An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish – by Bertrand Russell
Man is a rational animal—so at least I have been told. Throughout a long life, I have looked diligently for evidence in favor of this statement, but so far I have not…
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russsell: The Fear of Death
Some old people are oppressed by the fear of death. In the young there is justification for this feeling. But in an old man the fear of death is somewhat abject and…
Russell’s Moral Theories
Bertrand Russell has consistently advocated ideals and expressed beliefs which have made him, along with Shaw and Wells, if not quite with Marx and Freud, one of the formative influences on the…
The Harm That Good Men Do
A good man is one whose opinions and activities are pleasing to the holders of power.
Can Men Be Rational?
In these days rationality has received many hard knocks, so that it is difficult to know what one means by it, or whether, if that were known, it is something which human…
Machines and the Emotions
Will machines destroy emotions, or will emotions destroy machines? This question was suggested long ago by Samuel Butler in Erewhon, but it is growing more and more actual as the empire of…
“Useless” Knowledge
Knowledge, everywhere, is coming to be regarded not as a good in itself, or as a means of creating a broad and humane outlook on life in general, but as merely an…
Bertrand Russell: Man’s Peril
Man’s Peril is an in-depth analysis of the dangers confronting the modern world and repercussions of atomic warfare.
Bertrand Russell: Sex Education
The subject of sex is so surrounded by superstitions and taboos that I approach it with trepidation. I fear lest those readers who have hitherto accepted my principles may suspect them when…
Bertrand Russell: A Free Man’s Worship
In the celebrated essay "A Free Man's Worship," Bertrand Russel maintains that a new and deeper faith can be constructed, not faith in a theological sense but faith in the power of…
Bertrand Russell: What Shall We Educate For?
A community of men and women possessing vitality, courage, sensitiveness, and intelligence, in the highest degree that education can produce, would be very different from anything that has hitherto existed. Very few…
Bertrand Russell: Playboy Interview (1963)
If the long and stormy life of Bertrand Arthur Russell can be said to possess any unifying thread, it is an enduring attitude of passionate skepticism, a lifelong refusal to accept any…
On the Value of Scepticism by Bertrand Russell
I wish to propose for the reader’s favourable consideration a doctrine which may, I fear, appear wildly paradoxical and subversive.
Bertrand Russell: Why I Am Not a Communist
Marx’s doctrine was bad enough, but the developments which it underwent under Lenin and Stalin made it much worse.
Bertrand Russell: Symptoms of George Orwell’s 1984
Having soothed themselves with these comfortable falsehoods, people proceeded on their way to make Orwell's prognostications come true. Bit by bit, and step by step, the world has been marching toward the…
Bertrand Russell: Can Religion Cure Our Troubles?
Mankind is in mortal peril, and fear now, as in the past, is inclining men to seek refuge in God. Throughout the West there is a very general revival of religion. Nazis…
A Conversation with Bertrand Russell (1952)
Romney Wheeler interviews British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, and social critic Bertrand Russell at Russell's home in Surrey, England.
Bertrand Russell: Why I Am Not a Christian (1927)
Bertrand Russell first delivered this lecture on March 6, 1927 to the National Secular Society, South London Branch, at Battersea Town Hall.