What Bertrand Russell Actually Said About Mind
All 3 Bertrand Russell passages on mind, in full — what each one claims, what holds them together, and who argues the other way.
Bertrand Russell returns to mind three times in thinkr's library — more often than to almost anything else. British logician, philosopher, and public intellectual. Co-author of Principia Mathematica, and later a passionate voice for peace and free thought.
What follows is every one of those passages, in full, with what each is actually claiming. The language is of its period, but the question underneath is not: what is mind for, and what does it ask of you?
Every Bertrand Russell passage on mind
“What a monstrous thing that a University should teach journalism! I thought that was only done at Oxford. This respect for the filthy multitude is ruining civilisation.”
“Only in thought is man a God; in action and desire we are the slaves of circumstance.”
“Is there any knowledge in the world which is so certain that no reasonable man could doubt it?”
What holds these together
Read in sequence rather than one at a time, the passages stop being separate aphorisms. Bertrand Russell is not offering three opinions about mind; the lines are facets of one position, and the repetition is the argument. The shortest of them — “Only in thought is man a God; in action and desire we are the slaves of circumstance” — is the version you can carry, and the longer ones are what it unpacks into.
Bertrand Russell applied to a real decision
Quotation is the easy part. The harder test is what the position actually does when it meets a situation where every option costs something. thinkr puts two such cases to Bertrand Russell.
Everyone in the room is avoiding the obvious problem.
Argued as socratic courage: You are choosing truth over group comfort. The danger is using truth as a way to dominate the room.
You have to decide before you feel certain.
Argued as methodic doubt: You are honoring the difference between confidence and knowledge. The risk is making doubt infinite.
Work through these yourself
- Everyone in the room is avoiding the obvious problem. — argued from socratic courage and several competing positions
- You have to decide before you feel certain. — argued from methodic doubt and several competing positions
Who disagrees
Aristotle, Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus and Seneca all address mind too, and they do not converge. Reading Bertrand Russell alone gives you a coherent position; reading Bertrand Russell against Aristotle shows you what the position is actually choosing against.