book

[IcarusAngel]

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Routledge (http://www.routledge-philosophy.com/books/russell1) released two editions of these books from a philosopher and logician named Bertrand Russell, that cubist portrait one, and another one with a design of simply five faces of Russell, from birth to death (such creativity). These prior ones usually contain introductions by John Silber and people from McMaster University. Academic books apparently often change while keeping the same ISBN for some reason, and I since all my others are of this edition I designed to match them.

It took me two years to find this book, searching on used book sites like Abebooks, Alibris, and so on, constantly checking in every other day, emailing people who have a description that might represent it (1996 Routledge edition, etc.), but I finally found it on amazon used books.

Put your mind to something, and you can accomplish anything.

[IcarusAngel]

Anyway, Russell was a an anti-authoritarian Libertarian-Socialist who I don't think gets enough credit in modern left-wing circles, even though his views clearly influenced them, esp. left-libertarianism. He put together "Unpopular Essays" to challenge conventionally held beliefs in philosophy, the economy, and so on. It is one of his more radical books since Principles of Social Resconstruction, in which he attacked property in a very modern way. But really, the guy wrote on everything from the nature of mathematics (of which he also had a huge influence), to human nature and knowledge, and so on. Chomsky, for instances, quotes from Human Knowledge Its Scope and Limits in his book Problems of Knowledge and Freedom, as it was delievered sometime after BR's death I believe.

Here's someone's review from Amazon, who seems to be a conservative gentlemen but puts it better than I could:


Lord Russell sets the indicative tone for this collection of mostly polemical essays in his Preface, when he explains his choice of the adjective "Unpopular" in his title. "...There are several sentences in the present volume which some unusually stupid children of ten might find a little puzzling. On this ground I do not claim that the essays are popular; and if not popular, then 'unpopular.'" Russell says exactly what he thinks, has no patience for fools and does not hesitate to ridicule muddled thinking and wrong-headed beliefs wherever he may find them.

This work contains 10 essays written between 1935 and 1950, with the common theme being the pernicious impact of dogmatic, unsupportable beliefs. By and large, Russell is highly effective in making his case across a broad range of topics, from the debunking of philosophy's giants such as Plato ("That Plato's Republic should have been admired, on its political side, by decent people is perhaps the most astonishing example of literary snobbery in all history."), Aristotle ("Aristotle, in spite of his reputation, is full of absurdities.") and Hegel ("To anyone who still cherishes the hope that man is a more or less rational animal, the success of this farrago of nonsense must be astonishing.") to the fallacies of discrimination against women, xenophobia and our modern public education system.


His sharpest attacks are reserved for Man's superstitions and particularly for those of the religious variety. Russell is a well-known rationalist thinker and atheist and his views are driven by the common sense dictum that one should only believe that which has sufficient supporting, scientific evidence. This leads to the view that deism is unlikely and that modern revealed religions are pure folly. He convincingly notes the common drivers of these fatuous beliefs across epochs to be fear, a need for self-importance, ignorance and socialization.


My primary issue with Russell is that, while he ostensibly ascribes to a "Liberal" worldview (i.e. a scientific perspective on facts and opinions that holds positions tentatively with a "consciousness that new evidence may at any moment lead to their abandonment.") and excoriates dogmatic beliefs, he can be, in fact, highly dogmatic in the presentation of his views. This is particularly disturbing when he ventures into areas he clearly does not fully grasp, such as economics. In "The Future of Mankind" (far and away the weakest of the 10 essays), he makes the highly naïve, silly statement that "Unless we can cope with the problem of abolishing war, there is no reason whatever to rejoice in labor-saving techniques, but quite the reverse." His point is that higher labor productivity leads to a lower labor requirement to generate life's necessities, thereby freeing up more people for war. Refuting this nonsense hardly seems necessary, but it should be clear that labor does not automatically flow from food production to war production and that more evolved economies do not automatically lead to more war mongering.


Notwithstanding these occasional pratfalls from the platform of reason, Russell is for the most part extremely lucid in his analyses and views. He is also sharp-witted and entertaining in his gleeful exposition of folly. All of this results in prose which is remarkably easy to read while provoking rational thought and leads to my 4-star rating.
To which someone replied in the comments:


and that more evolved economies do not automatically lead to more war mongering.....

So the war mongering is left to Third World countries such as Chad or Algeria?
The book is actually in the public domain and can be downloaded here (http://www.archive.org/download/unpopularessays027477mbp/unpopularessays027477mbp.pdf) . (Although, his other books, like a History of Western Philosophy, would be a better place to start.)

He also wrote a book called "Roads to Freedom: Socialism, Anarchism, and Syndicalism," about how these practices can come about. Interestingly, Promethean Press released a new edition this year entitled Roalds to Freedom: Deluxe Edition (http://www.amazon.com/Roads-Freedom-Deluxe-Bertrand-Russell/dp/0973769874/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1216469088&sr=1-1) with an attached forward by the famous American scholar and philosopher Will Durant.