Your complimentary articles

You’ve read all of your complimentary articles for this month. To have complete access to the thousands of philosophy articles on this site, please

If you are a subscriber please sign in to your account.

To buy or renew a subscription please visit Subscriptions.

If you are a print subscriber you can contact us to create an online account.

Bertrand Russell

Bertrand Russell on The Value of Philosophy for Life

John R. Lenz tells us why Russell thought philosophy worthwhile.

Bertrand Russell did a disservice to philosophy by defining the word. Early in his career he defined philosophy as the logical-analytic method. This definition was so restricting that although he spent the next fifty years writing one book after another on topics such as war, peace, happiness, science and society, and the future of mankind, it forced him to describe most of them as ‘popular’ or ‘non-philosophical’. In fact, he gradually developed an alternative view of philosophy and its value for humanity.

His many popular books are unfairly ignored by historians of ideas and those interested in Russell as a philosopher.

…