social activism, until his death in February 1970.
Activism
Political and social activismActivism
Activism consists of intentional efforts to bring about social, political, economic, or environmental change. Activism can take a wide range of forms from writing letters to newspapers or politicians, political campaigning, economic activism such as boycotts or preferentially patronizing...
occupied much of Russell's time for most of his long life, which makes his prodigious and seminal writing on a wide range of technical and non-technical subjects all the more remarkable.
Russell remained politically active to the end of his life, writing to and exhorting world leaders and lending his name to various causes. Some maintain that during his last few years he gave his youthful followers too much license and that they used his name for some outlandish purposes that a more attentive Russell would not have approved. There is evidence to show that he became aware of this when he fired his private secretary, Ralph Schoenman
Ralph Schoenman
Ralph Schoenman is an American left-wing activist who was a personal secretary to Bertrand Russell and became general secretary of the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation...
, then a young firebrand of the radical left.
Pacifism, war and nuclear weapons
Russell was never a complete pacifistPacifism
Pacifism is the opposition to war and violence. The term "pacifism" was coined by the French peace campaignerÉmile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress inGlasgow in 1901.- Definition :...
. He resisted specific wars on the grounds that they were contrary to the interests of civilization, and thus immoral. On the other hand, his 1915 article on "The Ethics of War," he defended wars of colonization on the same utilitarian grounds: he felt conquest was justified if the side with the more advanced civilization could put the land to better use.
Russell's activism against British participation in World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
led to fines, a loss of freedom of travel within Britain, and the non-renewal of his fellowship at Trinity College
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows...
, Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
. and he was eventually sentenced to prison in 1918 on the tenuous grounds that he had interfered in British Foreign Policy — he had argued that British workers should be wary of the United States Army, for it had experience in strike-breaking. He was released after serving six months, but was still closely supervised until the end of the war.
In 1943 Russell called his stance towards warfare "relative political pacifism"—he held that war was always a great evil
Evil
Evil is the violation of, or intent to violate, some moral code. Evil is usually seen as the dualistic opposite of good. Definitions of evil vary along with analysis of its root motive causes, however general actions commonly considered evil include: conscious and deliberate wrongdoing,...
, but in some particularly extreme circumstances (such as when Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
threatened to take over Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
) it might be a lesser of multiple evils. In the years leading to World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, he supported the policy of appeasement
Appeasement
The term appeasement is commonly understood to refer to a diplomatic policy aimed at avoiding war by making concessions to another power. Historian Paul Kennedy defines it as "the policy of settling international quarrels by admitting and satisfying grievances through rational negotiation and...
; but by 1940 he acknowledged that in order to preserve democracy, Hitler had to be defeated. This same reluctant value compromise was shared by his acquaintance A.A. Milne.
Russell was fairly consistently opposed to the continued existence of nuclear weapons from the time of their first use. However, on 20 November 1948, in a public speech at Westminster School
Westminster School
The Royal College of St. Peter in Westminster, almost always known as Westminster School, is one of Britain's leading independent schools, with the highest Oxford and Cambridge acceptance rate of any secondary school or college in Britain...
, addressing a gathering arranged by the New Commonwealth, Russell shocked some observers with comments that seemed to suggest a preemptive nuclear strike
First strike
In nuclear strategy, a first strike is a preemptive surprise attack employing overwhelming force. First strike capability is a country's ability to defeat another nuclear power by destroying its arsenal to the point where the attacking country can survive the weakened retaliation while the opposing...
on the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
might be justified. Russell apparently argued that the threat of war between the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and the Soviet Union would enable the United States to force the Soviet Union to accept the Baruch Plan
Baruch Plan
The Baruch Plan was a proposal by the United States government, written largely by Bernard Baruch but based on the Acheson–Lilienthal Report, to the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission in its first meeting in June 1946...
for international atomic energy control. (Earlier in the year he had written in the same vein to Walter W. Marseille
Walter W. Marseille
When he published his political articles, Dr. Walter W. Marseille was said to be a Berkeley, California psychoanalyst. He published occasionally on nuclear weapons policy in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, from 1954 until 1962. Details of Marseille's personal and professional life are not...
.) Russell felt this plan "had very great merits and showed considerable generosity, when it is remembered that America still had an unbroken nuclear monopoly." (Has Man a Future?, 1961). However Nicholas Griffin of McMaster University, in his book The Selected Letters of Bertrand Russell: The Public Years, 1914–1970, has claimed (after obtaining a transcript of the speech) that Russell's wording implies he didn't advocate the actual use of the atom bomb, but merely its diplomatic use as a massive source of leverage over the actions of the Soviets. Griffin's interpretation was disputed by Nigel Lawson
Nigel Lawson
Nigel Lawson, Baron Lawson of Blaby, PC , is a British Conservative politician and journalist. He was a Member of Parliament representing the constituency of Blaby from 1974–92, and served as the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the government of Margaret Thatcher from June 1983 to October 1989...
, the former British Chancellor, who was present at the speech, claims it was quite clear that Russell was advocating an actual First Strike. Whichever interpretation is correct, Russell later relented, instead arguing for mutual disarmament by the nuclear powers, possibly linked to some form of world government
World government
World government is the notion of a single common political authority for all of humanity. Its modern conception is rooted in European history, particularly in the philosophy of ancient Greece, in the political formation of the Roman Empire, and in the subsequent struggle between secular authority,...
.
In 1955, Russell released the Russell-Einstein Manifesto
Russell-Einstein Manifesto
The Russell–Einstein Manifesto was issued in London on July 9, 1955 by Bertrand Russell in the midst of the Cold War. It highlighted the dangers posed by nuclear weapons and called for world leaders to seek peaceful resolutions to international conflict...
, co-signed by Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of general relativity, effecting a revolution in physics. For this achievement, Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics and one of the most prolific intellects in human history...
and nine other leading scientists and intellectuals, a document which led to the first of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs
Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs
The Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs is an international organization that brings together scholars and public figures to work toward reducing the danger of armed conflict and to seek solutions to global security threats...
in 1957. In 1958, Russell became the first president of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament is an anti-nuclear organisation that advocates unilateral nuclear disarmament by the United Kingdom, international nuclear disarmament and tighter international arms regulation through agreements such as the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty...
. He resigned two years later when the CND would not support civil disobedience
Civil disobedience
Civil disobedience is the active, professed refusal to obey certain laws, demands, and commands of a government, or of an occupying international power. Civil disobedience is commonly, though not always, defined as being nonviolent resistance. It is one form of civil resistance...
, and formed the Committee of 100. In September 1961 he was imprisoned for a week for inciting civil disobedience, when he took part in a huge ban-the-bomb demonstration at the Ministry of Defence
Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom)
The Ministry of Defence is the United Kingdom government department responsible for implementation of government defence policy and is the headquarters of the British Armed Forces....
but the sentence was quashed on account of his age.
During the Cuban Missile Crisis
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis was a confrontation among the Soviet Union, Cuba and the United States in October 1962, during the Cold War...
, Russell sent telegrams to U.S. President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
, Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964...
, the UN Secretary-General U Thant
U Thant
U Thant was a Burmese diplomat and the third Secretary-General of the United Nations, from 1961 to 1971. He was chosen for the post when his predecessor, Dag Hammarskjöld, died in September 1961....
and British Prime Minister
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...
Harold Macmillan
Harold Macmillan
Maurice Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton, OM, PC was Conservative Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 10 January 1957 to 18 October 1963....
. His telegrams were greatly critical of Kennedy, who he had already singled out earlier as "more dangerous than Hitler", and tolerant of Khrushchev. Khrushchev replied with a long letter, published by the Russian news agency ITAR-TASS, which was mainly addressed to Kennedy and the Western world.
Increasingly concerned about the potential danger to humanity arising from nuclear weapons and other scientific discoveries, he also joined with Einstein, Robert Oppenheimer
Robert Oppenheimer
Julius Robert Oppenheimer was an American theoretical physicist and professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley. Along with Enrico Fermi, he is often called the "father of the atomic bomb" for his role in the Manhattan Project, the World War II project that developed the first...
, Joseph Rotblat
Joseph Rotblat
Sir Joseph Rotblat, KCMG, CBE, FRS , was a Polish-born, British-naturalised physicist.His work on nuclear fallout was a major contribution to the agreement of the Partial Test Ban Treaty...
and other eminent scientists of the day to establish the World Academy of Art and Science
World Academy of Art and Science
The World Academy of Art and Science is an international non-governmental scientific organization, an informal and non-official world network of individual fellows elected for distinguished accomplishments in the fields of natural and social sciences, arts and the humanities...
which was formally constituted in 1960.
The Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation
Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation
The Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation was established in 1963. The foundation aims to continue the work of the philosopher and activist Bertrand Russell in the areas of peace, social justice, and human rights, with a specific focus on the dangers of nuclear war...
and its publishing imprint Spokesman Books began work in 1963 to carry forward Russell's work for peace, human rights and social justice. He began public opposition to US policy in Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
with a letter to The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
dated 28 March 1963. By the autumn of 1966, he had completed the manuscript War Crimes in Vietnam. Then, using the American justifications for the Nuremberg Trials, Russell, along with Jean-Paul Sartre
Jean-Paul Sartre
Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre was a French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic. He was one of the leading figures in 20th century French philosophy, particularly Marxism, and was one of the key figures in literary...
, organised what he called an international War Crimes Tribunal, the Russell Tribunal
Russell Tribunal
The Russell Tribunal, also known as the International War Crimes Tribunal or Russell-Sartre Tribunal, was a public body organized by British philosopher Bertrand Russell and hosted by French philosopher and playwright Jean-Paul Sartre...
.
Russell criticized the official account of the assassination of John F. Kennedy in "16 Questions on the Assassination
16 Questions on the Assassination
16 Questions On the Assassination was a paper by Bertrand Russell, published in the September 6, 1964 issue of M.S. Arnoni’s The Minority of One. Bertrand Russell, then in his nineties, wrote the paper questioning the conclusions of the Warren Commission on the assassination of President John F....
," 1964.
Communism and socialism
Russell initially expressed great hope in "the Communist experiment." However, when he visited the Soviet UnionSoviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
and met Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...
in 1920, he was unimpressed with the system in place. On his return he wrote a critical tract, The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism. He was "infinitely unhappy in this atmosphere—stifled by its utilitarianism, its indifference to love and beauty and the life of impulse." He believed Lenin to be similar to a religious zealot, cold and possessing "no love of liberty."
In the 1922
United Kingdom general election, 1922
The United Kingdom general election of 1922 was held on 15 November 1922. It was the first election held after most of the Irish counties left the United Kingdom to form the Irish Free State, and was won by Andrew Bonar Law's Conservatives, who gained an overall majority over Labour, led by John...
and 1923 general elections Russell stood as a Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
candidate in the Chelsea constituency
Chelsea (UK Parliament constituency)
Chelsea was a borough constituency, represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.The constituency was created by the Reform Act 1867 for the 1868 general election, when it returned two Members of Parliament , elected by the bloc vote system of election.Under the...
, but only on the basis that he knew he was extremely unlikely to be elected in such a safe Conservative seat, and he was not on either occasion.
He was strongly critical of Stalin's regime, and referred to Marxism as a "system of dogma." Between 1945 and 1947, together with A. J. Ayer and George Orwell
George Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...
, he contributed a series of articles to Polemic
Polemic (Magazine)
Polemic was a British "Magazine of Philosophy, Psychology, and Aesthetics" published between 1945 and 1947, which aimed to be a general or non-specialist intellectual periodical....
, a short-lived British "Magazine of Philosophy, Psychology, and Aesthetics" edited by the ex-Communist Humphrey Slater
Humphrey Slater
Humphrey Richard "Hugh" Slater was a British author and painter.Brought up in South Africa, he attended the Slade School of Art in the mid-1920s, and exhibited an abstract painting at Lucy Wertheim's gallery, a leading London gallery....
.
Russell was a consistent enthusiast for democracy and world government
World government
World government is the notion of a single common political authority for all of humanity. Its modern conception is rooted in European history, particularly in the philosophy of ancient Greece, in the political formation of the Roman Empire, and in the subsequent struggle between secular authority,...
, and he advocated the establishment of a democratic international government in some of the essays collected in In Praise of Idleness (1935), and also in Has Man a Future? (1961); he also discussed the matter of world government in a series of lectures titled "Why Men Fight"(1916).
Women's suffrage
As a young man, Russell was a member of the Liberal PartyLiberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
and wrote in favor of women's suffrage
Women's suffrage
Women's suffrage or woman suffrage is the right of women to vote and to run for office. The expression is also used for the economic and political reform movement aimed at extending these rights to women and without any restrictions or qualifications such as property ownership, payment of tax, or...
. In his 1910 pamphlet, Anti-Suffragist Anxieties, Russell wrote that some men opposed suffrage because they "fear that their liberty to act in ways that are injurious to women will be curtailed." In May 1907 Russell stood for Parliament as a Woman's suffrage candidate in Wimbledon
Wimbledon, London
Wimbledon is a district in the south west area of London, England, located south of Wandsworth, and east of Kingston upon Thames. It is situated within Greater London. It is home to the Wimbledon Tennis Championships and New Wimbledon Theatre, and contains Wimbledon Common, one of the largest areas...
, but was not elected.
Sexuality
Russell wrote against VictorianVictorian morality
Victorian morality is a distillation of the moral views of people living at the time of Queen Victoria's reign and of the moral climate of the United Kingdom throughout the 19th century in general, which contrasted greatly with the morality of the previous Georgian period...
notions of morality. Marriage and Morals
Marriage and Morals
Marriage and Morals is a 1929 book by the philosopher and mathematician Bertrand Russell that questions the Victorian notions of morality regarding sex and marriage....
(1929) expressed his opinion that sex between a man and woman who are not married to each other is not necessarily immoral if they truly love one another, and advocated "trial marriages" or "companionate marriage," formalized relationships whereby young people could legitimately have sexual intercourse without being expected to remain married in the long term or to have children (an idea first proposed by Judge Ben Lindsey). This was enough to raise vigorous protests and denunciations against him during his visit to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
shortly after the book's publication. Russell was also one of the first intellectuals to advocate open sex education
Sex education
Sex education refers to formal programs of instruction on a wide range of issues relating to human sexuality, including human sexual anatomy, sexual reproduction, sexual intercourse, reproductive health, emotional relations, reproductive rights and responsibilities, abstinence, contraception, and...
and widespread access to contraception
Contraception
Contraception is the prevention of the fusion of gametes during or after sexual activity. The term contraception is a contraction of contra, which means against, and the word conception, meaning fertilization...
. He also advocated easy divorce
Divorce
Divorce is the final termination of a marital union, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and dissolving the bonds of matrimony between the parties...
, but only if the marriage had produced no children — Russell's view was that parents should remain married but tolerant of each other's sexual infidelity, if they had children. This reflected his life at the time — his second wife Dora was openly having an affair, and would soon become pregnant by another man, but Russell was keen for their children John and Kate to have a "normal" family life.
Russell was also an active supporter of the Homosexual Law Reform Society
Homosexual Law Reform Society
The Homosexual Law Reform Society was an organisation that campaigned in the United Kingdom for changes in the laws that criminalised homosexual relations between men.- History :...
, being one of the signatories of A.E. Dyson's 1958 letter to The Times calling for a change in the law regarding male homosexual practices, which were partly legalized in 1967, when Russell was still alive.
Race
As with his views on religion, which developed considerably throughout his long life, Russell's views on the matter of race did not remain fixed. By 1951, Russell was a vocal advocate of racial equality and intermarriage; he penned a chapter on "Racial Antagonism" in New Hopes for a Changing World (1951), which read:Passages in some of his early writings support birth control
Birth control
Birth control is an umbrella term for several techniques and methods used to prevent fertilization or to interrupt pregnancy at various stages. Birth control techniques and methods include contraception , contragestion and abortion...
. On 16 November 1922, for instance, he gave a lecture to the General Meeting of Dr. Marie Stopes
Marie Stopes
Marie Carmichael Stopes was a British author, palaeobotanist, campaigner for women's rights and pioneer in the field of birth control...
's Society for Constructive Birth Control and Racial Progress on "Birth Control and International Relations," in which he described the importance of extending Western birth control worldwide; his remarks anticipated the population control movement of the 1960s and the role of the United Nations.
Another passage from early editions of his book Marriage and Morals (1929), which Russell later claimed to be referring only to environmental conditioning, and which he significantly modified in later editions, reads:
Russell later criticized eugenic programs for their vulnerability to corruption, and, in 1932, he condemned the "unwarranted assumption" that "Negroes are congenitally inferior to white men" (Education and the Social Order, Chap. 3).
Responding in 1964 to a correspondent's inquiry, "Do you still consider the Negroes an inferior race, as you did when you wrote Marriage and Morals?", Russell replied:
Influence on society
Russell often characterized his moral and political writings as lying outside the scope of philosophy, but Russell's admirers and detractors are often more acquainted with his pronouncements on social and political matters, or what some (e.g., biographer Ray MonkRay Monk
Ray Monk is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Southampton, where he has taught since 1992.He won the Mail on Sunday/John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and the 1991 Duff Cooper Prize for Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Duty of Genius. His interests lie in the philosophy of mathematics, the history of...
) have called his "journalism
Journalism
Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...
," than they are with his technical, philosophical work. There is a marked tendency to conflate these matters, and to judge Russell the philosopher on what he himself would certainly consider to be his non-philosophical opinions. Russell often cautioned people to make this distinction. Beginning in the 1920s, Russell wrote frequently for The Nation
The Nation
The Nation is the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States. The periodical, devoted to politics and culture, is self-described as "the flagship of the left." Founded on July 6, 1865, It is published by The Nation Company, L.P., at 33 Irving Place, New York City.The Nation...
on changing morals, nuclear disarmament
Disarmament
Disarmament is the act of reducing, limiting, or abolishing weapons. Disarmament generally refers to a country's military or specific type of weaponry. Disarmament is often taken to mean total elimination of weapons of mass destruction, such as nuclear arms...
and literature
Literature
Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...
. In 1965, he wrote that the magazine "...has been one of the few voices which has been heard on behalf of individual liberty and social justice
Social justice
Social justice generally refers to the idea of creating a society or institution that is based on the principles of equality and solidarity, that understands and values human rights, and that recognizes the dignity of every human being. The term and modern concept of "social justice" was coined by...
consistently throughout its existence."
Russell left a large assortment of writing. From his adolescent years, he wrote about 3,000 words a day, with relatively few corrections; his first draft nearly always was his last, even on the most complex, technical matters. His previously unpublished work is an immense treasure trove, and scholars continue to gain new insights into Russell's thought.
Selected bibliography of Russell's books
This is a selected bibliography of Russell's books in English sorted by year of first publication.- 1896, German Social Democracy, London: Longmans, Green
- 1897, An Essay on the Foundations of Geometry, Cambridge: At the University PressCambridge University PressCambridge University Press is the publishing business of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII in 1534, it is the world's oldest publishing house, and the second largest university press in the world...
. - 1900, A Critical Exposition of the Philosophy of Leibniz, Cambridge: At the University Press.
- 1905 On DenotingOn Denoting"On Denoting", written by Bertrand Russell, is one of the most significant and influential philosophical essays of the 20th century. It was published in the philosophy journal Mind in 1905; then reprinted, in both a special 2005 anniversary issue of the same journal and in Russell's Logic and...
, Mind vol. 14, NS, ISSN: 00264425, Basil Blackwell - 1910–1913, Principia MathematicaPrincipia MathematicaThe Principia Mathematica is a three-volume work on the foundations of mathematics, written by Alfred North Whitehead and Bertrand Russell and published in 1910, 1912, and 1913...
(with Alfred North WhiteheadAlfred North WhiteheadAlfred North Whitehead, OM FRS was an English mathematician who became a philosopher. He wrote on algebra, logic, foundations of mathematics, philosophy of science, physics, metaphysics, and education...
), 3 vols., Cambridge: At the University Press. - 1912, The Problems of PhilosophyThe Problems of PhilosophyThe Problems of Philosophy is one of Bertrand Russell's attempts to create a brief and accessible guide to the problems of philosophy...
, London: Williams and Norgate. - 1914, Our Knowledge of the External World as a Field for Scientific Method in Philosophy, Chicago and London: Open Court PublishingOpen Court Publishing CompanyThe Open Court Publishing Company is a publisher with offices in Chicago and La Salle, Illinois. It is part of the Carus Publishing Company of Peru, Illinois.-History:...
. - 1916, Principles of Social Reconstruction, London: George Allen & Unwin
- 1916, Justice in War-time, Chicago: Open Court.
- 1917, Political Ideals, New York: The Century Co.
- 1918, Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays, London: Longmans, Green.
- 1918, Proposed Roads to Freedom: Socialism, Anarchism, and Syndicalism, London: George Allen & Unwin.
- 1919, Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy, London: George Allen & Unwin, (ISBN 0-415-09604-9 for Routledge paperback) (Copy at Archive.org).
- 1920, The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism, London: George Allen & Unwin
- 1921, The Analysis of Mind, London: George Allen & Unwin.
- 1922, The Problem of China, London: George Allen & Unwin.
- 1923, The Prospects of Industrial Civilization (in collaboration with Dora Russell), London: George Allen & Unwin.
- 1923, The ABC of Atoms, London: Kegan Paul, Trench, TrubnerRoutledgeRoutledge is a British publishing house which has operated under a succession of company names and latterly as an academic imprint. Its origins may be traced back to the 19th-century London bookseller George Routledge...
. - 1924, Icarus, or the Future of Science, London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner.
- 1925, The ABC of Relativity, London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner.
- 1925, What I BelieveWhat I Believe"What I Believe" is the title of two essays espousing humanism, by Bertrand Russell and by E. M. Forster , respectively.Several other authors have also written works with the same title, alluding to either or both of these essays....
, London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner. - 1926, On Education, Especially in Early Childhood, London: George Allen & Unwin.
- 1927, The Analysis of Matter, London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner.
- 1927, Why I Am Not a ChristianWhy I Am Not a ChristianWhy I Am Not a Christian is a 1927 essay by the British philosopher Bertrand Russell hailed by The Independent as "devastating in its use of cold logic", and listed in the New York Public Library's list of the most influential books of the 20th century....
, London: Watts. - 1927, Selected Papers of Bertrand Russell, New York: Modern Library.
- 1928, Sceptical Essays, London: George Allen & Unwin.
- 1929, Marriage and Morals, London: George Allen & Unwin.
- 1930, The Conquest of Happiness, London: George Allen & Unwin.
- 1931, The Scientific Outlook, London: George Allen & Unwin.
- 1932, Education and the Social Order, London: George Allen & Unwin.
- 1934, Freedom and Organization, 1814–1914, London: George Allen & Unwin.
- 1935, In Praise of Idleness, London: George Allen & Unwin.
- 1935, Religion and Science, London: Thornton Butterworth.
- 1936, Which Way to Peace?, London: Jonathan Cape.
- 1937, The Amberley Papers: The Letters and Diaries of Lord and Lady Amberley (with Patricia Russell), 2 vols., London: Leonard & Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press.
- 1938, Power: A New Social AnalysisPower: A New Social AnalysisPower: A New Social Analysis is a work in social philosophy written by Bertrand Russell. Power, for Russell, is one's ability to achieve goals. In particular, Russell has in mind social power, that is, power over people.The volume contains a number of arguments. However, four themes have a central...
, London: George Allen & Unwin. - 1940, An Inquiry into Meaning and Truth, New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
- 1946, A History of Western Philosophy and Its Connection with Political and Social Circumstances from the Earliest Times to the Present DayHistory of Western Philosophy (Russell)A History of Western Philosophy by the philosopher Bertrand Russell is a conspectus of Western philosophy from the pre-Socratic philosophers to the early 20th century. Although criticised for its over-generalization and its omissions, particularly from the post-Cartesian period, it was a popular...
, New York: Simon and Schuster. - 1948, Human Knowledge: Its Scope and Limits, London: George Allen & Unwin.
- 1949, Authority and the Individual, London: George Allen & Unwin.
- 1950, Unpopular Essays, London: George Allen & Unwin.
- 1951, New Hopes for a Changing World, London: George Allen & Unwin.
- 1952, The Impact of Science on Society, London: George Allen & Unwin.
- 1953, Satan in the Suburbs and Other Stories, London: George Allen & Unwin.
- 1954, Human Society in Ethics and Politics, London: George Allen & Unwin.
- 1954, Nightmares of Eminent Persons and Other Stories, London: George Allen & Unwin.
- 1956, Portraits from Memory and Other Essays, London: George Allen & Unwin.
- 1956, Logic and Knowledge: Essays 1901–1950 (edited by Robert C. Marsh), London: George Allen & Unwin.
- 1957, Why I Am Not A Christian and Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects (edited by Paul Edwards), London: George Allen & Unwin.
- 1958, Understanding History and Other Essays, New York: Philosophical Library.
- 1959, Common Sense and Nuclear Warfare, London: George Allen & Unwin.
- 1959, My Philosophical DevelopmentMy Philosophical DevelopmentMy Philosophical Development is a book written by Bertrand Russell where he is summing up his philosophical beliefs and how they have changed during his life....
, London: George Allen & Unwin. - 1959, Wisdom of the West ("editor", Paul Foulkes), London: Macdonald.
- 1960, Bertrand Russell Speaks His Mind, Cleveland and New York: World Publishing Company.
- 1961, Fact and Fiction, London: George Allen & Unwin.
- 1961, Has Man a Future?, London: George Allen & Unwin.
- 1963, Essays in Skepticism, New York: Philosophical Library.
- 1963, Unarmed Victory, London: George Allen & Unwin.
- 1965, On the Philosophy of Science (edited by Charles A. Fritz, Jr.), Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company.
- 1967, Russell's Peace Appeals (edited by Tsutomu Makino and Kazuteru Hitaka), Japan: Eichosha's New Current Books.
- 1967, War Crimes in Vietnam, London: George Allen & Unwin.
- 1967–1969, The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell, 3 vols., London: George Allen & Unwin.
- 1969, Dear Bertrand Russell… A Selection of his Correspondence with the General Public 1950–1968 (edited by Barry Feinberg and Ronald Kasrils), London: George Allen and Unwin.
Note: This is a mere sampling, for Russell also wrote many pamphlets, introductions, articles and letters to the editor. His works also can be found in any number of anthologies and collections, perhaps most notably The Collected Papers of Bertrand Russell, which McMaster University
McMaster University
McMaster University is a public research university whose main campus is located in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on of land in the residential neighbourhood of Westdale, adjacent to Hamilton's Royal Botanical Gardens...
began publishing in 1983. This collection of his shorter and previously unpublished works is now up to 16 volumes, and many more are forthcoming. An additional three volumes are used to catalogue just his bibliography. The Russell Archives at McMaster University
McMaster University
McMaster University is a public research university whose main campus is located in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on of land in the residential neighbourhood of Westdale, adjacent to Hamilton's Royal Botanical Gardens...
also have more than 30,000 letters that he wrote.
Biographical books
- Bertrand Russell: Philosopher and Humanist, by John LewisJohn Lewis (philosopher)John Lewis was a British Unitarian minister and Marxist philosopher and author of many works on philosophy, anthropology, and religion....
(1968) - Bertrand Russell and His World, by Ronald W. Clark (1981) ISBN 0-500-13070-1
External links
Writings available online- "A Free Man's Worship" (1903)
- "Am I an Atheist or an Agnostic?" (1947)
- "Has Religion Made Useful Contributions to Civilization?" 1930
- "Ideas that Have Harmed Mankind" (1950)
- "In Praise of Idleness" (1932)
- "What Desires Are Politically Important?" (1950)
- Political Ideals (1917)
- The Problems of Philosophy
- Proposed Roads to Freedom (1918)
- "16 Questions on the Assassination" (of President Kennedy)
- The Analysis Of Mind
- What is an Agnostic?
- Why I am not a Christian
- The Ethics of War (1915)
- Principia Mathematica (1910)
- "The Elements of Ethics" (1910)
- The Principles of Mathematics (1903)
- An essay on the foundations of geometry
- From: www.archive.org
- History of Western Philosophy (1946)
- My Philosophical Development (1959)
- Portraits from Memory and Other Essays (1956)
- Unpopular Essays (1950)
- Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy (1920)
- The Scientific Outlook (1954)
- An Outline of Philosophy (1951)
- Our Knowledge of the External World (1914)
- Legitimacy Versus Industrialism 1814–1848 (1935)
- Authority and the Individual (1949)
- Education and the Social Order (1932)
- Nightmares of Eminent Persons and Other Stories (1954)
- Why Men Fight: A Method of Abolishing the International Duel (1917)
- Justice in Wartime (1917)
- Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays (1917)
Audio
- Bertrand Russell Audio Archive
- In Praise of Idleness free mp3MP3MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
recitation of Russell's essay of the same name, from the Audio Anarchy project
Other
- Pembroke Lodge — childhood home and museum
- The Bertrand Russell Society — a member organisation of the International Humanist and Ethical UnionInternational Humanist and Ethical UnionThe International Humanist and Ethical Union is an umbrella organisation embracing humanist, atheist, rationalist, secular, skeptic, freethought and Ethical Culture organisations worldwide. Founded in Amsterdam in 1952, the IHEU is a democratic union of more than 100 member organizations in 40...
- The Bertrand Russell Society Quarterly
- The Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation
- Bertrand Russell in Japan
- Biography and quotes of Bertrand Russell
- Russell Photo Gallery
- Photographs at the National Portrait Gallery
- The Bertrand Russell Archives
- Resource list
- The First Reith Lecture given by Russell (Real Audio)
- Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Nobel Prize
- Lecture about 1905, the philosophical landscale of Einstein in which Russell was central