From Pythagoras (whether by way of Socrates or not) Plato derived the Orphic elements in his philosophy: the religious trend, the belief in immortality, the other-worldliness, the priestly tone, and all that is involved in the simile of the cave; also his respect for mathematics, and his intimate intermingling of intellect and mysticism.
bertrand Russellquotes
1872 - 1970
Winner of the 1950 Nobel Peace Prize in Literature, Bertrand Russell (1872-1970), philosopher and mathematician, wrote, incredibly, a total of 70 books and over 2,000 articles in his 98-year lifespan. Gifted with the ability to write about difficult philosophical and mathematical topics in a language accessible to the layperson, Russell inspired readers with his passion and insight.
Orphaned at age 3, Russell was raised by his grandmother and schooled at home by governesses and tutors. He perfected French and German, and called Euclidean geometry his “first love.” At Trinity College, he earned degrees in both Mathematics and the Moral Sciences. He combined both passions in an attempt to discover a way to prove that truth was immutable and eternal. Initially, Russell argued for a metaphysical idealism in his works, but later on abandoned that theory for analytic philosophy.
After being fired from his position at Trinity College for campaigning against conscription during WWI, and jailed for six months by the British government, Russell found journalism and freelance writing more to his taste and carved a name for himself as an anti-war activist. Later, he campaigned against nuclear weapons and the Vietnam War, which led the British judiciary system to jail him again at the age of 89.
His extensive writing on social, political and moral issues granted him popularity in his day as a writer, but his contributions to logic and the philosophy of mathematics earned him the respect of generations to come as one of the foremost philosophers of the 20th century.
His most important books are his two logics, and these must be understood if the reasons for his views on other subjects are to be rightly apprehended.
apprehended / books / logics / subjects / views
I wish to understand [Plato], but to treat him with as little reverence as if he were a contemporary English or American advocate of totalitarianism.
It has always been correct to praise Plato, but not to understand him.
plato / praise / understand
If I were granted omnipotence, and millions of years to experiment in, I should not think man much to boast of as the final result of all my efforts.
efforts / experiment / omnipotence / result
For my part, I prefer the ontological argument, the cosmological argument and the rest of the old stock-in-trade, to the sentimental illogicality that has sprung from Rousseau.
Every proposition which we can understand must be composed wholly of constituents with which we are acquainted.
Science tells us what we can know, but what we can know is little, and if we forget how much we cannot know we become insensitive to many things of very great importance. Theology, on the other hand, induces a dogmatic belief that we have knowledge where in fact we have ignorance.
I am sometimes shocked by the blasphemies of those who think themselves pious – for instance, the nuns who never take a bath without wearing a bathrobe all the time. When asked why, since no man can see them, they reply: “Oh, but you forget the good God.” Apparently they conceive of the Deity add a Peeping Tom, whose omnipotence enables Him to see through bathroom walls, but who is foiled by bathrobes.
Something of the same strain and anguish seems to have entered the soul of civilized man. He knows there is something better than himself almost within his grasp, yet he does not know where to seek it or how to find it. In despair he rages against his fellow man, who is equally lost and equally unhappy.