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Taylor Wood

Section 9

Installment 2

Philosophy: The Classics- Bertrand Russell The Problems of Philosophy

For my second installment, I am going to talk a little bit about a video Professor Oliver commented on my last installment from 1959 of Bertrand Russell giving a message to future generations.

Bertrand Russell's Message to Future Generations

In this video, Russell has two different messages for us, one intellectual and one moral. The intellectual message he has for us is that when we are studying anything, we should ask ourselves what the facts are and to never let ourselves be diverted by what we wish to believe or by what we think we should believe. I very much agree with this statement. The only way for us to know what is right is for us to seek the truth and the facts ourselves. If we let our wishes or society decide what our beliefs are, we could end up believing in lies. We need to seek out the facts ourselves so that we can know for sure what is true.

Russell’s moral message to us is that love is wise and hatred is foolish. We have to learn to tolerate each other and learn to put up with the fact that some people say things that we don’t like. He says kindness and charity are vital to our ability to live together on this earth. I also strongly agree with this statement. We as humans need to try our hardest to love one another, even the people who we don’t agree with or who don’t agree with us. There is far too much hatred in the world based on race, religion, political belief, sexual orientation, and many other things. We need to learn how to look past these things and love one another as we would want others to love us. We must accept the fact that we are going to having differing opinions from other people and that some people may do things that upset you. Hatred and violence is not the right way to go about dealing with these things. Loving the people we don’t agree with and trying to understand their point of view is how we should approach these things. Hating someone is not going to solve anything, but showing love and grace toward people can make this world a better place.

Bertrand Russell’s philosophies and stances on many things are very admirable. After reading about him and watching interviews with him, I can truly say he was an extremely inspirational person. We should really take these messages he has for us to heart, and reflect his philosophies in our everyday lives. With all the division in the world and in our country today, what we need right now is to stop and think about both the information we receive and whether it is true or not and the way we are treating others who do not agree with our opinions or beliefs. Following Bertrand Russell’s advice could make this world a much better place.

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