{"id":10111,"date":"2011-12-02T11:00:06","date_gmt":"2011-12-02T11:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2011\/12\/02\/the-wit-and-wisdom-of-bertrand-russell\/"},"modified":"2011-12-02T11:00:06","modified_gmt":"2011-12-02T11:00:06","slug":"the-wit-and-wisdom-of-bertrand-russell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2011\/12\/02\/the-wit-and-wisdom-of-bertrand-russell\/","title":{"rendered":"The Wit and Wisdom of Bertrand Russell"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ludwig Wittgenstein sometimes shot his mouth off in summary judgment of men of very high caliber. He once remarked to M. O'C. Drury, "Russell's books should be bound in two colours: those dealing with mathematical logic in red — and all students of philosophy should read them; those dealing with ethics and politics in blue — and no one should be allowed to read them." (Recollections of Wittgenstein<\/em>,* ed. R. Rhees, Oxford 1984, p. 112.) <\/span><\/p>\n

Here is a passage from Russell's The Conquest of Happiness<\/em> (Liveright 1930, p. 24) whose urbanity, wit, and superficiality might well have irritated the self-tormenting Wittgenstein: <\/span><\/p>\n

\n

I do not myself think that there is any superior rationality in being unhappy. The wise man will be as happy as circumstances permit, and if he finds the contemplation of the universe painful beyond a point, he will contemplate something else instead.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This observation ties in nicely with my remarks on short views and long views<\/a>.  If middle-sized happiness is your object, then short views are probably best.  But some of us want more.<\/span><\/p>\n

 __________ <\/span><\/p>\n

*This title is delightfully ambiguous. Read as an objective genitive, it refers to recollections about Wittgenstein, while read as a subjective genitive, it denotes Wittgenstein's recollections. The book, consisting as it does of both, is well-titled.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ludwig Wittgenstein sometimes shot his mouth off in summary judgment of men of very high caliber. He once remarked to M. O'C. Drury, "Russell's books should be bound in two colours: those dealing with mathematical logic in red — and all students of philosophy should read them; those dealing with ethics and politics in blue … Continue reading “The Wit and Wisdom of Bertrand Russell”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,124,275],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-happiness","category-russell","category-wittgenstein"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10111\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}