The Relevance of Philosophy, essay about a Bertrand Russell extract

The value of Philosophy is, in fact, to be sought more often than not in its uncertainty. The man who has no tincture of Philosophy goes with life imprisoned in the prejudices derived from common sense, from the habitual beliefs of his ripen or his nation, and from the convictions which have grown up in his sense without the co-operation of his deliberate reason.

Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy.

Philosophy is commonly thought of as an activity silent for Oxbridge high-brows; or a sort of intellectual table-tennis indulged in by the Ancient Greeks to while the time away before video came along. Russell suggests that it may actually serve a purpose for e trulyone.

In the depression line, Russell is clearly contrasting his own belief in the built-in uncertainty of philosophy with the attitude of those people who dedicate their lives to a search for the right theory, in an attempt to understand the justness about gracious nature. He argues that, were a philosopher to write the perfect, unanswerable theory, the solution to life, the worldly concern and everything, then philosophy would itself become responsible for inducing the very mental laziness which it should help us to avoid.

Disagreement and debate betwixt the adherents of rival theories is, moreover, essential to the health of philosophy.



Just as many major advances of science are catalysed by war, so the outstanding intellectual insights are sparked by discussion. If there were universal agreement on one philosophical theory, then all hike up thought would be rendered useless. (See p.319, Small World by David send: ...what matters in the field of critical practice is not truth but difference. If everybody were convinced by your arguments, they would have to do the aforesaid(prenominal) as you and then there would be no triumph in doing it.)

Russell talks of three different factors...

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