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Bertrand Russell, Public Intellectual

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Philosophy Now ISSUE 120 June/July 2017
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Editorial Russell Now!
O
ne of the most quoted phrases in current popular Russells entire philosophical oeuvre, including the popular
culture is six degrees of separation. It expresses the writings. Edwards admits that What is generally considered
idea that, on average, any human being is connected Russells most important work in philosophy was done
with any other human being by at most six acquaintances. between 1900 and the outbreak of the First World War, yet
While there is much debate as to whether this is literally true, he is by no means dismissive of the content of such later
it is an interesting thought-experiment, as well as the basis for volumes as Marriage and Morals, On Education, and The
many fun parlor games. One of these is entitled Six Degrees Conquest of Happiness. He writes:
of Kevin Bacon, in which film fans try to connect the afore-
mentioned actor with any other movie star with as few links as It is safe to say that not since Voltaire has there been a philosopher
possible. with such an enormous audience. Russell also shares with Voltaire a
I have been thinking of launching a similar parlor game glittering and graceful prose style and a delicious sense of humor.
called Six Degrees of Bertrand Russell, in which any figure
from the past 200 years or so could be connected with Russell One must remember that for much of the second half of
in as few steps as possible. Why Russell rather than, say, his life Russell made his living as a writer. He did not have the
Ludwig Wittgenstein (who after all had a stated interest in luxury, for most of this time, of drawing upon an academic
games)? For two reasons: first, Russell lived to the ripe old age salary to pay for his and his familys upkeep. His wonderful
of ninety-seven, and thus had the time to interact with a wide ability to write memorable copy on a deadline is not
variety of people; and second, he was for most of that long life something one should easily dismiss. Especially in the 1950s
a celebrity, who rubbed elbows with all manner of individuals, and 1960s, through his social activism, frequent media appear-
many of whom were either celebrities themselves at the time ances and nonstop issuance of manifestoes, he made
or came to be celebrated later. Russells list of acquaintances philosophy exciting and relevant to a new generation. Russell
stretched from Lenin (V.I.) to Lennon (John), from the became the stereotypical image of a philosopher in the minds
Bloomsbury Set of the 1920s to the Doomsday Prophets of the of many non-academics, much as Einstein became the stereo-
1960s, from William Gladstone to Harold Wilson. typical image of a scientist. Both showed that one could be a
Russells contributions to technical philosophy are deep thinker and still be passionately involved in lifes
inestimable. He played a pivotal role in changing the very struggles (and even have an active sex life, too).
nature of Anglo-American philosophy. But he also was a The following articles by members of the Bertrand Russell
major figure in popularizing philosophy. For instance, the Society aim to show why, almost fifty years after his death, he
1957 collection by Russell entitled Why I Am Not a Christian remains both an important figure in the history of philosophy
and Other Essays on Religion and Related Matters, which and a role model for those who in the spirit of Philosophy
gathered together his many musings on the topic of religion, Now want to make philosophical inquiry accessible to all.
continues to this day to have a major effect on many people. To what extent does Russell continue to have a significant
Russell had a rare gift for taking abstruse, highly complicated influence on modern times? A generation has passed since
philosophical issues and turning them into clear arguments Russells death, and the number of people who knew him by
that any intelligent reader could follow, regardless of his or direct acquaintance is dwindling. Recently, in my capacity as
her background. This was no doubt why his 1945 book A President of the Bertrand Russell Society, I received a call
History of Western Philosophy became a bestseller. Its breezy from a woman who had seen a listing for the Society in which
style infuriated those who felt that philosophy should only be my phone number was given. Are you Bertrand Russell? she
for the technically inclined, but it proved nonetheless that asked me. I was rather taken aback (albeit flattered) that
there is a hunger for philosophical knowledge among hoi someone could even ask such a question. While I cant in
polloi, a hunger that the analytical school did little to appease. good faith claim to be Bertrand Russell, I can honestly say Ive
Besides his contributions to religious polemics, Russell shaken the hand of people who shook his hand. Two degrees
made many other important contributions to popular of separation!
philosophy. In the 1967 Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Paul DR TIMOTHY J. MADIGAN 2017
Edwards takes an editors prerogative by devoting twenty four Tim Madigan is the President of the Bertrand Russell Society and
pages to the entry on Russell. Considering the fact that Plato has been known to shave those who do not shave themselves,
only gets twenty pages, this is perhaps a bit extreme, but it including himself. For information on the Bertrand Russell Society
does show the importance which Edwards placed upon please see bertrandrussell.org
4 Philosophy Now June/July 2017

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
author dies French Prez was assistant to Paul
News
Ricouer Hawking recommends leaving Earth
News reports by Anja Steinbauer.
Robert Pirsig going to be a little bit more reactive. Reason (1972) he argued that computers
Robert Pirsig, author of Zen and the Art of Though the study didnt include overt would never be able to emulate human
Motorcycle Maintenance, died on 24 April. animal rights activists, it covered a range thought as he believed higher mental func-
At the heart of the book is a fictionalised of attitudes towards animals. Gender did tions not to be rule-governed. Dreyfuss
account of a motorcycle journey across not make a difference in the results. other acclaimed writings include the NY
America made by Pirsig and his young son The study, based on the departments Times bestseller All Things Shining (2011)
Chris in 1968. The novel combined reflec- existing work on terror management which he wrote with Harvard philosopher
tions on Greek philosophy, Zen theory provides new insight into the Sean D. Kelly; Being-in-the-World (1991)
Buddhism, technology and culture in a psychology behind humans willingness to and the 2001 essay series On the Internet.
profound inquiry into the nature of values. kill animals and could also potentially help His work on Heidegger inspired the 2010
Pirsig wrote it mainly in the small hours of scientists better understand the psycholog- documentary Being in the World.
each morning and had immense difficulty ical motivations behind the murder and
finding a publisher. On publication in genocide of humans, said Lifshin: We Plantinga Wins Templeton Prize
1974, it immediately became enormously dehumanize our enemies when there is Philosopher of religion Alvin Plantinga,
popular, selling 5 million copies. genocide. There is research in social who is Emeritus Professor at the Univer-
psychology showing that if you go to sity of Notre Dame, has been awarded the
Macronomics places where genocide is happening and 2017 Templeton Prize. The award,
The newly-elected President of France, you ask the people who are doing the founded by Christian businessman and
Emmanuel Macron, who has a degree in killing to try to explain, theyll often say philanthropist John Templeton, is given to
philosophy, was once an assistant to the things like, Oh, theyre cockroaches, individuals who have made an exceptional
famed French philosopher Paul Ricouer theyre rats, we just have to kill them all. contribution to affirming lifes spiritual
(1913-2005). In the acknowledgements of So if we ever want to really understand dimension, whether through insight,
his last book La Mmoire, lHistoire, lOubli how to reduce or fight human-to-human discovery, or practical works. Previous
(Memory, History, Forgetting), Ricouer genocide, we have to understand our winners include Mother Teresa, Aleksandr
thanks his editorial assistant for a pertinent killing of animals. Solzhenitsyn, Charles Taylor, Jean Vanier,
critique of the manuscript. That assistant Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama.
was the man who has now been elected to Hubert Dreyfus I am honoured to receive the Temple-
occupy the lyse Palace. This fact has set Reports of my demise are not exagger- ton Prize, Plantinga said. The field of
the media asking what influence Ricouers ated, was the message posted on Hubert philosophy has transformed over the
ideas had on Macron, and whether this can Dreyfuss Twitter feed shortly after his course of my career. If my work played a
provide clues to the likely course of death from cancer on 22 April at the age of role in this transformation, I would be very
Macrons presidency. Ricouer was best 87. Harvard educated, Dreyfus taught at pleased. I hope the news of the prize will
known for using the methods of UC Berkeley for nearly 50 years. He was encourage young philosophers, especially
hermeneutics (the interpretation of texts) known not only for his numerous publica- those who bring Christian and theistic
to probe the relationship between the self tions but also for being an excellent teacher, perspectives to bear on their work, toward
and all kinds of cultural phenomena and introducing his students to the ideas of greater creativity, integrity and boldness.
symbols. Martin Heidegger, Michel Foucault,
Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Sren Hawking Recommends Leaving
Killing Animals Kierkegaard. Though he had formally Earth Within Next 100 Years
People become more likely to support retired in 1994, he continued teaching until Astrophysicist Stephen Hawking says
killing animals when they are reminded of his last class in December 2016. humans will have to start colonising other
death, regardless of their attitudes about Dreyfus is famous for his cogent criti- planets soon. He believes that within the
animal rights, according to new research cism of AI. Based on the work of Heideg- next 100 years the existence of humanity
from the Psychology Department at the ger and Merleau-Ponty, Dreyfus shed will be under treat due to climate change,
University of Arizona. Lead researcher Uri doubt on the assumptions of first genera- asteroid impact, epidemics and population
Lifshin explains, If youre an animal lover tion AI work concerning the ability of growth. The Earth may become uninhab-
or if you care about animals rights, then computers to play chess, solve mathemati- itable. It is not the first time that Hawking
overall, yes, you are going to support the cal theorems and mimic all aspects of the has recommended leaving Earth, however,
killing of animals much less; however human psyche. In his first book What previously he thought a realistic time
when youre reminded of death youre still Computers Cant Do: A Critique of Artificial frame to be 1,000 years.
June/July 2017 Philosophy Now 5

Russell
The Passionate
Bertrand Russell
Peter Stone reveals the deep and varied passions of the analytic philosopher.
P
hilosophy today is intimately associated with the life at its core, such as number, limit, and infinity. He was there-
of the mind with intellect, thought, and reason. fore delighted to learn that there were mathematicians else-
Because of this, it is often thought to be opposed to where in the world great minds such as Georg Cantor, Karl
emotion, feeling, spirit to passion. It is thought to be Weierstrass, and Richard Dedekind who were actively tack-
a bloodless occupation, practiced by bloodless men and women. ling these difficult philosophical questions. This led Russell into
This has a lot to do with how philosophy has come to be prac- the area of work which would establish his intellectual reputa-
ticed in universities, particularly the analytic philosophy which tion the philosophy of mathematics.
has dominated the Anglo-American philosophy world over the Along with his friend the Cambridge philosopher G.E.
past century. And perhaps nobody is more closely associated Moore, Russell became one of the founders of analytic philoso-
with analytic philosophy than Bertrand Russell (1872-1970). phy. This movement was inspired by the idea that many con-
As such, one might expect Russell to be the exact opposite of cepts of ordinary language are vague, and that the proper method
the man of passion. And indeed, many people have viewed Rus- of philosophy is to make our concepts more precise, thereby
sell this way. Will Durant, for example, once described Russell advancing our ability to establish which ideas are true and which
as cold-blooded a temporarily animated abstraction, a for- are false. This attitude is clearly visible in Russells attitude
mula with legs (The Story of Philosophy, 1926, p.519). But was towards mathematics and his desire to more rigorously define
Russell really such a stranger to passion? the central concepts of the discipline. Then Russell became
In fact, the opposite is the case. Russells life is actually very acquainted in 1900 with the work of Giuseppe Peano, an Ital-
instructive about the relationship between reason and passion. ian mathematician who had created a set of axioms which were
For Russell proved that a life of the mind can be fully compati- suitable for deriving the results of traditional arithmetic. Rus-
ble with a life of great passion and adventure. He managed to sell was inspired by this work and believed that it could be
fit more passion into his life than most people could handle. (It extended to show that all of mathematics could be derived from
probably helped that he lived to be ninety-seven years old.) a few foundational concepts of logic. He had already been tin-
Of course, theres no place for passion in your life unless you kering with the idea of writing a book on the foundations of
can find something about which to be passionate. What were mathematics; his encounter with Peano gave this work a defi-
Russells passions? In the opening words of his Autobiography, nite direction. To this end, Russell wrote a book entitled The
Russell tells us that Principles of Mathematics (1903).
He hoped to write a sequel to advance the ideas in this book
Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed further, and to tie up a number of philosophical loose ends,
my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbear- and so he teamed up with his old mentor at Cambridge, Alfred
able pity for the suffering of mankind. North Whitehead. Whitehead had also written a book on the
(The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell: Volume I, 1967). foundations of mathematics, called A Treatise on Universal Alge-
bra (1898), and also wished to publish a sequel. So Russell and
The easiest way to get a handle on the emotional side of Whitehead began collaborating on a work that eventually became
Bertrand Russell is to consider each of these three passions in the three-volume Principia Mathematica, finally published in
turn. To understand these passions is to understand Russell. 1910, 1912, and 1913. It is a long and difficult work, and no one
can doubt its level of rigor: it is not until midway through the
Russells Quest For Truth second volume that Russell and Whitehead are able to establish
Russell was of course a philosopher by trade, and so it makes that 1+1=2. (After proving this result, they quip in a footnote,
sense to begin any discussion of Russells passions by consider- The above proposition is occasionally useful.)
ing his search for knowledge. Unfortunately this work, although impressive, did not accom-
As a boy, Russell was introduced to mathematics by his older plish what Russell had hoped, which was to place all of mathe-
brother, Frank. Russell loved the subject, but he was disap- matics on the secure foundation of fundamental concepts of
pointed to learn that mathematics rested upon axioms ideas logic, in particular, the logic of sets. Indeed, his work uncovered
which were assumed to be self-evident, but which were not a number of deep and difficult philosophical problems, one of
proven, such as 1+1=2, or parallel lines never intersect. He the most important of which would become known as the Rus-
went up to Trinity College Cambridge in 1890, hoping for sell Paradox. Briefly, the paradox arises when one considers sets
something better, but he was very disappointed with what he or classes of things, some of which might be other sets or classes.
found there. To him, mathematics as practiced at Cambridge Some sets are members of themselves: the set of all sets is itself
seemed to be nothing more than a toolkit of technical tricks a set, and so is a member of itself. Other sets are not members
used to solve problems. It functioned with only a vague and of themselves: the set of all shoes is not itself a shoe. But sup-
intuitive understanding of some of the central concepts that lay pose one considers the set of all sets that do not belong to them-

Russell
more likely to be found in mathematics than elsewhere (Vol-
ume III, 1969, p.326). This is the reason why Russells biogra-
pher Alan Wood wrote that, I believe the underlying purpose
behind all Russells work was an almost religious passion for
some truth that was more than human, independent of the minds
of men, and even the existence of men (Bertrand Russell: The
Passionate Skeptic, p.192, 1957. Another good source on this
topic is Stefan Andersson, In Quest of Certainty, 1994.) Russells
failure to achieve this ambition surely counted as a sort of spir-
itual disappointment for him.
Russells Quest For Love

When Russell wasnt seeking knowledge he was often seeking
love. Like his quest for certainty in mathematics, his quest for
love had its ups and downs. He was married four times. His first
marriage, to the American Quaker Alys Pearsall Smith, was
effectively doomed to failure when, during an infamous bicycle
ride, he suddenly realized he was no longer in love with her
although the couple did not divorce for twenty years.
His second marriage, to Dora Black, resulted in two chil-
RUSSELL PORTRAIT KATY BAKER 2017
dren. Anxious to avoid the religious and nationalistic propa-

ganda pervading traditional education, the couple founded a
progressive school called Beacon Hill, to educate their own chil-
dren, and others. Beacon Hill never achieved the fame of A.S.
Neills Summerhill, but it made its mark in educational circles
nonetheless.
Russells marriage to Dora was an open one: both had numer-
ous affairs, and Dora bore two children with another man. These
children were a critical factor in the failure of this marriage.
Bertrand Russell Russell was intensely proud of his aristocratic heritage, and he
by Katy Baker 2017 hated the idea of his lineage being continued by a child who
wasnt a real Russell!
Russells third wife, Patricia (Peter) Spence, was thirty-eight
years his junior, and had been a governess to his children dur-
ing his tumultuous second marriage. This marriage produced a
third child, but it also ended badly.
Only Russells fourth marriage, to a longstanding American
friend named Edith Finch, proved lasting. Russell began his
autobiography with a very touching poem dedicated to her.
Russells four marriages did not exhaust his passionate search
for love. He had numerous affairs, both during and in-between
his various marriages. Among his more famous lovers were Lady
selves. Does this set belong to itself? If it does belong to itself, Ottoline Morrell, whose salon was attended by many leading
then it cannot belong to itself. But if it does not belong to itself, writers and artists of her day; Lady Constance Malleson, actress
then it must belong to itself. Hence a paradox. and writer, who used the stage-name Colette ONeil; and T.S.
The problems that were uncovered in the writing of the Prin- Eliots wife, Vivienne.
cipia Mathematica suggest that the project of finding logical foun-
dations for mathematics which was motivating Russell and Russells Quest For Peace
Whitehead might well be impossible to achieve. Indeed, Kurt But even the quest for certainty and an active love life werent
Gdels famous Incompleteness Theorem is often interpreted the only outlets for Russells passion. He also found time to
as proving precisely that. demonstrate unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. As
Russells quest for certainty in mathematics might not sound a child, his grandmother gave him a Bible inscribed with her
like the stuff of passion, but Russell felt otherwise. Russell lost favorite verses, including Exodus 23:2: Thou shalt not follow
his faith in religion as a teenager, and remained an agnostic a multitude to do evil. It was a principle that Russell would
throughout the rest of his life. Intellectual certainty would, he have opportunities to abide by many times in his life.
hoped, provide a sort of surrogate satisfaction. I wanted cer- Although Russell was politically engaged throughout his adult
tainty, he wrote in his Autobiography, in the kind of way in life, it was during World War I that he first had the chance to
which people want religious faith. I thought that certainty is resist the multitude. He became extremely active in anti-war

Russell
work, focusing his energies on supporting the conscientious
objectors who resisted being drawn into Britains war effort.
Even Will Durant acknowledged that during World War I,
the Bertrand Russell who had lain so long buried and mute
under the weight of logic and mathematics and epistemology, by Melissa Felder
suddenly burst forth, like a liberated flame, and the world was
shocked to find that this slim and anemic-looking professor
was a man of infinite courage, and a passionate lover of human-
ity (The Story of Philosophy, pp.523-524). I would argue that
the passion was there all along, even if Durant did not see it.
Russell paid a considerable price for his anti-war efforts, how-
ever. He lost his position at Cambridge; alienated numerous
friends, notably his mentor, Alfred North Whitehead, whose
son perished fighting in the war; he was arrested twice; and
he spent six months in prison.
Politically Russell was on the Left, but he was never a Com-
munist. After World War I ended, he paid a visit to the newly-
formed Soviet Union, during which he had a personal audi-
ence with Lenin. After this visit, he wrote a highly critical book,
The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism (1920), which alienated
him from many left-wing friends star-struck by the new social
experiment in Russia. He remained a staunch anti-Commu-
nist throughout his adult life.
In the 1950s Russell became more and more involved with
the movement against the atomic bomb. Unlike many peace
activists, Russell did not believe it was enough to Ban the
Bomb. Instead, he thought that in the atomic age, it was war
itself that must be abolished. He advanced this position through
a variety of activities, through his famous Mans Peril radio
broadcast at Christmas 1954; through the release of the Rus-
sell-Einstein Manifesto in 1955 and the founding of the Pug-
wash Conferences in 1957 [see later in this issue, Ed.]; through
his public exchange of letters with Nikita Khrushchev and John
Foster Dulles in 1957-1958; through his book Common Sense
and Nuclear Warfare (1959); and through his activism with the
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and with the Committee
of 100. This led to his second jail term, for civil disobedience,
at the age of 89. How many philosophers can claim a criminal
record at that age?
Russells Quest With Zest

In a little book called The Conquest of Happiness (1910), Russell
argued for the importance of zest, which he pronounced the
most universal and distinctive mark of happy men. Certainly
Russell himself had a zest for life, which he amply demonstrated
through his three great passions.
Russells way of life may not be for everyone, but it certainly
proves that reason and passion can coexist inside a great man
leading a great life.
Bertrand Russell a formula with legs? Hardly!
DR PETER STONE 2017
Peter Stone is an assistant professor of political science at Trinity
College Dublin.
This article contains excerpts from Introduction: Who Was Bertrand

Russell? in Bertrand Russell, Public Intellectual (Tiger Bark Press, 2016),
edited by Tim Madigan and Peter Stone. Readers interested in Russell SIMON + FINN CARTOON MELISSA FELDER 2017 PLEASE VISIT SIMONANDFINN.COM
are encouraged to learn more about him through this book.

Russell
Bertrand Russell on
The Value of Philosophy for Life
John R. Lenz tells us why Russell thought philosophy worthwhile.
B
ertrand Russell did a disservice to philosophy by defin- interested in pursuing both logical analysis and social science,
ing the word. Early in his career he defined philoso- while recognizing that the latter was not yet a science. As an
phy as the logical-analytic method. This definition atheist, he perhaps exemplifies Karl Marxs dictum that the crit-
was so restricting that although he spent the next fifty icism of religion is the beginning of all criticism. For him phi-
years writing one book after another on topics such as war, losophy pointed to a new and better way of life.
peace, happiness, science and society, and the future of mankind, Even before raising the logical-analytic flag, Russell had
it forced him to describe most of them as popular or non- voiced an equally, or more, important credo concerning the
philosophical. In fact, he gradually developed an alternative value of philosophy. The concluding chapter of The Problems
view of philosophy and its value for humanity. of Philosophy, especially its last six paragraphs, still embarrasses
His many popular books are unfairly ignored by historians Russells more strictly academic admirers by its gushy praise of
of ideas and those interested in Russell as a philosopher. Of philosophys spiritual value. Apart from its utility... philosophy
course, his many-sided activities, popular writings and work has a value perhaps it chief value through the greatness of
for peace are well-known and beloved. But these are usually the objects which it contemplates, and the freedom from nar-
left for his biography as opposed to his supposed real academ- row and personal aims resulting from this contemplation, he
ically-valid, philosophical work. Pick up a book such as The writes, adding that through philosophic contemplation of the
Cambridge Companion to Bertrand Russell or a recent hundredth- vast impersonal universe, a philosophic life is calm and free.
anniversary commemoration of The Problems of Philosophy. You The sentiment is thoroughly Socratic, and close to Stoicism.
would never know from these that Russell held theories of Peace of mind comes after an escape from the prison of desire,
human nature; that he repeatedly (from at least 1916 into the ego, passion. Sure, Russell adopted much Platonic language even
late 1960s) advanced utopian proposals for the future; and that after he rejected Platonic philosophy. We know that in this period
he passionately advocated the value of philosophy and the philo- he talked of spiritual matters in a futile effort to find common
sophic life in more traditional terms, that is, as a road to hap- ground with his lover, Ottoline Morrell. But it would be wrong
piness and wisdom. Academic study favors the analytic Rus- to dismiss this by saying that this is Russell the person speaking
sell, especially his work in the first decade of the twentieth cen- rather than Russell the philosopher. Indeed, he held this view
tury. The academy should be broader than that. He was. of philosophy until the end of his long life. Just two years after
Russell trumpeted his formal contribution to philosophy as announcing his scientific method, in the midst of war, Russell
revolutionary. The logical-analytical method he helped pio- wrote, The world has need of a philosophy... which will pro-
neer is a tool to cut the Gordian Knot of traditional philosoph- mote life (Principles of Social Reconstruction, 1916). This was his
ical problems. He developed this scientific method in works lifes work. As he later said: What the truth on logic is does not
such as Our Knowledge of the External World (1914). As that title matter two pins if there is no one alive to know it (interview,
suggests, here the theory of knowledge took center stage. Phi- 1964, in R.W. Clark, The Life of Bertrand Russell, p.504).
losophy had become the science of separating true from false
knowledge, beliefs, and statements. Philosophy Beyond Practicality
After analysis comes wisdom. Russell typically ends his popu-
Philosophy Beyond Analysis lar books with a warning that puts in perspective the technical
Philosophers today debate the origins of analytic philosophy, matters he has been analyzing. In, for example, the concluding
partly to ground their own view of the field. Tom Akehurst Chapter 17 of The Scientific Outlook (1931), Science and Val-
offers a fresh insight. He argues in his 2010 book The Cultural ues, he distinguishes between two kinds of knowledge: We
Politics of Analytic Philosophy that British (and thence American) may seek knowledge of an object because we love the object or
analytic philosophy purported to ignore politics, but in fact took because we wish to have power over it. The former impulse leads
for granted British liberalism (and imperialism). Analytic phi- to the kind of knowledge that is contemplative, the latter to the
losophy flourished within a cultural consensus because Britain kind that is practical. In the development of science the power
and America did not suffer the ideological unrest that racked impulse has increasingly prevailed over the love impulse. Sci-
the Continent. It was safely non-ideological, concerning itself ence has achieved practical success, but it is merely instrumen-
with formal statements, not with life, not with revolution, not tal, a means to an end. What is a higher end? Contemplative
with Hegelian-inspired radicalism. It had no interest in revolu- knowledge, inspired by love, allows us to know and come to rest
tion, because Hegels logic was wrong. in higher purposes that give delight or joy or ecstasy. Philoso-
Russell contributed greatly to the development of analytic phers (among others) seek the ecstasy of contemplation. The
philosophy himself, but never limited the scope of his interests. lover, the poet and the mystic find a fuller satisfaction than the
His break with Hegelian philosophy is not unrelated to his seeker after power can ever know. The lover includes the lover
British-socialist approach to matters of social progress in his of truth, that is, the philosopher, although many individual paths
first book, German Social Democracy (1896). He remained equally are possible.

Bertrand Russell
by Athamos Stradis 2017

Russell
Such high praise of a life of reason is not incompatible with he even avers that the benefits of the impersonal scientific
his view of logical-analytical philosophy, which is meant to philosophical method extend to the whole sphere of human
achieve impersonal truth; but he certainly goes far beyond it in activity, producing... a lessening of fanaticism with an increas-
preaching wisdom: It is this happy contemplation of what is ing capacity of sympathy and mutual understanding. He con-
eternal that Spinoza calls the intellectual love of God. To those cludes, philosophy does not cease to suggest and inspire a way
who have once known it, it is the key of wisdom. By eternal, of life thus readmitting a traditional aim of philosophy as the
the famous atheist means something outside human life, some consequence of his method. (Indeed, writing a history of phi-
end which is impersonal and above mankind, such as God or losophy in relation to society is not itself a logical-analytic activ-
truth or beauty (Principles of Social Reconstruction, 1916). Russell ity.)
never deviated from this view, although he would later tone down The Duty of a Philosopher in this Age (1964) is one of Rus-
the metaphysical imagery. In the conclusion of his book on the sells last writings on the topic. In this essay he describes, indeed
future of science he regrets that the triumph of practical science he defines, the philosopher as a public intellectual. This model
apparently entails a loss of the sense of wonder, of love of the individual charts the same course Russell himself had taken.
universe, of those human values that metaphysics previously pro- First: I shall suppose that, until his education was finished, he
vided. So Russell offered a philosophy that, he hoped, would was too much absorbed in the technicalities of modern philos-
remedy this loss. ophy to concern himself with the political problems of his own
At first it seems paradoxical for Bertrand Russell the great time. Later, more is demanded of him and of philosophy:
secularist to talk this way. However, contrary to a popular There is, perhaps, one duty which falls specially within the
assumption, philosophers inclined to metaphysical materialism province of philosophy, and that is to persuade mankind that
do not usually espouse materialist values think of the Epicure- human life is worth preserving.... Then: How, in our modern
ans; whereas, conversely, we are used to seeing the spiritually- world, should a philosopher live? Some of the lessons of phi-
inclined practicing real-world materialism. Russell mocked losophy are ancient and timeless. He should endeavour to view
unimaginative materialism: he said that most human activity the world, as far as he is able, without a bias of space and time,
consists of altering the position of matter at or near the earths without more emphasis upon the here and now than upon other
surface (In Praise of Idleness, 1932). And Pragmatism appeals places and other times. When he considers the world in which
to the temper of mind which finds on the surface of this planet he has to live, he must approach it as if he were a stranger
the whole of its imaginative material. (Pragmatism, 1909). imported from another planet. Such impartiality is a part of the
This was the basis of his objection to Utilitarianism, which duty of the philosopher at all times. Such a philosophical state
he (unfairly) regarded as purely practical. He thought that a of mind gives the philosopher the credentials both to be logi-
philosophy, or a philosophy of science, or an educational the- cal and to take a beneficent position on world problems.
ory, which only advocates practical success or utility, arises from
the power impulse and purveys merely a governmental view Philosophy Beyond The Academy
of truth. Therefore education should train not good citizens True, Russell often adopts a prophetic and utopian tone. A late
of the state, but citizens of the world. Considered sub specie work of his of the nuclear age, Has Man a Future? (1961), for
aeternitatis [under the aspect of eternity], the education of the example, ends with provisional predictions of the transition
individual is to my mind a finer thing than the education of the period... to the new world that would be in process of being cre-
citizen... Such individuals bring a cosmic perspective to the ated. Yet behind such seeming fantasies, including elaborate
improvement of society. (Think of the philosopher escaping schemes for world government, lie Russells unwavering advo-
Platos Cave and then returning to teach its denizens a higher cacy of reason, his theory of human nature, and his related the-
wisdom.) Both the individual and society reap the rewards of ories of education and the proper pursuit of science.
contemplation, of being citizens of the universe on a grand Russell put what was most important to him into his popu-
scale. Of course, we perpetually need to remind the universi- lar books. Fortunately, he himself burst the bonds of his self-
ties of this principle of a liberal education. imposed mathematical-logical straitjacket. Human life had a way
Russell the secularist does not stop at quietism. This is a phi- of intruding, not only into his eventful biography, but into his
losophy of action: action is best when it emerges from a profound philosophy. Looking back in old age, he said that in 1901 the suf-
appreciation of the universe and human destiny he wrote (Useless fering of a friend had filled him with a desire almost as profound
Knowledge, 1932). Or, The good life is not contemplation only, as that of the Buddha to find some philosophy which should make
or action only, but action based on contemplation, action attempt- human life endurable (Autobiography, 1967). He knew this vitally
ing to incarnate the infinite in the world (The Perplexities of John important philosophy of life could not be entirely scientific,
Forstice, 1912 in Collected Papers, v.12). The wise person has, so to although he always aspired to found it on reason. Over many
speak, one eye on the city, and one eye looking beyond it. decades he fleshed out his view of the good life and of the future
of humanity and of the world. In doing so he continued to use
Philosophy Beyond Space & Time philosophy in a broad sense and to insist that a universal, impar-
Later Russell toned down his rather Platonic language of the tial perspective results in wiser, happier individuals and is the only
contemplation of eternal universal truth. However, he contin- path to a more perfect world.
ued to make ambitious claims about the effectiveness of philos- DR JOHN R. LENZ 2017
ophy, and therefore, about what philosophy is. In the tri- John R. Lenz is a former President of the Bertrand Russell Society
umphalist final chapter of his History of Western Philosophy (1946), and teaches Classics at Drew University.

Russell
To be happy,
one must first not be unhappy
Tim Delaney finds joy in Bertrand Russells The Conquest of Happiness
I
n 1930, Bertrand Russell published The Conquest of Hap- of the universe and consider to be the only rational attitude for
piness, a book that predates the contemporary fascination an enlightened man (p.25). Russell however counters that there
with self-help publications by decades. It was described is no superior rationality in being unhappy, and the wise indi-
by Russell in the Preface as not addressed to highbrows, vidual should allow himself to be happy as circumstances per-
or to those who regard a practical problem merely as something mit. And unless you are Byronic, you will try to avoid being
to be talked about (p.ix). Russells use of the word conquest around those who are happy with being unhappy, since their
in the title emphasizes his primary contention that, except in negative attitudes may rub off on you.
rare cases, happiness does not simply present itself to people, Russell believes that the greatest threat to happiness is com-
but rather must be achieved. He argues that the multitudes of petition. He speaks of people who work so much that they ignore
men and women who suffer from unhappiness could achieve the simpler things in life that can bring happiness. Boredom is
happiness if they heed the advice he offers in the book. another source of unhappiness he discusses. He thinks that bore-
dom is an exclusively human emotion. Animals may become list-
Unhappiness less, pace up and down, and yawn; but what they experience is
Russell spends more time in Conquest discussing the causes of not boredom.
unhappiness than he does the causes of happiness. He acknowl- According to Russell, the opposite of boredom is excitement.
edges that some of the many causes of unhappiness have their Thus, if we are not excited by our environment or circumstances,
root in the social system, and others we are bored by them. He writes, The
are the result of ones own psychology. desire for excitement is very deep-
For Russell the social system creates seated in human beings, especially in
war, economic exploitation, and males. I suppose that in the hunting
unequal access to high-quality educa- stage it was more easily gratified than
tion, and employs fear tactics to dis- it has been since (p.57).
orientate people about their place in Fatigue also contributes to unhap-
society. Elaborating on war, Russell piness. Russell says fatigue can be a
states that social systems cannot avoid grave evil. In common with modern
war when men are so unhappy that views, Russell also links stress and anx-
mutual extermination seems to them iety to fatigue. As a piece of great
less dreadful than continued advice, he says that a great many wor-
endurance of the light of day (p.15). ries could be diminished by realizing
Addressing the issue of individual the unimportance of whatever is caus-
psychology, Russell states that here ing the anxiety. Thus, a key to happi-
unhappiness is caused largely by mis- ness is not caring about what others
taken views of the world, mistaken think of you or what others think is
ethics, mistaken habits of life, leading important. (This makes me think of a
to destruction of that natural zest and sign I once read on the wall of a
appetite for possible things upon mechanics garage: An emergency on
which all happiness, whether of men or animals, ultimately your part does not make it an emergency on my part!)
depends. These matters lie within the power of the individual, Russell then states, Next to worry, probably one of the most
and I propose to suggest the change by which his happiness, potent causes of unhappiness is envy. Envy is, I should say, one of
given average good fortune, may be achieved (p.16). the most universal and deep-seated of human passions (p.82). As
To that end, in Chapter 2 Russell describes Byronic unhap- Russell alludes, if we compare ourselves only to people who have
piness. The concept of Byronic unhappiness harks back to the achieved or have more than we have, we are likely to be unhappy.
characteristics and poetry of the English Romantic poet Lord In Chapter 7, Russell describes the sense of sin as one of the
Byron, especially his romanticism, melancholy, and melodra- most important psychological causes of unhappiness due to the
matic energy. Essentially, the Byronic individual has a self- corresponding feeling of unease. Remorse takes residence within
absorbed, brooding personality: the term may further describe ones consciousness through reflection upon an act that violates
a proud, moody, cynical, defiant and lonely person. ones own code of conduct. As Russell writes, Nothing so much
Russell depicts Byronic individuals as truly unhappy, but also diminishes not only happiness but efficiency as a personality
proud of their unhappiness, which they attribute to the nature divided against itself (p.107). Remorse is also likely to make

Russell
one feel inferior. Worse yet, the unhappy person is likely to act sense of happiness. He states that provided work is not exces-
out in a number of harmful ways, including setting unrealistic sive in amount, even the dullest work is to most people less
expectations on others behaviors, or holding grudges against painful than idleness (p.209). And certainly, almost anyone who
those who seem superior. has been, or is currently, unemployed, can
The last two sources of unhappi- attest to the unhappiness that unemploy-
ness described by Russell are persecu- ment can bring. Work, therefore, is desir-
tion mania, where people envision that able and provides us with many opportu-
others wish to kill, imprison, or oth- nities for happiness.
erwise injury them, and a fear of pub- Another source of happiness is the pur-
lic speaking. Of the fear of public suit of impersonal interests. Impersonal
speaking, Russell states, Very few peo- interests are those pursuits which help to
ple can be happy unless on the whole fill ones leisure time and afford relaxations
their way of life and their outlook on from the tenseness of the more serious
the world is approved by those with preoccupations of family, work and
whom they have social relations, and finances. Reading a book, watching games,
more especially, by those with whom going to the theatre, and playing golf are
they live (p.126). among examples that Russell provides
here.
Happiness The key to Russells view of happiness
Russells description of the causes, or resides in the idea that except in very rare
more accurately the sources, of happi- cases, happiness is not something that sim-
ness begins with zest. He equates zest ply happens; rather, it is something that
with a thirst for life. Among the exam- must be achieved through effort con-
ples he provides to illustrate the concept, is the idea that while quered. This makes me think of the saying that good things do
many people eat their daily meals as a chore to be completed, not come to those who wait. Instead, they come to people who
others approach the preparation and consumption of a meal actively seek happiness and strive to conquer the obstacles that
with gusto. As a bachelor who eats most of his meals alone, I come between their pursuit of happiness and happiness itself.
see a meal as something that is nuked Perhaps surprisingly, resignation also has
in a microwave, and find relatively lit- a part to play in the conquest of happiness,
tle pleasure from the experience. On and this part is no less essential than that
other occasions, however, when played by effort. Thus Russell argues that a
preparing a meal for companions or wise person will learn to resign from the
going out to dinner with friends, espe- pursuit of desired but unattainable forms of
cially where a favorite meal is about to happiness, so as not to interfere with pur-
be served, dining takes on an entirely suing the attainable forms. He says, for
new meaning. It adds zest to my life. example, Nothing is more fatiguing, nor,
Russell points out that the more in the long run, more exasperating, than the
things a person is interested in, the daily effort to believe things which daily
greater the opportunities for zest, and become more incredible. To be done with
so, happiness. He especially promotes this effort is an indispensable condition of
the value of affection, both toward and secure and lasting happiness (p.241).
from others. As he explains, One of So Russell recognizes that happiness
the chief causes of lack of zest is the depends partly upon external circum-
feeling that one is unloved, whereas stances and partly upon oneself. Some peo-
conversely the feeling of being loved ple are born with certain advantages; and
promotes zest more than anything else yet we all, potentially, have the possibility
does (p.176). Moreover, those who of attaining happiness. The happy person
face life with a feeling of security are is someone who has affections, wide inter-
much happier than those who face it with a feeling of insecu- ests, pursues life with zest, is free from suffering, is a citizen of
rity. It is affection received, not affection given, that causes this the universe, and doesnt give a damn either about what others
sense of security, Russell writes, though it arises most of all think of them or what others think is important.
from affection which is reciprocal (p.178). DR TIM DELANEY 2017
A solid and rewarding family life is another great source of Tim Delaney is a professor and the department chair of Sociology at
happiness. As sociologists oft explain, the family serves as a pri- the State University of New York in Oswego. He has published nine-
mary agent of socialization, and plays a hugely significant role teen books: please visit his website BooksByTimDelaney.com
in personal security, affection and happiness.
Russell further points out that having work is not only a mark This article contains excerpts from Friendship and Happiness and the Connec-
of being a productive member of society, it can bring a great tion Between the Two by Tim Delaney and Tim Madigan (McFarland 2017).

Russell
The Philosopher & The Scientist
Tony Simpson tells us how the Russell-Einstein manifesto led to Pugwash.
H
e was not only a great scientist but a great problems by military means. He had understood Russells inten-
man, a man whom it is good to have known tion very well. However, Einstein hesitated about making wider
and consoling to contemplate. With these contacts, because, as he said to Russell, I am not clear about the
words Bertrand Russell concluded his Pref- role you intend them to play. Einstein continued to Russell, it
ace to Einstein on Peace (1960). Down the years, Russell and Albert seems to me that, to avoid any confusion, you should regard your-
Einstein had met from time to time, but they did not see much self as the dictator of the enterprise and give orders. He signed
of each other except in 1943, when they were both living in Prince- off, rather obligingly, Awaiting orders.
ton. Then they would meet weekly at Einsteins house to discuss Russells reply of 5th April 1955 his last letter to Einstein
various matters in the philosophy of science. Wolfgang Pauli emphasised that scientists feel that they have a special responsi-
and Kurt Gdel also attended. I found these informal discus- bility since their work has unintentionally caused our present
sions very illuminating and exceedingly valuable, said Russell. dangers. For this reason, Russell thought it better to approach
Later, the US hydrogen bomb test at Bikini Atoll in the only men of science and not those in other fields, such as the
Pacific Ocean in March 1954 had spread radioactive fall-out historian Arnold Toynbee, whom Einstein had mentioned.
across wide areas, contaminating Japanese fishermen and their Widening the field would also make it much more difficult to
catch aboard the Lucky Dragon fishing boat. Both the United steer clear of politics.
States and the Soviet Union now had the hydrogen bomb. So Einstein died on 18th April 1955; but not before hed writ-
in February 1955, Russell sent Einstein a proposal: ten to Russell to say that he was gladly willing to sign your
excellent statement. Einstein also agreed with Russells choice
In common with every other thinking person, I am profoundly dis- of prospective signatories.
quieted by the armaments race in nuclear weapons. You have on var- This last letter from Einstein only reached Russell when he
ious occasions given expression to feelings and opinions with which arrived in Paris by plane from Rome. During the flight, the pilot
I am in close agreement. I think that eminent men of science ought had announced the news of Einsteins death, and Russell felt
to do something dramatic to bring home to the public and govern- shattered, not least because his plan would fall through without
ments the disasters that may occur. Do you think it would be possi- Einstein as the scientist alongside the philosopher. As Russell
ble to get, say, six men of the very highest scientific repute headed remarked, signing the Appeal was one of the last acts of Ein-
by yourself, to make a very solemn statement about the imperative steins public life.
necessity of avoiding war? Without Einstein, Russell clearly felt the need of another sci-
entists close collaboration. He had first met the medical physi-
Notwithstanding his failing health, Einstein responded cist Professor Joseph Rotblat in April 1954 at the BBC, for a
enthusiastically: televised discussion about the hydrogen bomb. Russell was espe-
cially impressed by Rotblats work uncovering the dirty bomb
I agree with every word in your letter of February 11 This might tested by the Americans at Bikini Atoll. Some weeks after the
be best achieved by a public declaration, signed by a small number, Russell-Einstein Appeal was launched in London in July 1955,
say, twelve persons, whose scientific attainments (scientific in the widest Russell wrote to Rotblat at the Medical College of St
sense) have gained them international stature and whose testimony Bartholomews Hospital:
will not be blunted in its effectiveness by their political affiliations.
When I began approaching scientists I had reason to expect Ein-
Russell replied promptly, agreeing with Einsteins suggestion steins co-operation but this was diminished by his illness and ended
to make sure of two signatories in addition to yourself and me by his death. I feel that further steps among scientists ought to be
and then to send the draft appeal to selected persons. Russell taken by scientists and that any further work by myself ought to be
wished to leave the choice to Einstein and his associates as you rather in the political field.
know the scientific world much better than I do. Einstein duly
wrote to the physicist Niels Bohr, suggesting he contact Russell In Russells words, Rotblat was brave enough to take the
directly. Dont frown like that! was how Einstein began his chair at the press conference to launch the Manifesto. Thus
letter to Bohr: This is not about our old physics controversy, began an enduring collaboration which first alighted on Pug-
but about a matter on which we are in complete agreement. wash, Nova Scotia, in July 1957, as the venue for 22 participants
He explained that Russell sought to bring together a small group from ten countries, including the US, USSR and China, to gather
of renowned scholars to warn of the perilous situation created under the auspices of shared support for the objectives of the
by atomic weapons and the arms race. As he explained, Unless Russell-Einstein Manifesto. Pugwash was the home of Cyrus
I miss Russells purpose, he wants to go beyond a highlighting Eaton, an industrialist who paid the expenses for the initial con-
of the peril; he proposes to demand that the governments pub- ference, and the name has stuck. Sixty years on, the Pugwash
licly acknowledge the necessity for renouncing any solution of Conferences on Science and World Affairs are held up as a bea-

Russell
con of hope. Joseph Rotblat personally nurtured the movement Africas Sahel, south of the Sahara Desert, destroying the basic
throughout his long life, for which he and the Conference means of livelihood. People flee the affected countries where
received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1995. In 2003, two years conflict often accompanies drought. Here another scientific
before his death aged 96, Rotblat urged Pugwash to open up imperative compels action on a global scale. Shall we remem-
and collaborate with others in alerting the public to the dan- ber our humanity, and forget our differences?
gers of nuclear war in the context of the invasion of Iraq. TONY SIMPSON 2017
Now the world is faced with climate change as well as esca- Tony Simpson is the Editor of Climate of Peace? (Spokesman 134)
lating nuclear proliferation. The aridity line spreads south across published by the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation: spokesmanbooks.com.
PORTRAIT OF EINSTEIN DARREN MCANDREW 2012

Russell
Are People Rational?
John Ongley investigates what Bertrand Russell thought about human reason.
T
he economist John Maynard Keynes once said of we shall both die before anyone reads it through, but people will read
his Cambridge friends in the years before World bits, and they will have to praise it, for the same reasons for which
War I including the philosophers Bertrand Rus- people praise Clarissa Harlowe, because otherwise they would have
sell and G.E. Moore that while their conversa- been wasting their time.
tions were all bright, amusing and clever, there was no solid (The Collected Papers of Bertrand Russell, vol.6, 1992, p.xiv.
diagnosis of human nature underlying them. His friends, he Clarissa Harlowe is said to be the longest novel in English).
claimed, had believed that the human race consists of reliable,
rational, decent people, influenced by truth and objective stan- Just as people tend not to acknowledge that they treated some-
dards, failing to see that there were insane and irrational one shabbily, they wont want to admit that theyd been wast-
springs of wickedness in people. Keynes thought this view ing their time reading Principia Mathematica, Russell says, so to
was nave. Bertie in particular, Keynes said of Russell, sus- justify the expenditure of time they will claim (and believe) that
tained simultaneously a pair of opinions ludicrously incompat- the book is a great one.
ible. He held that in fact human affairs were carried on after a Note that cognitive dissonance theory diverges at times from
most irrational fashion, but that the remedy was quite simple behaviorism. Behaviorism predicts that if you reward someone
and easy, since all we had to do was to carry them on ratio- for certain behavior, they will repeat it, punish them, and they
nally (Keynes, Two Memoirs, 1946, pp.99-103). will avoid it. Release dog food when the dog presses a lever, and
But how fair is this to Russell? In fact, Russell seems to have it will press the lever again; shock it when it presses the lever,
held a decidedly less-than-rosy view of human nature early on, and it will avoid pressing it again. But dissonance theory, like
one which saw people as neither rational nor decent. Its not just Russell in the letter to Donnelly, predicts that in certain cases,
human affairs that he thought irrational; he thought people are if people experience some discomfort to achieve something, they
irrational, and he seemed to think that were never likely to change. will value it more highly, to justify the effort, than if they had
Russells view of human reason is one confirmed by recent gotten it without a struggle. Fraternity hazing rituals and army
research in psychology. In what is called cognitive dissonance the- boot camp are based on this fact.
ory, psychologists today maintain that we tend to avoid uncom- In 1959, to test this theory, students at Stanford were invited
fortable truths by replacing them in our minds with more com- to join a discussion group about sex; but first had to pass an
forting fictions. This was Russells view of human nature, as well. embarrassment test, ostensibly to insure that they werent too
embarrassed about discussing sex to participate. Some were given
Lying To Ourselves a very embarrassing test, others a mild one, still others the
More specifically, cognitive dissonance theory is the view that control group none. Afterwards, the subjects listened to a tape
people feel uncomfortable holding inconsistent beliefs, espe- of the discussion group that was calculated to be boring, and
cially about themselves, and that to dispel the inconsistency and were then asked to rate what they had heard on the tape for
the accompanying discomfort, they will modify their beliefs, attractiveness: dull to interesting, unintelligent to intelligent.
even to the point of adopting false ones. For example, most of Those who had undergone the embarrassing test rated the
us like to think of ourselves as decent people. If we treat some- groups attractiveness significantly higher than those in the mild
one shabbily, that will conflict with our self-image. So we might test group or the control group. Dissonance theory predicts
rationalize our action, say, by deciding that the person we mis- these results, behaviorism does not (Aronson and Mills, The
treated is a bad person and deserved the shabby treatment, and Effect of Severity of Initiation on Liking for a Group, Journal
in fact, we were really standing up to this bad person and so of Abnormal and Social Psychology 59, 1959).
doing the right thing. This rationalization is not particularly Many other appeals to cognitive dissonance, besides Russells,
rational behavior, but it makes us feel better. Nor are such ratio- can be found in popular culture. For example, in his Autobiogra-
nalizations intentional. We almost always believe them usu- phy, Benjamin Franklin refers to the old maxim that He that has
ally with great conviction. once done you a kindness will be more ready to do you another
Psychologists began studying this idea experimentally and than he whom you yourself have obliged. The idea may well
accumulating evidence for it in the 1950s. But one can find Rus- have been standard long before it was taken up by psychologists
sell asserting the same idea as early as 1908, and continuing to in the twentieth century.
use it throughout his life. For example, in a March 1908 letter
from Russell to Lucy Donnelly, when Russell was preparing the Ruling Fictions
final draft of the three volume Principia Mathematica for the Another use of cognitive dissonance in Russells early writings
printer, he wrote: can be found in his 1910 pamphlet Anti-Suffragist Anxieties, which
is an extended argument that women should be given the right
Since September, I have written about 2,400 pages of the MS of to vote. In the pamphlet Russell points to a problem that arises
our book, and I am still only in the third of eight parts. I suspect that whenever one group has power over another, namely To inflict

ARE PEOPLE RATIONAL?
KEN LAIDLAW 2017
PLEASE VISIT WWW.KENLAIDLAW.COM
TO SEE MORE OF KENS ART
Russell
a special disability upon one class in the community is in itself is only an occasional disturbing force. The exact opposite of this
an evil, and is calculated to generate resentment on one side and would be nearer the truth: the great mass of beliefs by which we are
arrogance on the other. In other words for men to have the vote supported in our daily life is merely the bodying forth of desire, cor-
and yet deny it to women creates resentment among women and rected here and there, at isolated points, by the rude shock of fact.
arrogance among men. Man is essentially a dreamer, wakened sometimes for a moment by
The arrogance Russell refers to here is what is called a rul- some peculiarly obtrusive element in the outer world, but lapsing
ing class fiction the self-justification a dominant class makes again quickly into the happy somnolence of imagination. Freud has
to be comfortable about mistreating another group. Typically, shown how largely our dreams at night are the pictured fulfilment
they rationalize their domination by asserting that the subordi- of our wishes; he has, with an equal measure of truth, said the same
nate group is not competent to rule society, while the dominant of day-dreams; and he might have included the day-dreams which
class is. And while the fact that power is withheld from one group we call beliefs.
by another is itself unjust, there is in such cases, Russell says, an
even greater injustice which also requires rationalizing, namely And in general, Russell asserts that every man, wherever he
that the dominant class is unlikely to pursue the interests of a goes, is encompassed by a cloud of comforting convictions,
subject class, but only its own. Russell asserts this when he says, which move with him like flies on a summer day.
from defect of imagination and good will no class can be trusted Russell then gives examples of convictions people carry
to care adequately for the interests of another class, and in around in order to avoid uncomfortable thoughts. Here is one:
fact womens interests have been unduly neglected by men.
The idea of a ruling class fiction is a common one among There can be no doubt that, in the autumn of 1914, the immense
political scientists and historians. For example, Robert Dahl, majority of the German nation felt absolutely certain of victory for
dean of American political scientists in the second half of the Germany. In this case fact has intruded and dispelled the dream. But
twentieth century, asserted that heads of non-democratic if, by some means, all non-German historians could be prevented
regimes have usually tried to justify their rule by invoking the from writing during the next hundred years, the dream would rein-
ancient and persistent claim that most people are just not com- state itself: the early triumphs would be remembered, while the ulti-
petent to participate in governing a state. Most people would mate disaster would be forgotten.
be better off, this argument goes, if they would only leave the
complicated business of governing to those wiser than they a If we cannot justify an uncomfortable belief to our satisfac-
minority at most, perhaps only one person. In practice, these tion, we simply erase it from memory, or at least avoid think-
rationalizations were never quite enough, so where argument ing about it as much as possible. This is called willed ignorance.
left off coercion took over (On Democracy, 1998). In another example, Russell says: Voluntary workers in a
To sum up, a ruling class must rationalize its dominance of contested election always believe that their side will win, no
another group in order to think well of itself and avoid acknowl- matter what reason there may be for expecting defeat. After
edging that its dominance is not in the interest of the other group. these examples, Russell describes whole hierarchies of self-jus-
This rationalization is the ruling class fiction, and it is a form of tifications that people make to avoid mental discomfort.
arrogance because it will assert in some way that we are better To return to the example of the Germans and their defeat,
than them, and they are not competent to govern themselves or one might wonder: is it really true that if Germans historians
others, while we are. In each case, self-justification is driven by alone wrote histories of the Great War, they would have
a desire to avoid the dissonance caused by the need to think well described the victories and forgotten the defeat? Can a nation
of yourself on the one hand and the knowledge that you are mis- really believe it is a mighty military force headed for victory
treating people on the other. against a puny enemy, lose the war, and then ignore, forget, or
otherwise rationalize the loss, and continue thinking that it is
A Cloud of Convictions mightier than its enemies, or even that it really won the war, or
Russell held other pessimistic views about human nature besides would have won it except for some unusual circumstance, say, a
the belief that people are irrational self-justifiers. He also stab in the back? By way of an answer, let us look again at psy-
believed, for example, that people enjoy persecuting other peo- chological research on cognitive dissonance.
ple. The pleasure people take in war, along with their rational- So far, only one experiment with cognitive dissonance has
izations to justify it, especially by demonizing those on the other been described, and that was a canned (in vitro) laboratory
side, was, after his experiences as a pacifist during WWI, some- experiment with college students. But does it actually work that
thing Russell warned us of all his life. We will see examples of way in the real world? Interestingly, the first scientific study of
other views he held about the irrationality human nature inter- dissonance theory was a real-world social psychology study by
twined with his view that people are typically self-justifiers. Leon Festinger. In 1954, Festinger and his colleagues infiltrated
Russell develops his view of the irrationality of human nature a religious cult led by a charismatic woman who claimed to have
in his 1919 essay Dreams and Facts, which begins: had visions that the world would soon end (in a great flood),
but that the sects members would be picked up by flying saucers
The influence of our wishes upon our beliefs is a matter of com- beforehand, and saved. On the assumption that she was wrong,
mon knowledge and observation, yet the nature of this influence is Festinger used dissonance theory to predict that group mem-
very generally misconceived. It is customary to suppose that the bulk bers would rationalize their error when the prophecy failed, and
of our beliefs are derived from some rational ground, and that desire even deny that they had been wrong.

Russell
As the day of destruction approached,
some cult members quit their jobs and gave
away their possessions they wouldnt need
them in outer space but others did not go
so far. As the reader may have guessed, on
the eve of the fateful day no spaceship
arrived to pick them up. At first the cults
members were very worried, but then their
leader had a new vision that due to the
impressive faith of the group, God had
decided to spare the world. The members
were elated, and many became even more
active in proselytizing for the group than
before. In particular, those who had suf-
fered most, by quitting their jobs and get-
ting rid of their possessions, were especially
active in the group after the initial
prophecys failure, while those who had
been less committed and kept their jobs and
possessions ceased to believe and drifted
away, just as dissonance theory would pre-
dict (Festinger, Riecken, Schachter, When
Prophecy Fails, 1956; recounted in Tavris
and Aronson, Mistakes Were Made, 2007).
FACEBOOK HIM AT CLINTON.INMAN

In a similar way, a group of people can
ignore the fact that they lost a war.
Can Men Be Rational?

After Dreams and Facts, examples of self-
justification in response to uncomfortable
feelings abound in Russells writings. In fact,
from 1919 on he takes it for granted that
humans justify nearly every questionable
RUSSELL PORTRAIT CLINTON INMAN 2017

thing they do. How persistent is our will to
be unreasonable? About this, Russell says in
his 1923 essay Can Men Be Rational?: The
bias produced by such causes [as irrational
desires] falsifies mens judgments as to facts
in ways that are very hard to avoid. In other
words (because it is very hard to avoid), dont
count on people giving up biased thinking
soon.
In addition to thinking that people are
not particularly scrupulous about the truth when it makes them barbarity with which white races treat Negroes, and the gusto
feel uncomfortable, Russell also thinks that people are not par- with which old ladies and clergymen pointed out the duty of mil-
ticularly nice to one another. Unsurprisingly, then, he frequently itary service to young men during the War. (reprinted in Why
asserts that conventional morality is often just a cover-up and I Am Not a Christian, 1957).
justification for bad human impulses and behavior, as in his 1925 Russell also finds moral cover-up and self-justification work-
essay What I Believe, where he writes: In the ordinary man ing together in education. For example, in 1926 he writes: The
and woman there is a certain amount of active malevolence, both essence of education is that it is a change (other than death)
special ill will directed to particular enemies and general imper- effected in an organism to satisfy the desires of the operator. Of
sonal pleasure in the misfortune of others. It is customary to course the operator says that his desire is to improve the pupil,
cover this over with fine phrases; almost half of conventional but this statement does not represent any objectively verifiable
morality is a cloak for it. Russell continues with examples of the fact (Psychology and Politics, reprinted in Sceptical Essays, 1928).
malevolence we use morality to justify. They include the glee And in 1932, adding the rationalization of bad behavior to edu-
with which people repeat and believe scandal the unkind treat- cation, he says: The elements of good citizenship that are empha-
ment of criminals in spite of clear proof that better treatment sized in schools and universities are the worst elements and not
would have more effect in reforming them the unbelievable the best citizenship, as generally taught, perpetuates traditional

Philosophical Haiku
injustices... Wherever an injustice exists, it is possible to invoke
the ideal of legality and constitutionality in its support (Educa-
tion and the Social Order, 1932).
Here are two more examples from Russells later writings of
the assertion that conventional morality is a cover up and fre-
quently less that rational (both reprinted in Unpopular Essays,
1950). In 1937 we see him saying, One of the persistent delu-
sions of mankind is that some sections of the human race are
morally better or morally worse than others (The Superior
Virtue of the Oppressed). And in 1946, in the essay Ideas That
Have Harmed Mankind, he asserts: I think that the evils that
men inflict on each other, and by reflection on themselves, have
their main source in evil passions rather than in ideas or beliefs.
but ideas and principles that do harm are, as a rule, though not LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN
always, cloaks for evil passions. And so on. Russells assumption (18891951)
of human intellectual dishonesty stretches across his entire career.
World as facts, not things
Group Self-Deceit Understand without knowing.
In a last example, we find Russell saying in 1953 essentially what On the other hand...
he asserted 1910 about the self-justifying behavior of dominant
classes, but here more clearly:
I
t takes a brave man to declare that his ground-breaking work that
people had hailed as a revolution in philosophy was muddle-headed,
Holders of power, always and everywhere, are indifferent to the but thats exactly what Wittgenstein did.
good or evil of those who have no power, except in so far as they are Born into a fabulously wealthy family in Vienna, as a young man he
restrained by fear. This may sound too harsh a saying. It may be said went to Britain, where at first he studied engineering at Manchester. At
that decent people will not inflict torture on others beyond a point. this time he noticed some intractable problems in the foundations of
This may be said, but history shows that it is not true. The decent mathematics, so he decided to make them more tractable. After visit-
people in question succeed in not knowing, or pretending not to ing Gottlob Frege in Jena, he nipped to Cambridge to see what Bertrand
know, what torments are inflicted to make them happy. Russell thought. Russell thought he was crazy, but also a genius. Then
(What Is Democracy? in Fact and Fiction, 1961). WWI intervened, and so Wittgenstein headed back home, to end up
fighting the Brits. Luckily for him, he was taken prisoner: he used this
Again, this situation is like the case where one person mistreats leisure time to write his first masterpiece, the Tractatus Logico-Philo-
another and rationalizes the act, only now we have one group sophicus, which described how he then thought language and logic
mistreating another group, with the dominant group creating worked. For one thing, he said, the world is not made up of things, it is
what we have called a ruling class fiction to avoid the discom- made up of facts what are called states of affairs, or the way things
fort that recognizing its own injustice would cause it. relate to each other. In short, after several thousand years of fruitless
As well as being an excuse for mistreating the subject people, endeavour on the part of all his hapless predecessors, Wittgenstein
a ruling class fiction typically includes a rationalization that the claimed that he had solved all philosophical problems. And so, with
subjects were actually being treated well, or at least were not nothing more to be done in philosophy, he went off and became a
mistreated, by the ruling class. Any sort of excuse for ignoring school-teacher for six years in the wee Austrian village of Puchberg am
or not knowing of ones own injustices is willed ignorance, that Schneeberg (imagine his homework assignments!).
is, desired ignorance, even if it is not consciously desired or cho- Then he began to have second thoughts: maybe he hadnt solved
sen. The passage by Russell above describes willed ignorance. all of philosophys problems! So he decided to go back to Cambridge.
But first he had to overcome a very unphilosophical problem he had
Conclusion no money. Having inherited a vast amount, hed given it all away because
We began with the view of John Maynard Keynes that before he thought it would hinder his thinking (I find it works the other way,
World War I, Russell, along with others at Cambridge, overesti- myself). A collection was taken for him, and he got back to work. Not
mated the degree to which people are rational. Based on the pas- published until after his death, his Philosophical Investigations chal-
sages by Russell quoted above, however, one might think instead lenged his earlier work to its very foundations.
that throughout his life Russell overstated the degree to which Wittgenstein taught that in the end philosophy seeks not knowledge,
people are irrational. But as has at least been suggested with a but understanding. Whether they understood him or not, later philoso-
few examples of psychological research, current psychology seems phers were happy Wittgenstein hadnt solved all of philosophys prob-
to support a third view that Russell had it just about right. lems. Theyd all be unemployed if he had.
DR JOHN ONGLEY 2017 TERENCE GREEN 2017
John Ongley, with Rosalind Carey, is the author of Russell: A Terence is a peripatetic (though not Peripatetic) writer, historian and
Guide for the Perplexed, winner of the 2014 Bertrand Russell lecturer. He holds a PhD in the history of political thought from
Society Book Award. He currently teaches Philosophy at Lehman Columbia University, NYC, and lives with his wife and their dog in
College, CUNY, in New York. Wellington, NZ. He blogs at hardlysurprised.blogspot.co.nz

Russell
Bertrand Russell on Something
Landon D.C. Elkind explains why Russell believed logic can set thought free
U
sing Bertrand Russells remarks on something as a foil, Russells Concept of Logic
I shall try to explain why he thought studying logic and Russell objected to the apparent logical implication in his ear-
philosophy is valuable. lier work that something exists because it is antithetical to his
As almost any Russellian knows, Russell abhorred teaching conception of logic. For him, logic stands apart from the blithe
Aristotelian logic, also called traditional logic. To take two quotes: acceptance of the intuitively obvious, even the innocent-seem-
ing thesis that something exists.
If you wish to become a logician, there is one piece of advice which Consider Russells take on another obvious truth: that all
I cannot urge too strongly, and that is: Do NOT learn the traditional humans are mortal:
formal logic. In Aristotles day, it was a creditable effort, but so was
Ptolemaic astronomy. To teach either in the present day is a ridicu- ...there is nothing self-contradictory about an immortal man. We
lous piece of antiquarianism. believe the proposition [All men are mortal] on the basis of induc-
(The Art of Philosophizing, and Other Essays, 1990, p.38) tion, because there is no well-authenticated case of a man living more
than (say) one hundred and fifty years; but this only makes the propo-
I conclude that the Aristotelian doctrines with which we have been sition probable, not certain. It cannot be certain so long as living men
concerned in this chapter are wholly false, with the exception of the exist. (ibid., p.253)
formal theory of the syllogism, which is unimportant. Any person
in the present day who wishes to learn logic will be wasting his time For Russell, certifying the obvious is not the task of logic.
if he reads Aristotle or any of his disciples. Logic should not dogmatize about the obvious because this runs
(The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell, 2009, p.257) the terrible risk of mistaking the obvious for the true. As Russell
wrote in Our Knowledge of the External World (1914), The logic
Russells criticism was tempered by praise for Aristotles which thus arises is not quite disinterested or candid Such an
achievement in advancing logic beyond what his predecessors attitude naturally does not tend to the best results (p.56).
had achieved (p.251). But I am not concerned with delivering For earlier logicians the function of logic is to exclude all pos-
justice to Aristotle. I want to consider what Russell believed sibilities save for one and then declare that the world must be
about modern logic that so sets it apart from the logic of Aristo- in whatever way remains (p.18). The modern logic Russell advo-
tle, and about philosophy itself. And an apt illustration of the cates can instead show us new possibilities:
value of modern logic is Russells treatment of something.
Modern logic has the effect of enlarging our abstract imagina-
Doubts about Something In Logic tion, and providing an infinite number of possible hypotheses to be
In their monumental Principia Mathematica, Russell and his co- applied in the analysis of any complex fact. In this respect it is the
author Alfred North Whitehead attempted to create a logically exact opposite of the logic practised by the classical tradition. In that
sound basis for mathematics. In it their primitive proposition logic, hypotheses which seem prima facie possible are professedly
9.1 implies that at least one individual thing exists. It follows proved impossible, and it is decreed in advance that reality must have
that the universal class of things is not empty. This is stated a certain character. In modern logic, on the contrary, while the prima
explicitly in proposition 24.52. Whitehead and Russell then facie hypotheses as a rule remain admissible, others, which only logic
remark: This would not hold if there were no instances of any- would have suggested, are added to our stock, and are very often
thing; hence it implies the existence of something. (Principia found indispensable if a right analysis of the facts is to be obtained.
Mathematica, Volume I, 1910, 24). Here then, logic seems com- The old logic put thought in fetters, while the new logic gives it wings.
mitted to the existence of something. (p.68, emphasis added).
By 1919 Russell took a different view. From his prison cell
he wrote: The primitive propositions in Principia Mathematica This last sentence aptly expresses what Russell sees as the
are such as to allow the inference that at least one individual function of logic. Modern logic does not preclude perfectly
exists. But I now view this as a defect in logical purity (The respectable possibilities like immortal humans. Modern logic
Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell, p.156). Now Russell views the strengthens our critical capacities by forcing us to set aside feel-
logical proof that something exists quite negatively. ings of obviousness as our guide in critical inquiry. Modern logic
It may seem curious that Russell held that the existence of thus enables us to see the truth through the haze of the obvi-
something, even of just one something, was too bold a commit- ous. As Russell writes, Thus, while it [modern logic] liberates
ment for a logician. That at least one thing exists seems mani- imagination as to what the world may be, it refuses to legislate
festly true, even obvious, to most any of us. There appears no as to what the world is (p.19).
difficulty in presuming what is patently true, even in logic. So Russells later view of logic thus explains why he objected to
why does Russell object to the primitive propositions of logic his own earlier proof that something exists. Logic should not
proving that there is something? Why hesitate over the obvious? be tasked with proving this, because is not self-contradictory to

CARTOON BILL STOTT 2017 FOR MORE, PLEASE VISIT WWW.BILLSTOTT.CO.UK Russell
suppose that there is not something. Where logic proves that from the tyranny of custom. Thus, while diminishing our feeling of
some real possibility cannot be, we know we have regressed into certainty as to what things are, it greatly increases our knowledge as
practicing the misguided traditional logic. to what they may be; it removes somewhat the arrogant dogmatism
of those who have never travelled into the region of liberating doubt,
The Essence of Philosophy and it keeps alive our sense of wonder by showing familiar things in
Chapter II of Russells book Our Knowledge of the External World an unfamiliar aspect. (pp.156-157, emphasis added).
is titled Logic as the Essence of Philosophy. In it Russell claims
that every philosophical problem, when it is subjected to the This intellectual expansion is the tremendous boon of study-
necessary analysis and purification, is found either to be not ing philosophy and modern logic. Such expansion was neces-
really philosophical at all, or else to be, in the sense in which sary to generate every idea that anyone has tried to lift off the
we are using the word, logical (p.42). ground, including a few ideas that Russell himself advocated: a
Lets focus on one aspect of this fascinating feature of Rus- world without nuclear weapons and even without war; a world
sells thought: he held that the value of philosophy itself is the free from want, with a universal basic income for all; womens
same as the value of modern logic. Philosophy, too, is valuable, suffrage; an end to retributive punishment for crimes; free uni-
because it can expand our critical capacities and cause us to crit- versity education for all who desire it, and so on. Perhaps immor-
ically reflect on what seems at first obvious or necessary. The tality will eventually join the ranks of such ideas. But if were
value of philosophy as well as of modern logic is therefore to not prepared to sacrifice our antiquated ideas and customary
free our imprisoned thoughts from inherited prejudices and habits for a bold vision of the possible, we will never know for
feelings. And the reward of those that study philosophy and certain.
modern logic is uncertainty. As Russell writes in The Problems There is nothing logically contradictory about a world with-
of Philosophy (1959): out war, without sickness, without poverty, without want, with-
out fear, even without death. It is through the study of philoso-
The value of philosophy is, in fact, to be sought largely in its uncer- phy and particularly of logic that such possibilities become open
tainty. The man who has no tincture of philosophy goes through life to us, that we are startled into critical reflection on what the
imprisoned by the prejudices derived from common sense, from the past has allotted to us; and then startled into action. It was for
habitual beliefs of his age or his nation, and from convictions which these reasons that Russell was so strongly opposed to the tradi-
have grown up in his mind without the co-operation or consent of tional logic inspired by Aristotle and so ardently devoted to
his deliberate reason. To such a man the world tends to become def- modern logic. Modern logic and philosophy can save us from
inite, finite, obvious; common objects rouse no questions, and unfa- the unhappy tyranny of uninspired thought, so long as we are
miliar possibilities are contemptuously rejected. As soon as we begin willing to question even our most natural suppositions, such as
to philosophize, on the contrary, we findthat even the most every- human mortality, or the existence of something.
day things lead to problems to which only very incomplete answers LANDON D. C. ELKIND 2017
can be given. Philosophy, though unable to tell us with certainty Landon D.C. Elkind is a doctoral student in philosophy at the Univer-
what is the true answer to the doubts which it raises, is able to sug- sity of Iowa. He is also a board member of the Bertrand Russell Society
gest many possibilities which enlarge our thoughts and free them and of the Society for the Study of the History of Analytic Philosophy.

Is The Age Of I n d i v i d u a l i s m
Coming To An End?
Michael Foley says that perhaps we are all becoming more sociable.
T
he revelation came in the popcorn queue of a mul- it as a refuge from the morals, conventions and conformities
tiplex. Looking around at the posters, it suddenly of bourgeois society.
occurred to me that movie heroes used to be singu- All these overlapping and intermingling developments
lar the lone private eye walking down those mean remained elitist, influencing mostly artists, intellectuals and
streets, or the lone stranger riding down those main streets political radicals, until, at the end of the 1960s, they combined
but now the lone hero has been largely replaced by the buddy in a youth mass culture that spread around the world to pro-
pair or the team. Even those ultimate individuals, the super- duce expressive individualism, which added to the rejection of
heroes, now prefer to fight evil in groups. This idea connected authority and conformity the need to discover your true self
in my mind with many other cultural developments to suggest and do your own thing.
that the age of individualism, which seemed so permanent, may This has been the prevailing mood of recent times: the high
instead be temporary, an overreaction against constraint and point of individualism was probably the 1970s and 80s. Scien-
repression that is now correcting itself. tific and political theories, while asserting themselves to be time-
Individualism, the idea that individual freedom and rights less, objective truths, usually reflect the zeitgeist the spirit of
are paramount, has become so culturally entrenched that it the age. Just so, at its height, individualism was ratified by two
seems like a universal, absolute and eternal truth. In fact the influential theories. The first was neo-Darwinism in biology,
idea is not universal but largely confined to the West; not abso- which interpreted evolution as a competition for survival won
lute but a contingent development; and far from being eternal, by the strongest and/or most cunning individuals; and the sec-
may be losing its appeal. ond, neo-liberalism in economics, which drew on the first to
argue that markets should be free to develop, like nature, in an
The Growth of Individualism unhindered competition between individuals.
The creation myth of individualism is that in Eighteenth-Cen-
tury Enlightenment Europe a few courageous champions of The Decline of Individualism
reason broke the shackles of religious repression and set the But the zeitgeist has changed and both these theories have now
individual free to find, express, and fulfil a true self. But the been challenged. Many evolutionary theorists argue that cooper-
development of individualism began much earlier, and was much ation is as important for survival as competition, if not more so;
more gradual and complex. Many factors, religious and mate- and many political theorists argue that the free market has pro-
rial as well as intellectual, contributed. Along with the Enlight- duced a widening inequality that is damaging to the winners as
enments intellectual demand for liberty, the growth of com- well as to the losers. Individualism has also been undermined at
merce created a middle class of merchants, prosperous farmers its very source by neuroscientists who claim that the individuals
and urban craftsmen who believed in private property and unhin- sense of a unitary self is an illusion created by the brain to pro-
dered individual wealth accumulation. So individualism was a vide the comfort of stability and continuity. So Margaret
partnership of ideas and business such as contemporary univer- Thatchers famous claim that there is no such thing as society has
sities dream of. But underlying both factors in this revolution- been matched by the opposite claim that there is no such thing
ary development was Christianitys even more revolutionary as the individual. The self is not an essence to be discovered but
idea a shocking novelty in the classical world that all human an ongoing process of interaction with the environment, and
beings are of equal value. This had never occurred to philoso- according to the theory of extended mind is at least partly in the
phers, and, given the hunger of Homo sapiens for hierarchy and environment. Philosophers such as Charles Taylor support this
distinction, perhaps need never have occurred to anyone. But idea by arguing that the most important environmental influence
eventually the demand for political and personal liberty turned is other people, and that personal identity is developed not so
a founding belief of the Church against the Church, a develop- much by looking inwards to find a true self, as in either accep-
ment pithily summarised by historian Larry Siedentops remark tance of or resistance to the identities others attempt to impose.
that Secularism is Christianitys gift to the world. We are expected to develop our own opinions, outlook, stances
In the Nineteenth Century the commercial and intellectual to things, to a considerable degree through solitary reflection.
strands of individualism separated into capitalist But this is not how things work with important issues, such as the
entrepreneurism and Romantic individualism, the latter being definition of our identity. We define this always in dialogue with,
a rejection of the materialist herd in favour of solitary com- sometimes in struggle against, the identities our significant oth-
muning with sublime nature on rugged coastlines and moun- ers want to recognize in us. And even when we outgrow some of
tain tops. At the end of the Nineteenth and the first half of the the latter our parents, for instance and they disappear from
Twentieth Centuries, Romanticism morphed into bohemian our lives, the conversation with them continues within us as long
individualism, which recolonised the city or a limited area of as we live (from The Ethics of Authenticity by Charles Taylor, 1992).

An icon of Romantic individualism:
Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog,
Caspar David Friedrich, 1818
Even physics, which believes itself to be the most objective same reassurance of belonging as a congregation of ecstatic
of disciplines, has altered its theories on the nature of reality to believers, while on the left there is a new form of humorous
suit the changing mood. In the late Nineteenth and early Twen- group anarchism. In his 2008 book Infinitely Demanding: Ethics
tieth Centuries an atomistic approach understood reality as con- of Commitment, Politics and Resistance the philosopher Simon
sisting of elementary particles that created relations with each Critchley writes, In my view, anarchism what we might call
other, but by the end of the Twentieth and the start of the actually existing anarchism is a powerfully refreshing and
Twenty-First this had completely reversed to an interpretation remotivating response to the drift and demotivation of liberal
of reality as a field, a swarm of continuous interactive processes democracy. In particular it is the carnivalesque humour of
that create and destroy particles. Now the relations are often anarchist groups and their tactics of non-violent warfare that
believed to create the particles rather than the other way round. have led to the creation of a new language of civil disobedience
The theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli recently wrote: There and a recovery of the notion of direct democracy. Critchley
is no reality except in the relations between physical systems. It specifically rejects an individualist anarchism for something
isnt things that enter into relations but, rather, relations that more social: The conception of anarchism that I seek to defend
ground the notion of thing. (Reality Is Not What It Seems: The is not so much organised around freedom as responsibility.
Journey to Quantum Gravity, Carlo Rovelli, 2016). This is Tay- Here Critchley identifies the problem that has caused indi-
lors view of individuals applied to elementary particles. vidualism to lose its allure. Personal freedom, the essential fea-
ture of individualism, is not the universal gift it appeared to be.
The New Interconnectivity Back in the heady Sixties and Seventies, the era of popular
The decline of individualism is evident in practice as well as demands for liberation and rights, it seemed that being free was
theory, in the proliferation of social networks, urban tribes, all that was needed to enjoy a fulfilling life. But, as the populists
friendship groups, festivals (still spreading faster than Japanese have noted, full freedom is available only to the few who can
knotweed), cosplay and gaming conventions, and all kinds of afford it. And many of these fortunate few have discovered that
group activity including group dancing, singing in choirs, team total freedom is not liberation but a new kind of burden. Infi-
games and themed parties. With the fashion for communal tables nite choice is thrilling in theory but exhausting in practice,
and benches and sharing plates, the trend is apparent even in requiring every decision to be worked out from first principles,
restaurants. Even reading, that most quintessentially solitary often by those without principles. And the thrilling possibility
practice, has become a communal endeavour, in reading groups. of refusing obligation and commitment in order to live by and
There is also evidence from religion, with the growing popu- for ones self has also turned out to be less than fulfilling.
larity of Pentecostal churches, which reduce the emphasis on
individual religious observance and instead encourage group par- The Seeds of Rage
ticipation in singing and dancing. The evidence was already there in the lives of the founding
In the politics of both right and left there has been an even fathers of individualism: Baudelaire (1821-67), the most influ-
more dramatic rejection of the assumption that democracy is ential modern poet; Flaubert (1821-80), the most influential
based on the liberal ideology of individual rights. The rise of modern novelist; and Nietzsche (1844-1900), the most influ-
right-wing populism has been based on a renewed belief in ential modern thinker. All three lived alone, were vehement in
nationalism, and is expressed in mass rallies that provide the their insistence on solitude and freedom, their rejection of mar-

riage and democracy, and their contempt for what they described great edifice out of himself that both powers can inhabit it, even if at
as the common herd. As Flaubert once put it: I have built opposite ends; between which are sheltered conciliatory powers pro-
myself a tower and let the waves of shit beat at its base. vided with the dominant strength to settle, if need be, any quarrels that
The free solitary life should have provided peaks of creative break out. (Friedrich Nietzsche, Human, All Too Human, Section5.).
exaltation on a plateau of serenity, but it seems instead to have
provoked rage. The three seminal individualists were constantly Nietzsche failed to take his own advice, but there now seems
seething. Nietzsche, the most detached, living alone in Turin, to be an unconscious rebalancing between individualism and
with no social life whatever, was also the angriest, blaming all social life, which is a rejection of the excesses of freedom as well
his problems on his home nation and upbringing, writing abu- as of traditional conformity. The key seems to be involvement
sive letters to his family and friends, quarrelling with his loyal in new types of group that are chosen rather than imposed, tran-
publisher, and demanding to have the Kaiser publicly executed. sient rather than lasting, and informal rather than requiring
The problem is that intellectual exaltation encourages con- official membership.
tempt for the people at the base of the tower and a growing cer- As with many forms of social change, the waning of individ-
tainty in the superiority of ones own convictions, which the ualism provides reasons to be fearful the rise of populism and
world in its stubborn stupidity fails even to acknowledge, much nationalism as well as reasons for hope the more benign
less accept. The result is rage. small-group ethos. And it effects most of us, often unconsciously.
A more recent example of this syndrome is the poet Philip I realise that Im too much of a Twentieth-Century individual-
Larkin, who refused to commit to any of his lovers or to engage ist to join any organised group, but at least Ive come down from
in any social activity that did not suit him. He lived alone and the tower to the street and the urban crowd no longer the
for himself alone, yet described himself in later life as boiling common herd despised by Baudelaire, Flaubert and Nietzsche,
with rage. The irony is that Larkin protected his freedom to but a group of sorts, albeit the most fluid and transient, and
have time to write, but succeeded so well he had nothing to say offering a sense of belonging, albeit the most tenuous. As well
and dried up. as the proliferation of new group activities there has been a
steady proliferation of new public spaces where people can see
The Sense of Change and be seen the communal open-plan eating areas of malls;
To preserve sanity it seems to be necessary to keep a tension the outdoor tables colonising pavements and squares; and the
between the need for individual freedom and the demands of continuing spread of coffee shops. In the mode of Baudelaire,
others. The constraints of traditional society were impossibly Flaubert and Nietzsche I have previously interpreted this as evi-
binding, but the opposite extreme of refusing all constraint has dence of narcissistic attention-seeking. But it is also possible to
not been the answer. Once we suffocated in the prison of con- see it as a new form of togetherness, a new form of community
formity, then we drowned in the ocean of choice. a paradoxical community of strangers. There is something
Nietzsche understood the necessity of maintaining dualities oddly fulfilling in looking on as people, mysterious, unknow-
of every kind, but especially between Apollo, the symbol of able and seething with deep forces and passions, go about their
social order and limit, and Dionysus, the symbol of freedom urgent but inscrutable business. It is the urban equivalent of
and intoxication. Keeping contradictory forces in tension can watching the sea.
be a source of strength: MICHAEL FOLEY 2017
Michael Foley has published novels, poetry and non-fiction books,
Let us suppose a man who deemed it impossible to resolve this con- most recently Isnt This Fun? Investigating the Serious Business
tradiction by destroying the one and completely unleashing the other of Enjoying Ourselves (Simon & Schuster 2016). His website is
power; then, the only thing remaining to him would be to make such a michael-foley.net.
CALLE DE PRECIADOS MANOLO GOMEZ 2008

Arresting Thoughts
Maeve Roughton asks if its becoming a crime to think the wrong thoughts.
Y
ou are what you eat, but are you also what you think? There is definitely a tradition of going after crimes before
Most legal, philosophical, and psychiatric minds they are committed, so its not a difficult analogy to draw that if
would say no; but in the wake of hacking scandals we have conspiracy and attempted crimes, that thought crimes
that have exposed everything from politicians sex- are punishable too, Youngjae Lee, Professor of Law at Ford-
ual indiscretions to flesh-eating fantasies, public perception ham University, told me recently. Standard legal doctrine says
nips at the contrary. there is a commitment to not punishing people for having
For proof of this, we neednt look any further than the case of thoughts, he continued. The demonstrable motivation behind
former NYPD officer Gilberto Valle, dubbed the Cannibal Cop an action might lead to a heavier penalty, however, to clarify,
by New York Citys ever-creative bold-face journalists. After pub- nobody has ever been criminally charged for their thoughts alone.
lic outrage demanded the criminal prosecution of an imagina- In criminal law the idea that you have to do something before
tion that was wholly bizarre but hardly unlawful, he was con- you have committed a crime is called The Act Requirement. With-
victed in 2013 of conspiracy to kidnap and for illegally accessing out the act its just a thought, and, to echo the Court of Appeals,
NYPD databases to engage in graphic online communications even really bad thoughts arent themselves criminal offenses. But
about kidnapping, killing, and eating women, crimes that he had thats where it gets tricky today. How do you differentiate between
never acted upon. In December 2015, the 2nd US Circuit Court curiosity and intent in a sea of web searches? Are we to be morally
of Appeals concluded that Valles actions werent criminal, over- or criminally bound to our browser histories?
turning his conviction, and declaring, We are loath to give the
government power to punish us for our thoughts and not our Public Thinking
actions. That includes the power to criminalize an individuals At the very least, we shouldnt be shocked at our lack of privacy;
expression of sexual fantasies, no matter how perverse or disturb- from the government, from hackers, or from lovers. As Ethan J.
ing. Fantasizing about committing a crime, even a crime of vio- Lieb, also a professor of law at Fordham University, puts it, this
lence against a real person whom you know, is not a crime. information is there and is being collected by someone, and you
Thought crime is not a new concept. George Orwell intro- have to be nave to not realize its being collected, and that youre
duced the idea to us through his Thought Police in Nineteen vulnerable (Friend v. Friend: The Transformation of Friendship
Eighty-Four, and Philip K. Dick made our sci-fi psyches tick and What the Law Has to Do with It, 2011).
further with Minority Report and its Precrime Division, which But is searching the web for tips on how to commit murder
penalized crimes that hadnt yet happened. Forty-five states in with trash bags, a crowbar, and bleach the same as shopping at
the US have hate crime laws that heavily penalize bias-moti- the hardware store for trash bags, a crowbar, and bleach the
vated violence over thoughtless brutality. Now, theres a big dif- day your boss was killed? In the eyes of the law, it may be. As
ference between dystopian storytelling and real-world rights Lee explains, if your only act consists of writing things down
infringement, but as our planet becomes more electronically in your own diary, [punishing people for] that seems very close
interlaced, is that line blurring? Is the digital age ushering in a to punishing people for having bad thoughts, but when people
true age of thought policing? start making these diaries quasi-public in some way, through
different forums on the Internet, would it be fair for us to think
theyve crossed the threshold of private thoughts to potentially
harmful acts? In the eyes of jilted wives, husbands, and lovers,
it seems fair to assume that posting to the net is equivalent to
taking action. After all, why register on a hook-up site if you
arent looking to hook-up?
Sexual indiscretion, however partners define it, existed long
PLEASE VISIT CARTERTOONS.COM
before the dawn of the digital age, but it was relegated to meet-
ups on Lovers Lane or seedy out-of-the-way motels, or phone
calls in the middle of the night. Once upon a time, exploring
and even acting on fantasy left little trace, save what your own
stupidity allowed. Today, however, as Lieb says, weve got our
heads in the sand if we dont assume that what we put on the
Internet is being collected and watched. And while the judicial
JON CARTER 2017
system has a burden of proof to meet to indict and convict you

of crimes, thought-based or otherwise, your boyfriend, girl-
friend or spouse is probably not going to afford you such con-
sideration. Nor will the general public.
CARTOON
The court of public opinion often dictates societal norms,

drawing lines in the sand to define right and wrong. As our inner

thoughts and deepest secrets are given new havens throughout On Reading Kant
the digital landscape chat rooms for cheating partners, fetish
forums, seemingly anonymous peer-to-peer conversation Eerie in its grandeur.
theyre also given new pedestals to stand on, and fall from. Like- Sublime in its mystique.
minded people are now able to find like-minded people in droves, Passing understanding.
in all four corners of the world, and covering all sorts of predilec- Thrillingly opaque.
tions. But that freedom of connectivity is marred by a lack of
digital privacy, making information-artillery out of every So abstract that its concrete.
thought, fetish, and fantasy you type, send, and save, all of which An edifice of blocks
could be used to shoot holes in your good name. of monumental marble:
Moreover, public perception may not discriminate between words as hard as rocks.
you pursuing a cause, an interest, an activity, or just your own
curiosity. People go to a party or social club they would never Space and time. Causation.
consider being a part of but want to hear the rhetoric What Perception. Apperception.
do they focus on, are they accurate, are they as awful as my friends Notion. Intuition.
say they are? But if someone finds out you went to that meet- Dialectal. Transcendental.
ing, all of a sudden your commitments and values are in ques- Unity. Totality.
tion, commented Jonathan Jacobs, Professor of Philosophy at Faculty. Plurality.
John Jay College of Criminal Justice, when I interviewed him. Noumena. Phenomena.
It could be a mob mentality that leads everyday people to Categories. Antinomies.
high-jump to such misinformed conclusions. All it takes for And - the crowning glory -
one person to break from the pack for group sentiment to shift. the synthetic a priori.
Is it too much of a stretch to think that the same can happen
in legal proceedings? Its like the language of a race of superior beings.
On the surface, yes. In a liberal political order, the state is
not in the business of requiring people to have certain condi- Reading its like stumbling under glimmering stars
tions of character the state cant require you to have certain over a vast expanse of twilit marshes.
interests or commitments, Jacobs explains. What the state Or wandering through an unknown, dimly-lit cathedral,
cares about is whether you obey the law, not whether you obey at evensong, without your glasses.
the law because youre avoiding punishment or think the law is BRANDON ROBSHAW 2017
morally just or because you were raised to respect authority Brandon Robshaw is an Associate Lecturer at the Open
The government doesnt care why you toe the line, just so long University and runs a Philosophy class for the WEA. He is
as you do. That is, until you dont: When we punish people, crowdfunding a philosophical novel for Young Adults with
or at least sentence them, considerations of character are rele- Unbound: unbound.com/books/adam-gowers
vant: Is he completely remorseless, does he show callous uncon-
cern for his victims, does he appear to be completely unmoved and the possibilities offered by web-based communication arent
by the fact that he was found guilty of a serious crime? Even just appealing to criminals, conspiracists, and cheaters, theyre
though having bad character is not itself a violation of the law attractive to everyday users who want to blur the line between
the state cant punish you just for having a depraved imagina- reality and fantasy, imagination and order, what is and what could
tion nonetheless, if you break the law you can have an addi- be. As Lieb points out, People are adjusting their moral sensibil-
tional quantum of punishment heaped on you if you seem to ities as theyre learning that theyre one of the millions.
have a really bad character, Jacobs analyzes. The Internet is the new Wild West, and depending on where
you sit at the digital roundtable, that is an empowering/frighten-
The Digital Dissolve ing/curious truth. Yet in the era of cannibal cops and fifteen-year-
But before we lose all hope of flying our freak flags on the net with old sexting pedophiles, how far is too far? At what point does a fan-
unimpeded glory, whats happening in courts of law and public tasy become a conspiracy, or a sexual inquiry become a lewd act?
opinion is that we, as a culture, are adapting. The veils of anonymity Furthermore, at what point do thoughts, interests, and persua-
sions cease to be entirely yours and become fodder both for the
world and for the legal system? Perhaps its the moment they
leave your mind and enter a chat room, status update, or email.
Perhaps its when they cross the threshold between personal con-
templation and public declaration. Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps
And perhaps we shouldnt even care, because as Lee so aptly notes,
even the harmful and voluntary [statements] ought to be pro-
tected; thats what it means to live in a free society.
MAEVE ROUGHTON 2017
Maeve Roughton is a writer, artist and strategist living and working
in downtown New York City.

Berkeleys & Humes
Philosophical Memoirs
David Berman looks for similarities and differences in the aims of the two thinkers.
T
here are interesting points of both agreement and dis- All students of philosophy should know of Humes memoir,
agreement in the lives of George Berkeley (1685-1753) My Own Life, which he wrote the year he died, 1776, and which
and David Hume (1711-1776), arguably the two great- was published a year later. But what is Berkeleys counterpart?
est British philosophers. I also think we have an out- It is the last section, 368, of his Siris, his last philosophical work,
standing philosophical memoir from each, summing up their work, published in 1744.
especially in respect of their ruling passions. Both memoirs con- As a memoir in the fuller sense, My Own Life tells us a great
tain the philosophers very last philosophical words, which can be deal about Humes character. He portrays himself as cheerful
naturally read as their final philosophical testaments. Yet for all and content, sociable, studious, and independent-minded, also
that, I dont think that this has been noticed by their biographers, philosophical, by which he seems to include being even-tem-
or by those who have written on them philosophically. pered or stoical as well as concerned with philosophy per se. In
the course of the memoir he also shows
George Berkeley himself to be witty and humorous. All of
by Alfred A. Hart, 1858 this comes out explicitly in his own
description of his character in the final
paragraph:
I am or rather was a man of mild dispo-

sitions, of command of temper, of an open,
social, and cheerful humour, capable of attach-
ment, but little susceptible of enmity, and of
great moderation in all my passions. Even my
love of literary fame, my ruling passion, never
soured my humour (p.174).
It is indicative of their styles that while

both memoirs are succinct, Berkeleys is
even more so. Indeed, it is short enough
to quote here in full:
The eye by long use comes to see even in the

darkest cavern: and there is no subject so obscure
but we may discern some glimpse of truth by
long poring on it. Truth is the cry of all, but the
game of a few. Certainly, where it is the chief
passion, it does not give way to vulgar cares and
views; nor is it contented with a little ardour in
the early time of life, active perhaps to pursue,
but not so fit to weigh and revise. He that would
make a real progress in knowledge must dedi-
cate his age as well as youth, the later growth
as well as first fruits, at the altar of Truth.
Cujusvis est errare, nullius nisi insipientis in errore
perseverare: Cicero [It is the fate of every man
to err, of none but a fool to persist in error:
trans, Vincent Denard].
Although Berkeley does not write in

the first person, I think it is evident that
he must be talking about himself; first
about his ardour for truth in the heroic
years, circa 1707-13, in which he produced

his three philosophical masterpieces, the New Theory of Vision Hume means by this is not the metaphysical detachment of Plato
(1709), Principles of Human Knowledge (1710) and Three Dia- or even Berkeley, but the serenity and lack of fear in the face of
logues (1713); then of his concern to weigh and revise, shown death arising from his naturalism and disbelief in a next life.
partly in his second great phase of authorship, between 1732- Here too, in his placid attitude to death and personal oblivion,
1735, but even more, finally, in his Siris, where he dedicates his Hume is the prophet of the new educated consensus.
old age he was then 59 at the altar of Truth, as he did in his Two final points of similarity between Berkeley and Hume might
early life, when he was in his middle twenties. So the first fruits be mentioned. Both were great writers, although Berkeley seems a
as well as the later growth. One point of agreement between more natural one who did not place the same value on style as
the two philosophers is that Hume, like Berkeley, published his Hume clearly did. They also agree in expressing reservations about
major work, A Treatise of Human Nature (1739-40), in his twen- their early work: Hume in his memoir, and more emphatically in
ties. But their key common point is in what Berkeley calls his his 1777 Advertisement to his Essays and Treatises (p.2); Berkeley
chief passion, and Hume twice calls his ruling passion (Mem- in the section from Siris I quoted above. But in neither case have
oir, pp.170 and 174), and which Hume comes back to again and they been much heeded by their commentators.
again. However, contrary to Berkeley, Humes passion was his DAVID BERMAN 2017
desire for literary fame (ibid). Thus Hume says that almost Davids works include Alciphron in Focus (Routledge, 1993). A
the whole of my life was spent in literary pursuits (p.169). short account of his present work and method of doing philosophy can
The first thing we should observe here is Humes great hon- be accessed at artisanphilosophybrochure.wordpress.com
esty in confessing that his chief passion
was for literary fame not for truth. So David Hume
although Humes core desire was not truth by David Martin, 1770
(which would perhaps be expected from
a true philosopher at that time), he shows
his commitment to perhaps the next best
thing for a philosopher truthfulness.
For Hume, then, as well as valuing the
array of admirable civil virtues mentioned
above, the greatest good is worldly hon-
our. For Berkeley it is attaining truth
gaining light in this dark cavern which
, as he makes clear in earlier sections of
Siris (e.g. 263, 340), alludes to Platos
allegory of getting out of the cave of igno-
rance and ascending into the realm of
truth. In line with their respective philo-
sophical testaments presenting two very
different ideas of the highest good, the
two philosophical memoirs differ consid-
erably in tone. Humes is urbane and
polite; Berkeleys more fervent.
I would also say that their respective
ruling passions reflect the change that has
taken place in philosophy especially since
the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries, when the truth the traditional
aspiration of philosophers ceased to be
the cry of all. So Berkeley can be heard as
voicing the last authentic cry of the ide-
alistic (as well as idealist) tradition in phi-
losophy that goes back to Plato, whereas
Hume can be seen as the prophet of the
new consensus; a herald of the socio-lin-
guistic philosophers of our own time.
The only statement in Humes mem-
oir which might be thought to go against
my worldly honour rather than truth
interpretation of him, is where he says It
is difficult to be more detached from life
than I am at present (p.174). But what

Experimental Philosophy versus
Natural Kind Essentialism
Mark Pinder puts Hilary Putnams essential philosophical theory to the test.
T
he stereotypical philosopher sits in an armchair care- of things, then we can try to understand what the differences
fully thinking through difficult conceptual prob- are, or what makes one kind of thing different from another.
lems. As with any stereotype, however, there are Natural Kind Essentialism aims to do just that, by saying that
exceptions, and in recent years a number of self- natural kinds have essences, and then trying to discover what
styled experimental philosophers have expressed unhappiness with these essences are. For example, the essence of water is typi-
this armchair methodology. These philosophers have got up cally said to be its chemical composition, H2O, so that H2O is
out of their armchairs, and are performing experiments and the only thing that counts as water. On this view, then, a molecule
doing other empirical research to put a variety of philosophical of ethanol is not water because ethanol does not have the right
views to the test. chemical composition. Similarly, the essence of the species cat
This turn of events may be surprising. After all, philosophy is might be its genome; the essence of the heart might be the func-
not science. Whereas we can experimentally verify scientific tion to pump blood; and the essence of the proton might be its
hypotheses, it does not at first seem possible to experimentally composition two up-quarks and a down-quark. According to
verify philosophical views. For example, whereas DNA has been Natural Kind Essentialism, every natural kind has an essence.
used to verify the hypothesis that humans are closely related to Perhaps the most famous argument for Natural Kind Essen-
chimpanzees, there is no empirical evidence that could be used tialism is Hilary Putnams Twin Earth thought experiment, to
to verify the utilitarian view that the morally right action is be found in his essay The Meaning of Meaning (1975). It
whichever choice leads to the most overall happiness, since we goes like this. Imagine that, far across the universe, theres a planet
cannot observe morality or experimentally determine what is remarkably similar to Earth in many ways, which we will call Twin
morally right. Likewise, while particle physicists have used the Earth. At first sight, Twin Earth is just like Earth: there are human-
Large Hadron Collider at CERN to test their prediction of the like people living in cities, who comb their hair in the mornings
existence of the Higgs boson, the philosopher cannot test the and go to work as accountants, builders, teachers, philosophers,
sceptical view that we dont really know whether there is an exter- etc.; there are similar varieties of trees and plants that cover the
nal world. That view seems instead to depend principally on where land; and there are vast oceans filled with a clear colourless liquid
one puts the bar for real knowledge, and so is not subject to empir- that, after desalinisation, quenches thirst. However, it turns out
ical verification or falsification. At face value, philosophical views that there is no H2O on Twin Earth. Rather, the liquid that fills
arent the sort of views that can be experimentally tested. the oceans and comes out of taps has a very different chemical
Nonetheless it turns out that empirical evidence is relevant composition, for which we will use the formula XYZ.
to at least some philosophical views. In order to see this, lets Now ask yourself: Is there any real water on Twin Earth?
look at one example in depth. The example I will focus on is a According to Putnam, the intuitive answer is no. He tells us
philosophical view called Natural Kind Essentialism, which you that the meaning of the word water is fixed by the chemical
may already know of in connection with the infamous Twin composition of whatever liquid we usually call water. And, as
Earth thought experiment. (More on that shortly.) After intro- the liquid we usually call water is H2O, Putnam concludes that
ducing the view, I will show you how a recent empirical study water means H2O. If Putnam is right here, then it straightfor-
bears importantly on the issue and so why not every philoso- wardly follows that all water is H2O, and all H2O is water. It also
pher can rest easily in their armchair. follows that a molecule of XYZ, or of ethanol, or of anything
else, wont count as water, just because it doesnt have the right
Natural Kind Essentialism chemical composition, however similar it might otherwise appear
Natural Kind Essentialism is, unsurprisingly, a view about nat- to water. So, as theres no H2O on Twin Earth, theres no water
ural kinds. But what are natural kinds? on Twin Earth. The conclusion is that water has an essence,
There are various different kinds of things in nature. For namely its chemical composition, H2O. Putnam argues that
example, objectively speaking, one molecule of water is the same theres nothing special about water: we could run parallel argu-
kind of thing as another molecule of water, but it is a different ments for ethanol, cats, hearts, protons, and other natural kinds,
kind of thing from a molecule of ethanol. This means that water saying that for each kind there is a distinction between the appear-
and ethanol are examples of natural kinds. There are many other ance and the essence. And if we did run these arguments, then
examples. Cats are an objectively and naturally different kind we would have an argument that each natural kind has an essence,
of thing from great white sharks; hearts are an objectively and that is, an argument for Natural Kind Essentialism.
naturally different kind of thing from kidneys; protons are an
objectively and naturally different kind of thing from electrons; Empirical Evidence
and so on. So all these things are examples of natural kinds. Lets see how empirical evidence is relevant here. Notice that
If nature really is divided up into objectively different kinds in arguing for Natural Kind Essentialism, Putnam uses the intu-

itive premise that water means H2O. But
word meaning does not depend on Putnams
intuitions. Rather, the meaning of a word
depends upon how that word is convention-
ally used in a linguistic community. So,
although Putnam would sit in his armchair
arguing that the meaning of water is fixed
by its chemical composition, or that the
meaning of cat is fixed by its genome, etc.,
these are in fact empirical issues about how
the words are actually used by speakers of
English. And the empirical evidence suggests
that Putnam is wrong.
Lets consider an empirical study carried
out by Jussi Jylkk, Henry Railo and Jussi
Haukioja, Psychological Essentialism and
Semantic Externalism: Evidence for External-
ism in Lay Speakers Language Use (2009). This
aims to determine, in two stages, how the
meaning of a word is fixed.
In the first stage of the study, the experi-
menters presented participants with ideas
along the following lines:
There is a yellowish, bitter-smelling, fragile min-

eral common in Serbia, that scientists believe to
have chemical composition ABC. It is called zir-
caum. Furthermore, a deposit of a yellowish, bit-
ter-smelling, fragile mineral, which scientists
believe to have chemical composition ABC, has
recently been found in Norway.
The experimenters asked their partici-

pants to say whether they thought the
recently-discovered mineral found in Nor-
way was zircaum. The majority judged that
it was zircaum.
The second stage is where it gets interest-
ing. The experimenters told the participants
that the scientists in the story had been wrong
about the mineral in Norway. Contrary to
what the scientists originally thought, the
mineral actually had the chemical composi-
tion KLM. The participants were asked
whether, reflecting upon this new informa-
tion, their first judgement that the mineral
was zircaum had been correct, incorrect, or
correct in one sense and incorrect in another.
If Putnam is right about how words mean
what they do, we should expect participants
to say that their first judgement had been incorrect: they would although 48% of participants judged in accordance with Put-
think that zircaum means ABC, while the mineral found in nams intuition, the majority of them the remaining 52%
Norway has turned out to be KLM, and so the mineral found did not share Putnams judgement.
in Norway was not zircaum after all. The actual results, how- How can we make sense of the data? I think that the best
ever, were as follows: 22% said that the original judgement was interpretation is that zircaum is ambiguous: the word can have
correct, 48% said that the judgement was incorrect, and 17% multiple meanings. Sometimes its meaning is fixed by its chem-
said the judgement was correct in one sense and incorrect in ical structure, and sometimes by its surface properties being
another. The other participants felt that they couldnt say. So, a yellowish, bitter-smelling and fragile mineral. That is why
ILLUSTRATION: ROUGH SEA STEVE LILLIE 2017 PLEASE VISIT WWW.STEVELILLIE.BIZ

some participants understand zircaum to mean ABC, some argue for Natural Kind Essentialism on the basis of what water
participants understand zircaum to mean yellowish, bitter- means. That is to say, in light of the empirical evidence we have
smelling, fragile mineral, and some participants recognise that been discussing, it seems that we should give up on Putnams
zircaum can be understood in either way, and that we cannot argument for Natural Kind Essentialism, after all.
objectively say that any one use of the word is better than any Does it follow that Natural Kind Essentialism is false? No.
of the others. Regardless of the evidence weve been discussing, nature might
Although there is no such thing as zircaum, the word zir- nevertheless be divided up into objectively different kinds of
caum is just like water and cat in the relevant respect that things, each kind with a distinctive essence. For example, all
they are all understood by the relevant language users to be H2O might have one essence (characterised by being H2O) and
words for natural kinds. So, just like zircaum, we can expect all XYZ another (characterised by being XYZ). What the empir-
water and cat to be ambiguous. Sometimes people will use ical evidence has shown us is that Putnams argument for Nat-
water to talk about H2O, and at other times people will use ural Kind Essentialism, using what words mean, fails. If you
water to talk about any clear, ocean-filling, thirst-quenching think that Natural Kind Essentialism is true, youre going to
liquid. Sometimes people will use cat to talk about animals have to find a new way to argue for it.
with the relevant genome, and at other times people will use
cat to talk about aloof, mouse-catching creatures of a certain Conclusions
type of appearance that people take as pets. And so on. The The above discussion shows that empirical evidence can be rel-
empirical evidence from this study, then, suggests that Putnam evant to philosophy, even to the abstract sort of views usually
is wrong about the meaning of words for natural kinds. His confined to armchair theorising. Natural Kind Essentialism
premise that water always means H2O is false. posits essences in an attempt to understand the objective dif-
ferences that we find in nature. But, according to the empirical
Consequences evidence weve looked at, Putnams argument for Natural Kind
To see what becomes of Putnams argument, we need to think Essentialism fails. Of course, a single study doesnt settle the
about how it is affected by the discovery that sometimes water empirical facts, and so we would perhaps need to look at many
means clear, ocean-filling, thirst-quenching liquid. more experiments or studies before finally consigning Putnams
Often this happens precisely when people are discussing Twin argument to the scrapheap.
Earth. For example, many people find it natural to describe This is just one example of how empirical evidence can be
Twin Earth by saying The water in its oceans isnt H2O, but useful in philosophy. Philosophers are increasingly using exper-
XYZ. And in flashes of imagination, it can be just as natural imentation as an objective basis to test their intuitions and argu-
for them to include such embellishments as, We can imagine ments. Evidence has already been deployed in a wide range of
that Twin Earth operates under totally different physical laws, philosophical debates, for example about consciousness, free
and that the only H2O on Twin Earth isnt water at all, but a will, moral responsibility, race, the mind-world relation, and
rare mineral used in luxury shampoo. But those statements knowledge, and the list is growing. It is fair to say that we can
wouldnt make sense if water was being used to mean H2O. expect this trend to continue.
Rather, here water is being used to mean clear, ocean-filling, All of this suggests that, somewhat surprisingly, philosophy
thirst-quenching liquid; which, when were talking about Twin may not be so different from science after all. Philosophers are
Earth, is XYZ. Taking these uses of language into account, it is taking a more empirically-minded approach to their quest for
easy to see that some water isnt H2O namely, the water in knowledge, getting up and going out to perform experiments
the oceans on Twin Earth and some H2O isnt water namely, and studies. And so, if nothing else, you may just see a few more
the H2O used in shampoo on Twin Earth. So it cant be the case second-hand armchairs for sale over the next few years.
that to be water is to be H2O, nor that H2O is the essence of DR MARK PINDER 2017
water. The consequence is that were not going to be able to Mark Pinder is a Visiting Professor at the University of Hertfordshire.
Would the real zircaum

please stand up?

The Morality of Getting Divorced
Justin McBrayer considers when divorce is morally permissable, and when it isnt.
I
ts almost impossible to find someone whose life has not
been significantly affected by divorce. Given this, the deci-
sion to end a marriage may be one of the most significant
moral decisions a person ever makes. So under what condi-
tions is it morally permissible to get a divorce?
To say that something is morally permissible means that there is
no moral obligation requiring you to act differently. So getting
divorced will be morally permissible only if you can do so while
meeting all your moral obligations. So what are the moral obliga-
tions that might make ending a marriage morally problematic?
What Makes Marriage Morally Special?

Many ethicists agree that getting married generates special moral
obligations that one would not otherwise have. It makes some
actions required that would otherwise not be, for example, sacri-
ficing something for your partners sake, and makes some actions
wrong that would otherwise not be, for example, having sex with ally, to support you in your goals, to honor and respect you, to laugh
a non-partner. But what explains the fact that when two people with you and cry with you, and to cherish you for as long as we both
marry, new moral obligations are created? shall live.
Marriage creates moral obligations primarily because it
involves promise-making. Promise-making is a way of generat- Notice how heavily this vow focuses on actions compared to
ing moral obligations if I promise to pick you up at the airport, emotions: support ones partner, honor ones partner, respect ones
then I have taken on a moral obligation to do so. And whatever partner, and so on. Even the emotional content is easily under-
else a wedding ceremony may be, it is an event during which two stood in a behavioral sense: to be a faithful partner in sickness and
people make promises to one another. It follows that getting mar- health clearly has a behavioral component. To see this, imagine
ried is a way of generating new moral obligations. the following thought-experiment. Suppose Landon makes the
Some ethicists resist this line of thought. They insist that mar- aforementioned promise to Hannah. Suppose next that he feels
riage promises have no power to create new moral obligations. all the right things toward her (for example, he is in love with her),
According to these philosophers, this is because marital vows are but that his behavior is wildly erratic he sleeps around, is ver-
promises to feel a certain way or to have certain emotions towards bally abusive to Hannah, abandons her when she is ill, etc. Would
ones partner, but we have no control over our feelings or emo- anyone be willing to say that Landon has fulfilled his wedding
tions, and it makes no sense to say that someone is morally obli- vow? Surely not. This shows that we see wedding vows as
gated to do something that is beyond her control. Thus, promis- promises not simply to feel a certain way, but primarily as
ing to do something the doing of which one cannot control does promises to act a certain way.
not result in a new moral obligation. So marital vows do create new moral obligations. Further-
There are at least two good reasons to reject this analysis. more, we typically think that the strength of the moral obligation
First, it is plausible that in the marriage context we are promising generated by making a promise varies with the seriousness of the
to do things that are in our control or over which we have indirect promise-making, the clarity of the promises made, and the con-
control. For example, when we get married we pledge to do our sequences of breaking the promise. Marital promises score high
best to bring about a certain emotional state, or make an uncon- in all three categories. A wedding vow, celebrated with all the
ditional commitment to another person. Second, and more pomp and circumstance many people can afford, is one of the
importantly, anyone who has been to a wedding can see that most serious promises most people ever make. And although the
although there are often emotional components to marital vows, clarity of wedding vows is not universal, many couples carefully
there are obvious behavioral components as well. In fact, most of construct the wording of their vows, spending a long time talking
us see getting married as a promise to do something for our part- through what they are and are not willing to promise one another.
ner. Consider the following wedding vow, taken at random from Finally, breaking a marriage promise often has devastating effects
an online search: for numerous people. In all, then, it appears that the marriage
promise creates a strong and special obligation between the mar-
I, [name], take you, [name], to be my [husband/wife], my constant riage partners.
friend, my faithful partner and my love from this day forward. In the
presence of God, our family and friends, I offer you my solemn vow to Illegitimate Promises
be your faithful partner in sickness and in health, in good times and in Marriage obligations exist because of promises, then. So in order
bad, and in joy as well as in sorrow. I promise to love you uncondition- to determine whether divorce is morally permissible, we need to

determine whether it would violate marriage promises. You might think that even if the two partners agree to end a
First, it follows that divorce is morally permissible if marital marriage, it is still wrong to do so if their promises were made
promises have failed to generate special moral obligations in the before God. However, a promise before someone is different than
first place. We noted that making a promise does usually generate a promise to someone. A promise made before you makes you a
moral duties. However, not all promises generate obligations. In witness, whereas a promise made to you makes you a beneficiary.
particular, promises generate new obligations only when the per- You dont have to get Gods permission in a case where He is not
son making the promise is autonomous, and informed, and does so the beneficiary.
willingly. Otherwise, the promise is morally illegitimate. We It is important to note two more things. First, even though a
might say that it is not a real promise. bilateral divorce is typically morally permissible in other words,
Sometimes a partner is coerced into marriage. Such coercion it is morally permissible all other things being equal sometimes
affects the condition that the marriage promise be made willingly. all other things are not equal. An obvious example of this kind of
When angry parents force a scared pregnant girl to marry the case involves families with children. Parents have moral obliga-
father of her unborn child, it is implausible that either she or he tions to their children as well as to each other. Insofar as these
does so entirely willingly. Alternatively, a marriage partner might obligations require that parents refrain from doing what is bad
be too young, too mentally undeveloped, or otherwise incompe- for their children, and insofar as divorce is bad for children, then
tent to make a morally binding pledge such as is required for a true other factors notwithstanding, these same parental obligations
marriage promise. In such cases, the promises are not made by a require that parents refrain from getting a divorce, at least while
fully autonomous agent. When a thirteen-year-old girl marries a the children are young enough to suffer harm from it.
much older man, as is common in some cultures, it is implausible Second, many people are troubled by apparently cavalier
that she is emotionally and intellectually developed enough to divorces. Hollywood stars who get married apparently on a whim
give fully autonomous consent to the kind of promise made and divorced six months later provide typical examples. These
between partners in a marriage. Finally, a marriage partner might cases appear to be cases of bilateral divorce, and hence they are to
have been too ignorant of the situation or nature of the other part- that extent morally permissible. So what do we find so troubling
ner, or even blatantly deceived by them. In such a case, the promise about them? My suggestion is that there seems something amiss
is not made by a suitably informed agent. For instance, when a girl with the moral character of people who behave in this sort of way.
deceives her partner about the fact that she is HIV positive, such What they do may, strictly speaking, be morally permissible, but
deception annuls their marital promises. the apparent attitude behind it reveals a moral vice: that they are
In all of these cases, the marital promises are illegitimate, and quick to make promises that they are unable or unwilling to keep.
hence they create no special moral duties between the partners. People who casually make and abandon marital promises are not,
And if there are no such special moral duties, then it is morally per- morally speaking, the kind of people we want to be. This is not
missible to sever the relationship through divorce. moral behaviour in the wider application of the term.
Bilateral Divorce Divorce When A Partner Cannot Fulfill Their Duties

If I promise to pick you up from the airport, but you find another Moral philosophers often say that ought implies can. What they
ride, you may release me from my promise. Just as making a legit- mean is that if you really ought to do something, this implies you
imate promise creates an obligation, releasing someone from a must be able to do that thing. In other words, it is conceptually
promise eliminates an obligation. Thus, one straightforward way confused to say of someone that he ought to do something if it is
for divorce to be morally permissible would be for both partners impossible for him to do it. This principle is relevant to divorce in
to release the other from their respective marital promises. Call the following way: if you become unable to do what you have
that a bilateral divorce a divorce by mutual consent. promised to do, then you cannot have a moral obligation to do that
thing. And hence divorce will be morally permissible any time one
of the partners is literally unable to keep the marital promise.
However, determining whether a divorce is permissible for this
reason requires being clear about what marital promises are about.
In many cases, marital promises are about goals over which we
have indirect control. Two plausible candidates for the goals that
marital promises are aimed at are: (A) the goal of fostering a lov-
ing relationship between the partners, and (B) the long-term goal
of making a partners life better.
Suppose that these are both plausible candidates for what we
are pledging when we get married. If the goal is (B), we have the
following interesting result: when staying together does not make
your partners life better, in the long run, then your marital
promises do not obligate you to stay together. For example, sup-
pose one of the partners becomes involved in an extramarital
affair, and that she and her lover are happy building their lives
together. In this case, it is morally permissible for the other part-
ner to initiate a divorce on the grounds that his promise to his part-

ner was aimed at making her life better and he is unable to do so
given the current situation. Because he cannot do so, he has no
moral obligation to do so. Thus, in this sort of circumstance it may
be morally permissible to formally mutually end the relationship.
SAD CHILD JAVAD ALIZADEH 2007

Unilateral Divorce
A unilateral divorce happens when only one of the partners
desires the dissolution of the marriage. Since promises produce
moral obligations, the obligations from marital promises make it
morally wrong to seek a unilateral divorce in many cases. Con-
sider the case of a man who wants to divorce his wife on the
grounds that she has been recently diagnosed with a chronic
degenerative disease. This is not a morally permissable ground
for divorce. In particular, neither non-reciprocation nor the lack of
happiness of one of the partners justifies unilateral divorce.
Many people who divorce cite the fact that their partners did
not reciprocate in certain ways as justification for the divorce.
Their partners werent doing their part in the relationship.
Whether this counts as a morally adequate reason to get a divorce
depends on whether the marriage promises were unconditional
or conditional, and the nature of the conditions. Take, for or contract will cause one unhappiness. Consider a standard com-
instance, the promise to be sexually faithful to ones partner. On mercial contract: one business cannot renege on a contract with
an unconditional reading, this promise says, No matter what another business even if doing so would be crucial for the profits or
happens, I promise to be sexually faithful to you. However, on a success of the first business. Or suppose I promise to pick you up
conditional reading, the promise might say, I will be sexually from the airport, but on the appointed day realize that I would be
faithful to you so long as you are sexually faithful to me. On the happier doing other things. This does not mean that I no longer
unconditional reading, one has a moral reason to be sexually have a moral obligation to pick you up from the airport. By the
faithful to ones partner regardless of what he or she has done. On same reasoning, ones happiness, or lack of it, does not on its own
the conditional reading, one has a moral reason to be sexually make breaking a marital promise morally permissable.
faithful to ones partner if and only if he or she has also been sex-
ually faithful. Generally, if marital promises are conditional, then Thoughts To Take Away
the non-reciprocation of a partner in such a way would cancel out Many divorces are morally permissible. These include cases in
the moral obligation generated, and hence a divorce would be which the marriage promise was illegitimate, scenarios in which
morally permissible. But if marital promises are unconditional, one of the partners is unable to fulfill the promises, and considered
then the non-reciprocation of a partner is morally irrelevant, and bilateral divorce. But many divorces are also morally wrong,
hence a divorce would be morally impermissible. including those in which the partners have other obligations that
Does happiness, or the lack of it, count as a valid condition for require them to stay together, at least for a time, and unilateral
divorce? divorces in which one partners non-reciprocation or ones right to
Regarding the (supposed) right to be happy, many people cite be happy is cited as the sole reason for the divorce.
their ongoing unhappiness as the justification for their divorce. There are two take-away thoughts. First, we should be very
The idea is that if it becomes impossible for a person to be gen- careful with the promises that we make to our marriage partner
uinely happy while married to their partner, it is morally permis- on our wedding day. These promises ground special moral obli-
sible for them to divorce that partner. gations, and yet they are all too often vague, unclear, or impossi-
Two things should be noted in response to this line of thought. ble to fulfill. Partners entering into a marriage should have
First, a right to be happy is at best a negative right: it is at best the explicit conversations about their expectations for the future, the
right to pursue happiness as long as you can do so without violating promises they are willing to make to one another, and the uncon-
the rights of others. But this sort of right doesnt mean that a ditional or conditional nature of such promises. Second, we
divorce is morally permissible, even if it is true that one cannot be should also be very careful about the decision to get a divorce.
happy without a divorce. Compare this with the negative right to Whether a divorce is morally permissible depends on a great
own a car (that is, the right to take steps to own a car as long as you many things, including the content of the promises made
can do so without violating the rights of others). This right doesnt between the partners.Merely citing a right to be happy does not
mean that stealing a car is morally permissible, even if it is true that dissolve the moral obligations we have in other areas of life. Nor
you cannot get one without stealing it. The crucial issue in both does it on its own obviate the moral obligation we have to stick
cases is whether the action in question would violate a moral obli- with a spouse when doing so makes us unhappy.
gation, and in both cases it would: breaking a marital promise in the DR JUSTIN P. MCBRAYER 2017
first case, and the obligation not to steal in the second. Second, we Justin McBrayer is a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Innsbruck
dont ordinarily think that one can get out of a promise, like any and Associate Professor of Philosophy at Fort Lewis College, the liberal
other sort of contract, simply because performance of the promise arts college for the state of Colorado.

Street Philosopher
Acceptable In Amsterdam
Sen Moran tiptoes tolerantly through the tulips.
T
he bearded man wearing a white The Progress of Toleration ingly. At an Oxford conference I was at last
wedding dress in my photograph The word toleration comes from the Latin year, the chair sensitively asked participants
seems to be smoking a joint. tolerare, to put up with. Medieval philoso- to introduce themselves and state their
Since this was Amsterdam, he phers defined toleration as permissio negativa preferred gender pronoun, specifying
attracted no negative attention, as far as I mali a negative permission of evil whether we should call them he, she,
could see. According to a 2015 EU survey, putting up with wrong-ish things. In later they, or another term. It was an inclusive
the Netherlands is among the most tolerant centuries, states began tolerating some theo- gesture to transgender and non-binary dele-
countries in Europe with respect to LGBT logical differences. The Maryland Tolera- gates, but there were some raised eyebrows.
issues and ethnic background,alongside tion Act (1649), for example, allowed a However, we should bear in mind UK
Sweden, Denmark and Ireland. Though measure of religious freedom to citizens (but research showing that nearly half of trans
even in the Netherlands things are changing, prescribed the death penalty for anyone people under 26 said they had attempted
as I discovered chatting to locals who would denying the Trinity). In A Letter Concerning suicide (The Guardian, 2014). Having the
know, and observing Dutch politics. Toleration (1689), the English empiricist good manners to use the requested pronoun
Intolerance seems to be on the rise inter- philosopher John Locke advocated permit- is a small but important mark of respect
nationally. The election of Donald Trump ting individuals to hold any private beliefs which costs the user nothing but avoids
in the USA and the Brexit vote in the UK apart from Catholics and atheists, that is. adding to the discomfort of those who may
may be partly due to an increasing unwill- Nowadays, the term toleration suggests be suffering daily from hostile misgender-
ingness to tolerate difference. We have reluctant permission, while tolerance indi- ing, exclusion, and abuse by intolerant
found the right way to live, and will not put cates a more kindly, liberal sentiment; but strangers.
up with others who are different. they are practically synonymous. On a Keeping up with the terminology is a chal-
But, you might ask, why shouldnt we personal level, they both inhabit the concep- lenge for the penseur who aspires to be bon,
tolerate the man I photographed? As long tual region between our approval and our though. The abbreviations of identity politics
as passers-by didnt inhale too deeply, he condemnation. This willingness to live and are becoming increasingly all-encompassing.
offered no threat to anyone. And his image, let live seems a benign way to go about our The longest Ive seen in print is LGBTQI-
though unconventional, is harmless. Indeed day. But while it is an improvement on intol- AGNC, which stands for Lesbian, Gay,
a beard is virtually compulsory (for males) erance, there is something slightly patronis- Bisexual, Trans, Queer, Intersex, Asexual,
in some quarters: in the pogonophilic ing about this attitude of acceptance. The Gender-Non-Conforming. Even this leaves
beard-loving districts of Shoreditch, German writer Johann Wolfgang von out some variants, such as Pansexual and
London, and Brooklyn, NY, for example, Goethe said that Tolerance should be a Questioning. Some people advocate stream-
where it is an essential part of the hipster- temporary attitude only: it must lead to lining all of these into the acronym GLOW
lumberjack look. But beards can also appreciation. To tolerate means to offend (Gay, Lesbian, Or Whatever), but this is
provoke hostility pogonophobia in areas (Maximen und Reflexionen, 1829). In tolerat- rather dismissive of the Whatever folks.
where facial hair denotes radicalisation. ing people, we secretly disapprove of them, How about the Irishism Quare, instead?
Other aspects of my subjects lifestyle could even as we outwardly feign acceptance. This
be attacked too: on ethical, medical, reli- dishonesty is vaguely insulting, so we should Group Toleration
gious, political, or aesthetic grounds. engage instead in dialogue. After such an Othering the stranger and those who are
That goes for all of us, though. No matter encounter, we may no longer look down on different has a long history, because xeno-
what you look like or how you behave, there them, but start to see things from their phobic sentiments do have a sort of logic
will be someone, somewhere, who would perspective, and perhaps show some solidar- behind them (although they have outlived
take exception to you and would express ity. Goethe has a point. Still, nobody likes their usefulness). Back in Paleolithic times,
their bigoted judgements aggressively. Only having their lifestyle examined too closely, someone from outside ones own hunter-
recently I was loudly upbraided by another even individuals of the same tribe. gatherer tribe, or just out of step with its
McDonalds customer for having the temer- In a sense, tolerant people are members norms, represented a threat. Through the
ity to read Aquinass Summa Theologiae while of a tribe too a tribe that others find intol- lens of survival value, therefore, it served us
drinking coffee. It was just my reading a erable. And the feelings are mutual: the well to view the unfamiliar and the unusual
book in public that provoked his ire, not any tolerant can be vicious when anyone with suspicion. The Ancient Greeks called
specific quarrel with Thomistic meta- disagrees with them. So the French epithet people from other places barbarians
physics. If you spotted someone holding bien-pensant right-thinking is increas- because to their ears, foreign languages
Philosophy Now you could be pretty sure that ingly used pejoratively against the tolerant sounded like bar bar bar. Regarding them
youd have much in common. This marker tribe, implying hypocrisy, especially as other as not fully human removed any
of intelligence and sophistication would concerning matters of the freedom of residual guilt at mistreating or enslaving
signal their membership of our tolerant clan. thought. them. The Third Century BCE Roman
Unless, of course, they were using it as Granted, it is sometimes easy to mock writer Titus Plautus expressed this de-
kindling for a public book-burning. open-minded, tolerant practices unthink- humanising of the stranger tellingly: homo

Street Philosopher
homini lupus est; man is a wolf to man that indifferent to whatever they observe. No evil neering) tolerance. (The technicians also
is, to those who dont know him. can rouse them to righteous anger. The helped many Jews to survive, earning Leitz the
The tribal shibboleths that differentiate middle way, good temper, is the virtuous title the photographic Schindler.) In modern
friend from potential foe can be very subtle. disposition. production, components whose measure-
Sigmund Freud wrote of the narcissism of Since were discussing intolerable evil, its ments fall outside specified limits will typically
minor differences. We think so highly of our inevitable that Godwins Law will apply and be rejected. Not so in the heyday of precision
own tribe that even slight deviations from our the Nazis will appear (Mike Godwin claims hand assembly. Neighbouring components
norms become unduly were modified slightly to
important. In the Monty accommodate the out-
Python film Life of Brian of-specification part, so
(1979), we see the mutual that the finished camera
hatred between the Judean mechanism operated
Peoples Front, the Peoples smoothly.
Front of Judea, and the How far out-of-spec-
Judean Popular Peoples ification are each of us?
Front. Even if we disallow
Its easy to be smug. having a specified
When Tony Blair was UK essence to live up to,
Prime Minister, he said in a there is still the matter of
2006 speech to Muslims, our socially-constructed
Our tolerance is part of self being out of kilter
what makes Britain, Britain. with the society that
Conform to it; or dont come constructed it. Either
here. His word conform way, we are probably less
betrays the intolerant moti- socially perfect than we
vation of some apparently could be. Answering his
benign pleas for tolerance. own question What is
Such talk demonises certain tolerance?, the Eigh-
other groups as being intol- teenth Century French
erant, as opposed to our philosopher Voltaire
tolerance. And there is suggested that since we
something self-refuting are all formed of frailty
about showing intolerance and error, let us pardon
towards the allegedly intol- reciprocally each others
erant. Like (real) lumber- folly. The deal is that we
jacks inadvisedly sawing off find a modus vivendi a
the branch upon which they way of accommodating
sit, those intolerant of intol- the foibles of others,
erance will fall from their while they in turn over-
lofty perch, having forgotten look our peculiarities.
their own principle. We should all perhaps
show an Aristotelian
Tempering Toleration good temper.
But of course some things In his book Leviathan
are intolerable. Cruelty, for (1651), the English
example. So what is a political philosopher
reasonable stance to take Thomas Hobbes
towards a world that proposed that A fifth
presents us with multiple Law of Nature is
annoyances, of various Compleasance; that is to
levels of seriousness? say, That every man
Perhaps the Aristotelian strive to accommodate
notion of good temper is himself to the rest. If we
one solution. In his Nicomachean Ethics, Aris- that the probability of this approaches one the extend Hobbes definition to embrace the full
totle placed this virtue at a mean between the longer a discussion continues). I use vintage spectrum of men and women square and
twin vices of irascibility and inirascibility Leitz cameras to take the photographs for quare, smooth, bearded, or shaven it seems
(roughly, apathy). Much like the UK comedy this column; the oldest was made in Germany like a tolerably good principle to follow.
character Victor Meldrew (catch phrase: I in 1932, just before Hitler came to power. DR SEAN MORAN 2017
dont believe it!), the irascible person is But while the Third Reich was notoriously Sen Moran is in Waterford Institute of Tech-
easily provoked to angry disapproval. At the intolerant, the Ernst Leitz factory techni- nology, and is a founder of Pandisciplinary.Net, a
other extreme, apathetic people are totally cians had an interesting approach to (engi- global network of people, projects, and events.

Letters
When inspiration strikes, dont bottle it up!
Write to me at: Philosophy Now
43a Jerningham Road London SE14 5NQ U.K.
or email [email protected]
Keep them short and keep them coming!
Often Reasonable why the past has been what it is, and Humes profound insight that induction
DEAR EDITOR: Eugene Earnshaw in consider why that reason might cease to is a settled habit of mind suggests not.
Issue 119 provides a lively discussion of apply. The reasons swans are white and Thinkers as diverse as Thomas Reid and
induction. Precise definition is essential humans die are both biological, mainly Ludwig Wittgenstein have argued that
to both deduction and induction. Con- genetic. Scientists are busily working to belief in natural continuity is part of our
sider deduction: all who commit murder prolong human life. Sadly there is no fundamental way of seeing the world.
should be hanged; he committed mur- interest in breeding red swans. So from Since rational argumentation takes this
der; he should be hanged. Unless we that point of view it is safer to bet on the conceptual framework for granted, it
define murder precisely, the conclusion continued whiteness of Northern hemi- doesnt itself require any form of ratio-
might be that someone who uninten- sphere swans than on certain death. nal justification. Inductions deep-seated
tionally killed by misadventure should Those three reasons make it a safe ubiquity helps explain why Dr Earnshaw
be hanged perhaps not what even the bet that a dropped wineglass will fall to cant avoid using the unjustified conti-
most ardent supporter of capital punish- the floor. But precise definition is still nuity of nature as his arguments pri-
ment would want. Or take the inductive necessary. It will fall provided that the mary building block.
argument that all swans are white; there- intervening medium is no denser than For those still insisting on the need
fore the swans on your lake will be the glass, and no one catches it. to rationally justify induction, the fol-
white. But your lake is in Australia, ALLEN SHAW lowing might be as good as it gets:
where they are black. We would have LEEDS
avoided the error with a more precise P1: We think the future will be like the
definition of all swans: it should be that DEAR EDITOR: Dr Earnshaw has many past (even if we sometimes get it
all swans so far seen in the Northern witty and suggestive things to say in wrong).
hemisphere have been white. Issue 119, not just about Humes prob- P2: We have no reason to think the
When we define the premises of a lem, but about philosophys problem- future will not be like the past (we have
deduction precisely it appears that some solving problem. However, his squaring- no reason to think that we will always
deductions are really inductive argu- the-circle argument is neither deductive get things wrong).
ments. All humans die; Socrates is nor persuasive, though it does capture C: Its therefore rational to go on think-
human; so Socrates will die. But we can enough of our modern notion of proba- ing the future will be like the past.
only say that up till now all humans have bility to appear reasonable.
died. So it assumes that the future will His main arguments two premises, At least, this seems logical to me...
be like the past when we say Socrates that an individual will be randomly ROBERT SAWYER
will die. selected from the population, and that LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA
Once the past has been adequately most members of the population blow
defined we must assess the probability the bugle beautifully, presume a future DEAR EDITOR: In his Brief Life of
that the future will be like it. At least event and a current state of affairs respec- David Hume in Issue 119, Sir Alistair
three considerations affect that. How tively. The very form of the argument MacFarlane says that causal reasoning is
extensive is our experience of the past begs the question of a possible logical older than the use of formal logic, since
situation in question? Billions of humans connection between past events and even stone-age man would reason that
have died, and only millions of white future occurrences. Further, each one stone is able to splinter another
swans have been seen. So it is safer to premise individually takes continuity stone. However, surely that man could
bet that Socrates will die than that we over time for granted: the second not reason, or even think at all, without
will never see coloured swans. Second, premise does so by presupposing an the use of deductive logic? For after
does past experience illustrate a univer- ongoing stable population with a fixed forming the causal (inductive) hypothe-
sal rule? The set of humans belongs to characteristic; the first stipulates as cer- sis that certain stones splinter other
the larger set of multicellular animals, tain an even less knowable future state. stones, he then must logically deduce
which have all died so far. The set of Thus there is little to the argument that that this particular stone will splinter
swans belongs to the larger set of birds. is deductive besides its ostensible struc- this other stone. He would then be
They are not all white. That is another ture, and a whole lot of implicit induc- employing the hypothetico-deductive
reason why it is safer to predict death tive reasoning going on. method, which, as its name implies,
than the whiteness of future swans. The key question in any case is: Does involves deduction.
Third, we must determine the reason induction require a logical justification? Indeed, we can even infer that deduc-
38 Philosophy Now l June/July 2017

Letters
tion predated induction, since if one predictive value is further complicated Now I know that your columnist does
caveman told his family that a rabbit is by the likely existence of modifier genes, not think much of computer analogies as
behind the bush then they could logi- APOE is almost the paradigmatic case explanations for the working of the
cally deduce that the rabbit is not in where contacting relatives would be mind, so let us start with old technology.
front of the bush. This does not require likely to cause more harm than good. If I had kept paper diaries of my lifes
knowledge of any causal regularity. The major network of genetic testing twists and turns, and wanted to know
Causal reasoning is a type of thinking; laboratories in Britain (UKGTN) has no more about what happened on a particu-
but logic is a prerequisite for language laboratories prepared to offer APOE lar day, I could look at the relevant diary
and thought to be possible at all. testing in the context of Alzheimers to find out what had happened and any
DAVE S. HENLEY (although testing is available for APOE feelings I had recorded. If though I had
GRAAFF-REINET, SOUTH AFRICA genotypes in the context of hyperlipi- kept my diaries in electronic form then I
demia, where treatments are available). could go further and find out when I last
DEAR EDITOR: Answering your recent The joint account model is accused by mentioned, say, eating jelly and ice-
reader survey, I asked for more on David Deckers and Hall of asserting that cream, and then read the entry in full to
Hume and less lads stuff like references geneticists should inform family mem- find out what I had recorded about that
to The Matrix, a film which few elderly bers of their own genetic risks as a matter episode. To achieve this, the data would
ladies like me have seen. of course and of using the ludicrous have to be in a searchable form. As a
Although I dont normally do things analogy that genetic information is like minimum, each day should have a few
like this, I thought I would write and the information held on a joint bank relevant key words allocated to it which
congratulate you on having both Hume account, where all parties are informed the software could match with the search
and The Matrix in the current issue, by the bank about financial affairs as a terms. If, as I would suggest, this is an
although I cant remember where I matter of course. Actually the discussion in-principle description of how our
found The Matrix mentioned. Hume, of by Parker and Lucassen is much more minds work then, contrary to Professor
course, was on the cover. nuanced. Firstly, they use a more realistic Talliss assumption, I would not have to
I am also grateful to Dr Earnshaw for scenario, involving the female carrier of a know in advance what the entire entry
resolving Humes problem, but I find it serious X-linked condition (Duchenne looked like, or even that there was an
quite easy to deduce that the future will muscular dystrophy, usually only affect- entry, in order to find data which may
be like the past and that The Matrix will ing males) who refuses to share this correspond in some way with the sort of
turn up again in the next issue. information with her pregnant sister. thing I was looking for. Of course, I may
ANITA MILLER, Their discussion includes the potential be disappointed, if the keyword jelly
ALTON, HANTS harm of non-disclosure to the pregnant were in fact a reference to gelignite.
sister, as well as the potential harm of Equally important is the reason for
Genetic Variation disclosure to the original patient. Where starting to look for such an entry in the
DEAR EDITOR: The article Informing the harm to the patient of sharing the first place. The recall of my episodic
People About Their Genetic Risks by information is relatively small, they say it memories seems to be prompted by
Jan Deckers and Dominic Hall (Issue could be argued that justice demands events currently going on around me,
119) arguably takes too narrow a view of the routine sharing of the benefits of including other memories playing out in
the ethical issues around genetic testing genetic information except in exceptional my mind. The point is that I dont delib-
by presenting an unrealistic scenario and circumstances. Considerations of auton- erately search for memories out of the
misrepresenting the joint account omy do not only apply to the first mem- blue, wholly unrelated to my present cir-
model of genetic information proposed ber of the family to be tested. Though cumstances. This therefore means that I
by Parker and Lucassen (British Medical every case will be different, and the rela- dont have to first remember what it is I
Journal 329, 2004). tive harms of different courses of action want to remember, as Professor Tallis
The scenario described by Deckers must be carefully weighed, the joint says. I would suggest instead that memo-
and Hall involves the disclosure to a account model is an important and work- ries are automatically retrieved in a con-
patientss relatives of the presence in the able approach that takes into account the tinual, contextual, necessarily imprecise,
patient of a specific APOE genotype unique features of genetic risk. search process. Professor Tallis says that
which increases the risk of late-onset DAVID BOURN having memories triggered by events
Alzheimers Disease. Deckers and Hall NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE would result in chaos because, in his
suggested that this disclosure could view, everything is in some way related
come out of the blue. Firstly, at least in Remembering Wonderland to everything else. But this presumes a
the UK, clinical geneticists would be DEAR EDITOR: Professor Tallis says search process which is far less sophisti-
very unlikely to contact relatives of any (Issue 119) that there is no way that the cated than, for instance, Google has
patient out of the blue. Any contact brain, even with its estimated 86 billion managed to create to make money from
would normally depend on the individ- neurons, countless trillions of synapses us. Precisely how my memories are
ual having shared their genetic results and various specialised areas, can fully indexed and the search criteria applied I
with relevant relatives. Secondly, given account for our episodic memories. He do not know, but I see no infinite regress
that it is a late onset condition with no proposes instead that there is a part of us in describing the process in this way.
treatment, where the risk is probabilistic ungoverned by the laws of physics which THOMAS JEFFREYS,
rather than absolute, and the limited somehow does what is necessary. COLESHILL, WARWICKSHIRE
June/July 2017 l Philosophy Now 39

Letters
Multiple Multiverse Problems Human Right To Internet Access?, dis- faces blazing in the glow of computer
DEAR EDITOR: I was interested in Rui tinguishes between natural and legal screens as they get ready for action in
Vieiras article Can the Multiverse Give rights. The notion of natural rights, some post-civilization future. But even
You An Afterlife in Issue 119, but I however, seems to me a wholly unnatural more problematic is the way its exploited
believe Vieira is placing wishful thinking thing. She says that natural rights are through the media. Capitalism has per-
above likelihood for the following reasons: held universally by all humans simply in fected the art of selling possibility, with
1) The Multiverse is only one theory to virtue of being human and that, in con- ads saturating us with visions of lives we
explain quantum mechanics. However, trast, legal rights are social constructs. could lead if only we bought the right
since there is no observational evidence Can this be true? Since natural rights are products. Meanwhile, the culture of
for the Multiverse, we should use Ock- supposed to be in the interest of at least celebrity holds us in awe and reality TV
hams Razor and test other theories that an overwhelming majority, it is difficult and YouTube dangle the possibility that
explain quantum mechanics before to see how they could be independent of our lives could be so interesting as to gain
accepting multiple universes. the societies out of which they sprang. us our fifteen minutes of fame.
2) It can be claimed that there is an infi- Consider freedom. Freedom is only With all this mental wandering, and
nite number of substantial entities in an actively sought after because our soci- minimal effort to anchor it, its no won-
infinite Multiverse. However there is eties impose some restrictions upon indi- der that America (with collateral effects
also an infinite number of conceivable vidual human beings. Because the con- for the rest of the world) is looking at a
entities. The question is, are these two cept does not make sense outside of a presidency that galloped in on what felt
sets of entities identical are all the society, it follows that natural rights are like a Quentin Tarantino revenge fan-
members of one of these sets in the other society-dependent and, therefore, social tasy; one that was and is propped up not
set? According to Cantors Paradox one constructs, like legal rights. so much on alternative facts as by the
infinite set can have more members than To avoid the conclusion that estab- unchecked fancies of the alt-right.
another infinite set (for example, the set lished natural rights evolved with soci- Fancy and imagination mind wan-
of real numbers has more members than eties, one needs to make natural rights so dering and focused daydreaming are not
the set of integers, even though both sets vague as to equate them with survival just about how we create; they are about
have an infinite number of members). instincts, which would be unhelpful. A how we come to engage with our world.
Thus all members of the set of conceived more useful distinction might oppose D. TARKINGTON, NEBRASKA
entities do not have to be a member of legal to desired rights; realised versus
the set of substantial entities. Thus it unrealised; compromised implementa- Midgleys Far Reach
does not inevitably follow that all possi- tion versus uncompromised ideas, etc. DEAR EDITOR: Another brilliant (double)
ble arrangements of energy/matter will PEDRO GRILO, LONDON essay from Mary Midgley (Issues 116,
be realised an infinite number of times. 117). She rightly argues that matters of
Rather, nature follows the principle of Imagining Kafkaland fact must intrude on some matters of
minimising energy in producing entities. DEAR EDITOR: After reading San value; but she doesnt quite go the whole
3) Given the problem outlined above, if Morans Daydreaming in Prague in hog to state that David Hume was plain
the replacing of first person conscious- Issue 118 (Prague being Kafkaland, by the wrong when he claimed that you cant
ness can take place, our first person con- way), Im reminded of a distinction made get an ought from an is. We can gain
sciousness is more likely to be replaced by Coleridge between fancy (a rough ethics from the practicalities of trying to
by another first person consciousness equivalent to mind-wandering) and imag- meet our wants and needs, bearing in
than to do the replacing. This likelihood ination (a rough equivalent to focused mind the commonality of those needs,
increases as we age, as the number of daydreaming). As Coleridge also said: the need for cooperation in meeting
available identical bodies in parallel uni- Its alright to build castles in the air. The them, and the fact that ones happiness
verses decreases with time due to the idea is to build foundations under them. does not usually rest on anothers misery.
myriad possible ways we have succeeded Moran complements this by recognizing The real obstruction is that many dont
in escaping the Grim Reaper. For exam- the import of both fancy and imagination find the result of this process of thinking
ple, how many times have we avoided and how they interact. However, in both emotionally satisfying or convincing. But
being hit by the bus which eliminated cases, the focus is on the creative act. But is that a fair reaction? This approach puts
one of our doppelgangers? Id argue its bigger than that: consider morality on a solid footing for the first
4) Our bodies have built-in obsolescence, the coup that fancy, via consumer capital- time. Its also worth remembering that it
so all Vieira is offering is a delay in our ism, has imposed on our culture and the does not involve compulsion. Thats why
inevitable demise rather than an afterlife damage it will do if left unchecked by we have prisons.
in any conventional use of that term. imagination. As Moran rightly points out, Midgley also provides excellent criti-
We should focus on our real footprint, fancy or mind-wandering is essential to cism of over-specialisation in philoso-
our effect on the world we leave behind, any creative act for the very reason that it phy. One crosses a line into nonsense if
rather than dream of immortality. opens us up to unforeseen possibilities one assumes that sound philosophical
RUSSELL BERG, MANCHESTER and gets us beyond ourselves. But, as its procedure only ever involves the mental
critics note, it is lazy in nature and prone microscope and never the wide angle
Social Rights to baser impulses. At its most innocuous, lens, or that wider intelligibility is of no
DEAR EDITOR: Jesse Tomaltys great it leads to the basement overmen who sit consequence.
opening article in Issue 118, Is There A in environmentally-controlled caves, their DARYN GREEN, LONDON

IMAGE BY CAROL BELANGER GRAFTON
Philosophy Then
The Philosopher as Historian

Peter Adamson on Russells History of Western Philosophy
B
ertrand Russell was many things: logi- of telling us that certain things are not worth book. Yet Russell also often finds something to
cian, mathematician, anti-war activist, taking seriously. A notorious case, at least in the value in such thinkers. Schopenhauer, despite
atheist, and, unexpectedly, historian of circles I run in, is his pathetically brief and ill- inconsistency and a certain shallowness,
philosophy. Unexpectedly, because we tend to judged chapter on Mohammedan Culture and offers a bracing corrective to the widespread
think of philosophy especially the sort of Philosophy. His summary judgment is, tendency of Western thinkers to think that all
technical analytic philosophy that Russell Arabic philosophy is not important as original evil can be explained away.
helped pioneer as an ahistorical discipline. Its thought. Men like Avicenna and Averroes are A second virtue of the book is one Russell
an attitude epitomized by a note the philoso- essentially commentators. These are lines I himself emphasizes in his Preface: there is a lot
pher Gilbert Harman pinned to his office door: have heard quoted numerous times at confer- of history in this History of Philosophy. He does
The history of philosophy: just say no! But ences on Islamic thought, and obviously not the obvious thing of offering potted biograph-
the immediate occasion was more parochial with approval. Few other chapters are so dis- ical sketches of each thinker, emphasizing con-
than Harmans slogan suggests. He was missive, but many offer little more than sketchy nections between the life and the thought. He
protesting the idea that philosophy students at notes on the subject at hand. finds Plotinus inspiring as a personality, for
Princeton should be required to study the his- instance, while convicting Schopenhauer of
tory of philosophy. He later remarked that hypocritical selfishness. But more than that, he
although he has nothing against history of phi- is constantly surveying the historical context in
losophy, he sees it as distinct from philosophy which philosophy unfolded; he even highlights
itself. this as the main feature that distinguishes his
Most would probably disagree with history of philosophy from others. The afore-
Harman on the teaching curriculum, yet agree mentioned chapter on the Islamic world, brief
with that last point. At the very least, we dont as it is, finds room for an overview of the early
expect great philosophers to be great historians history of Islam, and much is said elsewhere
of philosophy. This despite the fact that some about historical topics such as Sparta, the
of the greatest philosophers have indeed sur- Roman Empire, and the Reformation.
veyed the history of their discipline. Hypatia: a distinguished lady. Almost the Certainly Russells history is very selective.
The earliest case in the European sphere only woman thinker to get even a mention. He is more than happy to skip from one major
would be Aristotle, whose reports on the Preso- Yet in at least two respects Russells History thinker to the next, so that many fascinating
cratic philosophers are invaluable. But precisely remains admirable, and worth reading. The figures are not mentioned at all. He says as
because he was a great philosopher, his presen- first is not so unexpected: he is a brilliant much, also in the Preface: I have omitted
tation tends to distort and obscure the views of philosopher, and makes incisive points, often men who did not seem to me to deserve a
these thinkers, since he classifies them in pursuit only in passing. To take just one example, when fairly full treatment apparently taking it for
of his own agenda, for instance by reading their talking about Descartes famous I think, granted that no women thinkers deserve such
cosmologies as so many attempts to determine therefore I am, Russell observes that skepti- treatment. Nor, as the title intimates, does his
the correct number of principles in nature. A far cism must stop somewhere and that the stop- History venture beyond Western thought.
more informative source on the Presocratics is ping point is provided not only by indubitable So Russell certainly does not cover every-
the lesser thinker Simplicius. He had an agenda facts but also by indubitable laws of inference. thing. But what he does cover is put in some
of his own, but it was not a philosophical one. This is a useful observation, for it reminds us sort of historical context, even as it is evalu-
Rather, he wished to record what was for him that Descartes method of global doubt does ated from a philosophical point of view. How-
already ancient pagan thought, before it was not affect the rules of logic. ever obsolete Russells judgments on particu-
lost in the rising tide of Christianity. As one might expect, Russell also offers stri- lar texts and traditions, however large his
Russell might have sympathized with Sim- dent opinions on subjects such as Aristotelian blind spots, one does get a sense from reading
plicius as far as Christianity was concerned, but logic. In these passages he moves easily from the him that Harman was wrong; he shows that
otherwise he seems more comparable to Aris- history of philosophy to expressing his own phi- the history of philosophy can be philosophy,
totle, since he was another great philosopher losophy: substance, in fact, is merely a conve- while also being history.
who set out to be an historian of philosophy. nient way of collecting events into bundles. PROF. PETER ADAMSON 2017
The result was A History of Western Philosophy, Many of the philosophers he covers are not to Peter Adamson is the author of A History of
published in 1946 [for which he won the Nobel his taste, as he is unafraid to say: he deems Philosophy Without Any Gaps, Vols 1, 2
Prize for Literature, Ed]. To be frank, the book Fichtes idealism insane. His antipathy to ide- & 3, available from OUP. Theyre based on his
does have its flaws. For one, Russell has a habit alism and subjectivism is a leitmotif of the whole popular History of Philosophy podcast.

Terri Murray isnt offended by Claire Foxs book about
the politics of being offended and Les Reid has a creative
Books response to a book on the philosophy of creativity.
I Find That Offensive racist, etc, irrespective of the speakers inten- cultural recognition, using victimhood as
by Claire Fox tions or the context of his speech. Who needs currency to gain resources and power. For
blasphemy law when weve got the free- veteran leftist social justice activists, the ease
IN THIS PITHY, EBULLIENT wheeling, arbitrary, and unlimited redefini- with which the younger generation of
addition to Biteback tion of terms such as racism? So broad now would-be liberal left progressives fall into
Publishings Provoca- is the scope of the term it could feasibly apply divisive in-fighting is vexing. What theyre
tions series, Claire Fox, to just about anything touching on race. This really doing is accomplishing the rights task
the director and founder of the British think- is particularly worrying because, if racism can for them, by destroying liberalism from
tank the Institute of Ideas, makes a rousing mean everything, then it ceases to mean within. A good example Fox cites is the
appeal to Generation Snowflake to throw anything. Anti-racism should be a vivid, vicious unrelenting civil war between femi-
off their bubble wrap and embrace the liber- living ethic, not a dead dogma that we nists on social media, as womens move-
ating responsibilities of adult life. To those unthinkingly apply more promiscuously than ments splinter into ever pettier, narrower
of us born before 1980, its mind-boggling a two-peckered billy goat. identity grouplets.
that the age-old wisdom Fox dispenses in Fox observes how todays self-defined Additional erosion of liberal politics can
this book should be considered provoca- victims acquire perverse authority through be seen in multiculturalisms annexation of
tion at all. Consequently, readers like adopting an oppressed status, to the extent anti-racism. With state support linked to
myself who have not yet been lobotomized that even mild criticism of their beliefs can cultural identity, Fox cites a case where a
by the culture of adult colouring books and be tantamount to hate speech, effectively group of mainly ethnic minority women
naval-gazing mindfulness can almost smell giving them or their beliefs special immunity artists was encouraged to self-identify as a
the authors refreshing irony lurking in the from criticism. In a politicised version of this Muslim group (none of them were religious)
subtext of every page. However, the author behaviour, notes Fox, groups historically and subsequently focus their output on
is not content to simply sneer at an entire denied equal rights all-too-often now cast Islamophobia in order to merit considera-
generation by dubbing them Snowflakes themselves as perennial victims. Thus the tion for future funding. Then there was the
and cry-babies, because this does not legitimate progressive ideal of universal feminist organization at Goldsmiths
explain why their prickly tendency to take equal treatment has degenerated into University in London that allied itself with
offense is happening on such an epic scale. victim-privileging, and whereas past libera- a group of men from the Islamic Society who
She delves deeper into the new cultural tion struggles focused on uniting people wanted to shut down ex-Muslim feminist
norm of fragility to identify its root causes across cultural, gender, ethnic, and religious and human rights campaigner Maryam
in the privileging of victimhood. lines, todays pseudo-progressives relent- Namazie when she attempted to address a
lessly compete to out-rank one another for campus meeting. If the Muslim men really
The Triumph of Victimhood
Fox recalls how before the corpses of the
Shut up Maryam,
Charlie Hebdo journalists had even grown
youre scaring us!
cold, many who had initially defended the
principle of free expression had U-turned to
denouncing as inflammatory and offensive
the cartoons that catalysed the incident,
implying that the Hebdo staff were themselves
to blame for the violence they suffered. So
low has the tolerance bar fallen that one no
MARYAM PORTRAIT BREAD & ROSES 2014
longer has even to be conscious of her own

racism, sexism, homophobia, cissexism
or Islamophobia in order to be guilty of
these thought crimes. Microaggressions
theory has sprung up to diagnose your
unconscious bias, and to legitimise victims
feelings of being macro-aggrieved. Hate-
speech legislation, such as in Britain, only
bolsters this imbalance of power between
victim and perpetrator, by defining hate
speech as any speech that someone claims is
42 Philosophy Now June/July 2017 Book Reviews

Books
towns. Self-censorship is rife on issues that bullying industry is becoming the real danger
are perceived as culturally sensitive, from to young peoples states of mind. Instead of
FGM and child marriage to religious satire. helping young people to put unpleasant
Making victimhood into a valued social experiences into perspective, we emphasise
commodity has led to an endless search for how traumatic they are and encourage chil-
it, resulting in screwball scenarios where dren to over-react. Widening the scope of
some cash in on what author Michelle bullying to include everything from
Malkin describes in her blog as the cult of spreading rumours to just being ignored
oppression chic. Fox cites the Black Lives creates an environment where kids are
Matter campaigns Shaun King, scourge of discouraged from developing coping mech-
white privilege, who was disgraced when his anisms and are taught to exaggerate minor
supporters conceded that his birth certifi- emotional growing pains as so devastating to
cate describes him as white, despite passing their mental health that they need psycho-
himself off as a person of colour. Then there logical support to cope. But disappointment,
was the bizarre story of Rachel Dolezal, who stress, and frustration are integral parts of
built her entire career as an African-Ameri- life, not mental illnesses. It is no wonder that
can civil rights activist despite being born Generation Snowflake goes off to college
Caucasian. Interestingly, Dolezal began to preoccupied by their wellbeing and prone to
publicly identify as black after losing a seeing themselves as victims. We have
lawsuit in which she accused Howard pathologised what were once considered
University of discriminating against her for basic experiences of student life, including
being white. being broke, staying up all night to get an
Shaun King, activist for the essay finished, and periods of loneliness.
Black Lives Matter movement Safe From Harm? The over-protection of children by a risk-
To further explain what has generated averse culture has also blurred the line
felt that their safety was threatened by offense-susceptible students, Fox points the between physical and psychological harm.
Namazies free speech, it would have been finger at us, their elders, for socialising them Until very recently, liberals followed John
easier not to attend a meeting that was into a culture of health and safety mania in Stuart Mill (1806-1873), the architect of
intended for secular humanists anyway. which we catastrophise lifes challenges and modern liberal political philosophy, in
What they wanted was to ensure that the obsess on health scares and child protection. defining mental harm rather narrowly.
humanists could not listen to Namazie, not Perhaps the Baby Boomers and Gen-Xers Mill saw mental harm as involving impair-
that they be protected from her impious who led relatively free-range childhoods ment of an individuals development, for
discourse. Although Fox does not spell it watched too many Hollywood disaster example, refusing to let children have an
out, the bigger picture is that multicultural- movies about endangered kids and heroic education. He regarded this as much more
ism currently trumps all other progressive parents, because their offspring, born after serious than merely having ones feelings
left values. And since religious authoritari- 1980, got a consistent message that life is hurt which often does help us to develop,
anism flies under the multiculturalism dangerous, but adults will do everything in say, resiliance. Mill also understood harm as
banner, waving it will ensure fast-track entry their power to protect you from harm. something that happens against our will.
into the public arena, while liberal values Examples Fox gives are the UK Chief Medi- When we find someone offensive we can
must politely stand aside. So no longer do cal Officer calling obesity a national threat avoid them and continue our lives with no
we appeal to universal human reason to win on a par with terrorism, and British Labour
an argument. Having a better argument is MP Keith Vaz declaring a war on sugar in
less important than being the right type of Parliament. An hysterical zeal for childrens
person. Its a kind of ad hominem fallacy in safety has become a clich, spiraling into an
reverse: what one says is less important than outright moral panic in which the child
who says it. protection industry actively encourages
Those without sufficient victim status try children to see potential abuse everywhere.
to compensate by empathizing with victim Childrens charities and NGOs, in
groups, as though other peoples suffering constantly broadening definitions of abuse,
might rub off some credibility. According to actively encourage children to be suspicious
Fox, this explains the escalating trend for of such harmless tensions as being pres-
privileged liberals to be especially offended surised or manipulated into making deci-
on behalf of victim groups and dress it up as sions or when someone (such as a parent)
a form of social justice political activism. tries to control you or push you too hard.
Many of those traditionally associated with It is hardly surprising, says Fox, if our chil-
left-wing movements have hopped on this dren have internalised the climate of distrust
bandwagon, resulting in a pre-emptory and fear that we have institutionalised, and
refusal to criticise minority groups that has become hypersensitive to potential offense.
chilled discussion and paralysed interven- In a culture where expanded definitions of
tion in cases such as the systematic sexual bullying routinely link it to the psychological John Stuart Mill
exploitation of young girls in some British realm and mental illness, Fox fears the anti-
Book Reviews June/July 2017 Philosophy Now 43

Books
damage done. As for the claim that we are people throughout history is secondary to
harmed by the mere existence of people who The Philosophy of
finding ways to turn the gaze of art and liter-
live in ways of which we disapprove, Mills Creativity ed by Elliot Paul
ature inwards on what is specific to being me.
response is that our interest in not being Thus, Generation Snowflake is being told & Scott Barry Kaufman
offended is relatively less important than our that thousands of years of literature, philos- EDUCATION IS A POLITICALLY
interest in not being physically injured, ophy and historical insight are to be side- contentious subject. Systems
detained, or criminally deceived. Fox urges lined to accommodate their identities. This of education are continually being pro-
people to get back to this more robust
approach gives students opinions, however posed, implemented, regretted and reor-
understanding of harm one that leaves
childish or poisonous, a sense of privilege. ganised. There are arguments over reli-
room for legitimate parental discipline and
The demand to express unconditional posi- gious segregation, the usefulness of various
proper academic pressure.
tive regard for young peoples views, says subjects, rote learning versus other meth-
The Politics of Protection Fox, effectively destroys the intergenera- ods of learning, the role of the teacher, and
Not only have over-protective policies made tional duty of passing on knowledge, setting so on. Disagreements about purpose and
a health fetish of purging life of all discom- boundaries for behaviour, and the broader methods in education have a long history:
forts, they have also begun to medicalise task of socialisation. Consequently, Plato and Aristotle held very different
student politics. Fox points to how univer- students never learn to cope with disap- views, and philosophers as diverse as
sity culture is dominated by therapy-style pointment or accept criticism essential Locke, Rousseau, Kant, Russell and Rorty
political discourse whereby demands to ban skills that they will need as they grow up (if have added their own ideas. One facet of
speakers are framed in the language of they do). education, however, seems to have escaped
psychiatry. All manner of political disagree- Fox concludes her book with a rousing controversy, and now enjoys general assent
ment are labelled as phobias (e.g. Islamo- address to Generation Snowflake itself. The creativity. Today we expect schools at all
phobia, homophobia), conveniently making harsh reality, she says, is that their rebellion levels to nurture creativity, especially in lit-
rational argument with the diseased oppo- is not against the prevailing orthodoxies. erary composition and art, but also in
nent (the patient) pointless. The demand These rebels are kicking an open door, problem-solving, critical thinking, media
for self-examination levelled against anyone singing from the cultural relativists PC production, music, and dance. We seem to
who disagrees with the status quo is hymn sheet, and in doing so are tools of think that it is good to cultivate creativity,
emotional blackmail reminiscent of repres- those in authority. Their youthful zeal lends not only because personal development
sive Soviet-style medicine. credibility to existing policies that leave real requires self-expression, but also because
Even childrens informal activities are progressive causes floundering. Authentic society is changing all the time and so we
organised and supervised, and free time
rebels need the kind of moral autonomy and value the ability to respond to new chal-
structured and monitored. Helicopter
independence that is achieved through lenges creatively. We want our education
parents have abandoned their duty of social-
genuine intellectual argument, not just by system to produce individuals who do not
ising children to become self-reliant. Instead
they nurture childrens expectations to be smearing your opponent or by depending merely replicate ideas, but are capable of
reliant on outside intermediaries, encourag- upon infantile authoritarian protection having new ones, whether commercial,
ing them to wallow in dependency, thereby from his or her reasoning. artistic, scientific, or otherwise. So creativi-
furnishing them excuses to avoid grown-up Todays zeitgeist, says Fox, venerates the ty is a good thing.
responsibilities. The younger generation vulnerable victim form of personality, such But what kind of a thing is creativity?
gain a false sense of empowerment from that strength is demonised as arrogance or The essays in this anthology explore many
external agencies and institutions on which misrepresented as violence. What then is to of its aspects, presenting familiar philosoph-
they are dependent and there is an insidious be done? First, instead of taking misan- ical issues in less familiar contexts, which is
paternalism in this trend. Reduction of thropic negativity as a premise, why not an encouragement to take a fresh look at
young peoples responsibility and autonomy foreground human potential by looking to those issues and perhaps rethink our opin-
fetters them to external authorities and the individuals strength instead of promot- ions. Creativity is looked at in relation to lit-
undermines their liberty. ing his weakness? To progress beyond a erature, music, audience response, charac-
Fox identifies other culprits in the victim culture, the young will need to coura- ter, imagination, the unconscious. and artifi-
creation of a generation of entitled narcis- geously wage war against all those forces cial intelligence. There are also essays on
sists. Among them are student voice and that stress security above civil liberties and psychological experiments and teaching,
self-esteem. Fee-paying students now see free speech, forging their own philosophies and more. The compilers of the anthology
the teacher-pupil relationship in terms of but also shamelessly standing on the shoul- are to be congratulated on its range and
customer service. Viewing teachers primar- ders of giants. And they will need to grow a variety.
ily as service providers undermines their backbone to face down all those who will Some myths about creativity are scruti-
authority and ignores the fact that teaching
want to shut them up. nised and deflated. One Romantic tradi-
involves an unequal relationship. Lecturers
DR TERRI MURRAY 2017 tion emphasises the flash of inspiration
who have the temerity to actually lecture
Terri Murray is a graduate of New York Univer- the Eureka! moment when the act of cre-
have missed the memo from todays
academic CEOs that requires them to be sitys Film School. She has taught Film Studies at ation allegedly occurs. Simon Blackburn is
co-learners. Teachers are told that in order Hampstead College of Fine Arts & Humanities very sceptical about accounts of creativity
to engage their pupils they should make all in London since 2002, and is author of Feminist which make the process sound miraculous.
subject matter relate to them. The aim of Film Studies (2007). He points to the years of learning, study
discovering in literature or art something and practice which preceded compositions
transcendent and universal about the human I Find That Offensive, by Claire Fox, Biteback, which are said to have arrived out of the
condition which binds our experiences to 2016, 9.99, 208 pp, ISBN: 1849549818. blue. Without those years of preparation,
44 Philosophy Now June/July 2017 Book Reviews

Books
the achievements of Poincar, Darwin, or tions will not qualify as creativity. choices. The key ingredients of true cre-
Mozart would have been impossible. That last point leads directly to the ativity require levels of operational com-
Blackburn tells us about a pianist who was question whether computers can be truly plexity far beyond present computing capa-
complimented on his luck by a well-inten- creative. They can produce novel composi- bilities. Boden concludes that the question
tioned fan. Yes, he replied, and the tions in music and art, and they can invent whether computers can (eventually) be cre-
more I practise, the luckier I get. new strategies and winning combinations ative is currently unanswerable, but is still
There is also a common belief that cre- of moves in chess. Such activities have an open.
ativity is hampered by conscious delibera- appearance of creativity; but Margaret Computers may be struggling to be cre-
tion. Creative ideas are supposed to well Boden is not impressed by them. She sees ative, but what about us? Surely human
up from the unconscious like spring water them as a tribute to the creativity of the beings are good at being creative? Every day
from subterranean strata. This idea was programmer, not of the machine which we respond to things others say or to the
popular with the Surrealists, and it also performs the function. However, she is events of the day by inventing new combina-
explains the Victorian interest in automat- more impressed by genetic algorithms tions of words. What we say is unscripted
ic writing, where a pen is moved ostensi- programs that can make random changes and unrehearsed; we simply make up an
bly without conscious control. It was given in their own basic rules. The random utterance on the spur of the moment! Even
credibility by statements from some artists changes are then subject to a fitness selec- more creatively, we often initiate a discus-
and composers, for example Mozart, who tor, which keeps the best altered rules and sion ourselves, as I have done writing this
said Whence my ideas come, I know not, discards others. In this way, program paragraph; and we launch it into a social
nor can I force them. However, as report- development emulates biological evolu- nexus: in this case an angry mob of Philosophy
ed in the essay by Baumeister, Schmeichel tion. A graphics program by Karl Sims Now readers who are already firing off
and Dewall, evidence from psychological operates in this way to produce novel apoplectic rebuttals to the Letters page!
experiments points to the opposite conclu- images which look unrelated to each other. Berys Gaut provides a very positive
sion: that conscious processes are integral Such developments in computing are tan- assessment of the human capacity for cre-
to creative behaviour. It is difficult to gen- talising, says Boden, but they are a long ativity. Not only are we normally pretty
erate real creativity in a laboratory setting, way off creativity. Computers lack some good at it, but we can be helped to be bet-
so the experimental results are admittedly key ingredients: autonomy, intentionality, ter at it. She shows how creative problem-
not a proof. Nevertheless they do incline consciousness, values, and emotions. Even solving in mathematics can be improved by
us to the view that intentional awareness the novel outputs of genetic algorithms do following the strategies devised by George
must play a significant role in highly com- not constitute autonomy, because they are Plya in his book How to Solve It (1971).
plex creative activities. Unthinking reac- based on random changes, not deliberate The strategies include drawing a figure,
considering special cases, looking for a
related problem, and breaking down a
complex task into simpler ones. Gaut
shows that some of the strategies recom-
Portrait of a Young Woman, mended in creative writing courses are
Jeanne Goupil similar. That is surprising, given the cate-
Paul Gaugin, 1896 gorical difference of subject matter, but
less so if one thinks of creativity as a skill
which can be honed by practice. The
strategies prepare the combustible materi-
als which must be there if the creative
spark is going to ignite anything.
I liked this book. The general direction
of the essays sits easily with my libertarian,
Humanist outlook, and the wide variety of
topics it addresses has refreshed my inter-
est in aesthetics, philosophy of education,
and home improvement. But thats my cre-
ative response to the book (see the essay by
Noel Carroll). Yours will be different. I
just hope that you get some enjoyment and
enlightenment from it before you pen that
angry rebuttal.
LES REID 2017
Les Reid teaches a course on Humanism as part
of the Edinburgh City Council adult education
programme.
The Philosophy of Creativity, edited by Elliot Paul

and Scott Barry Kaufman, OUP, 2014, 326 pages,
34.49, ISBN 9780199836963
Book Reviews June/July 2017 Philosophy Now 45

W E S T W O R L D
Leo Cookman performs an Unheimlich manoeuvre to
Television review a disturbing android saga.
U
ncanny is a word with which have evolved in order to help us avoid dan- different cadence to their speech or unfa-
were all familiar, but perhaps gers revealed by that which is not quite miliar proportions to their facial and other
slightly misunderstand. We right, including selecting better mates. Its features, and feel an immediate but uncom-
often say that when something posited that this also ties in with our dislike fortably familiar distance from them which
or someone is similar to another something of seeing a cadaver; something that looks can far too often quickly become a feeling
or someone, the resemblance is uncanny, human but which has no life inside it. of distrust or dislike.
especially if it is one person doing an However or whyever it was developed,
impression of another. In many ways this is its a feeling we all know: a fascinated yet Uncanny Culture
accurate, but its normally used in a positive uncomfortable feeling of wariness. This The most famous description of the phe-
way in this instance. Its uncanny! we may repulsion of all that is uncanny is part of our nomenon in modern times, is what we
say in wonder. However, when something awareness of the world and is part of our have come to know as the Uncanny Valley.
is truly uncanny there are few things more consciousness, the very thing that makes us The term comes from a graph originally
unsettling. us. To use the language of the philosopher plotted by robotics professor Masahiro
The concept of the uncanny has been Hegel, the uncanny is a breakdown or blur- Mori in the 1970s to explain the strange
explored for centuries, but it was popu- ring of the lines between that which is our sensation, known technically as abjection,
larised by Ernst Jentsch in his essay On the Self and that which is Other; between what people have when (between certain limits)
Psychology of the Uncanny (1906) and we understand and what we do not. the more recognisable or lifelike a robot
Sigmund Freud in Das Unheimliche [The For all its possible evolutionary expedi- becomes, the more we are repulsed by it.
Uncanny] (1919). It is the idea of something ence, even today the uncanny prompts That is, we will accept a robot or an ani-
that is familiar but just outside the realms some difficult questions. The subject brings mated character whilst they are still recog-
of being the same. The etymology of the up a deeply uncomfortable and shameful nisably not human, or if they are not
word uncanny stems from the Anglo- aspect of human behavior: how we often recognisably not human, but as they
Saxon ken (still used in the Scots dialect) shun those who fall into our own category approximate near realism our acceptance,
meaning understanding or knowledge; of uncanny. Thus people with mental or our like of the machine, drops off steeply.
thus uncanny is outside of understand- physical disabilities are often ostracised, On a graph, this plotting of human resem-
ing. Essentially it is something we do not patronised, or gazed at in rude wonder. For blance against acceptability looks like a
quite understand. example, the autistic often learn patterns of valley in this region of the uncanny.
We all know the feeling of the uncanny interaction that they use at perhaps the The concept of the uncanny is used a
when someone or something is not quite wrong time: this is seen as not-quite-right, lot in fiction, both in literature and film,
right. People have reported feeling this in and makes some people uncomfortable. I most often and most effectively in the hor-
the presence of psychopaths who act in a see this in my nephew who is on the spec- ror genre, particularly those we dub
socially acceptable manner but whom they trum, and who rather wonderfully, hugs weird or macabre. Think of all the
can instinctively tell are pretending. The everyone he meets. The feeling of the killers in masks or with faces hidden by
disjunct is unsettling. This aligns with an uncanny could even to some extent explain hair; children behaving just a little oddly;
idea that our sense of the uncanny may racism: we see another person, but with a women bent backwards or moving in a jit-
tery way; long, uncomfortable stares; and
so on. These are all great examples of the
uncanny something which resembles
humanity or is even enacted by a human
but is clearly not quite normal.
It is especially seen in horror films from
Japan. It is interesting that the uncanny is
so prevalent in Japanese culture and that
its usage is a tradition there. Their use of
masks in certain religious ritual dances and
theatre is to many Western eyes distinctly
odd, as is the make up of a geisha.
Interestingly, when Japanese horror films
Visiting are remade for Western audiences, they
Uncanny often have a far poorer, less scary effect,
Valley usually because the remake has lost the

Television
WESTWORLD IMAGES HBO/WARNER BROS TELEVISION 2016
A twenty- which is simultaneously both Ourselves

first century and not Ourselves, giving us pause to think
facelift about what we accept as real or even
human. The staff who are building and fix-
ing the hosts in Westworld are reprimanded
by the owner of the theme park (Anthony
Hopkins), for covering up hosts with
sheets, perhaps to hide their modesty; but
is that modesty for the robots or for us,
sense of the uncanny that the original Michael Crichton in 1973. It was about a unused as we are to the sight of nudity?
dwelled on. With a better developed sense theme park full of robots who become Westworld frequently uses a quote from
of the uncanny Japanese film-makers are homicidal. The movie featured Yul Romeo & Juliet: These violent delights
able to access a far deeper level of connec- Brynner as a killer android whose face have violent ends. Interestingly, in that
tion through their art: their use of detach- eventually falls off, disturbingly revealing same speech, Friar Laurence goes on to
ment and abjection makes our attachment the workings within. (Its surely no coinci- neatly encapsulate this idea of the uncan-
and closeness to the real world all the dence that Jasia Reichardt and Moris ny, saying, The sweetest honey / is loath-
more palpable. If you want to see people Uncanny Valley essay is from the same some in his own deliciousness / and in
react to something uncanny, just put on a decade.) The new TV series takes this sce- taste confounds the appetite.
mask with almost human features and then nario of deadly androids as a jumping-off
interact with them in an everyday setting. point, but uses it to look more deeply at a Uncanny Reflections
Youd be surprised at the visceral reactions bigger question: What does it mean to be The uncanny uses an outline, a stencil for
this elicits, especially if youre wearing a human? This is a fairly abstract philosoph- our reality and our perception of the
Japanese Kagura mask, which is uncanny ical question, but is rendered much more world, and yet does not quite fit into this
enough in itself. real and accessible by comparing and con- shape, and so is strange and disturbing to
trasting humans with the android so-called us. Abjection is our response. Natural his-
Do You Believe? hosts. An element of what constitutes tory has taught us to fear what we dont
Another good recent example of the humanity is considered in how we differ- understand; but I would say, to better
uncanny, and probably one deliberately entiate between human and host. And understand ourselves, we must better
aligned with an awareness of its true psy- through this meditation a more thorough accept and study the outliers. For example,
chological meaning, is seen in HBOs exploration of the uncanny is also enacted. psychologists will tell you the best way to
excellent series Westworld. The performances in Westworld are study and understand the normal human
Westworld was originally a book and excellent, in particular those actors playing mind is to study abnormal psychology.
film written and then directed by the late the robots. It is the subtleties of acting a The robots in the TV series are engaged
little off that generate our uneasy aware- in a journey toward consciousness, but even
ness of their difference from the humans, humans have yet to understand what con-
yet it is even more shocking when this sciousness is. Part of the search to under-
awareness is subverted, leaving us unsure stand consciousness is what David
who is what. The scenes that were most Chalmers has called the hard problem;
horrific and disturbing to me as a viewer how there can be subjective experience. But
were not when the show was bloody or our first step in understanding ourselves
violent, but when a host malfunctioned, to would be to confront our in-built fear and
WESTWORLD FILM POSTER MGM 1973
be left twitching, staring, suddenly freez- rejection of that which we do not under-
ing all motion, or screaming but with no stand of the uncanny. This could be the
facial expression. The list of shudders is hardest problem of all.
endless throughout the series. So far, we dont really know what we are,
In the case of horror, what unsettles us but we definitely know what we are not.
most is the idea that the possibility pre- LEO COOKMAN 2017
sented can exist in our own world. Never Leo Cookman is a writer living in Kent. His
does this feel more pertinent than with the poetry has been published in Penguins Poetry
progress of artificial intelligence and of Sex, The Best of Manchester Poets,
robotics. This is why Westworld is astute in Black Sheep Journal, Ladybeard Magazine
Beneath the mask presenting us with the dichotomy of that and BlankPages Magazine, among others.
June/July 2017 l Philosophy Now 47

Brief Lives
Denis Diderot (1713-1784)
Martin Jenkins considers a black sheep of the French Enlightenment.
T
he three outstanding writer-philosophers of the laborated with Rousseau for fifteen years before they quarrelled
Eighteenth Century French Enlightenment are (Rousseau quarrelled with everybody) and then managed to carry
Voltaire, Rousseau and Diderot. The first two are on working with him for another year.
relatively well known in the English-speaking world. Having become financially secure, Diderot spent the last years
Diderot is not. In fairness, it should be said that his legacy is of his life in reasonable comfort. He outlived both Rousseau and
somewhat contested even in France. Voltaire and Rousseau were Voltaire, and died of natural causes in 1784. He had ensured the
inducted into the Panthon at the end of the Eighteenth Cen- future of his only surviving child, Marie-Anglique, through her
tury; Diderot had to wait until 1913 before he was suggested for marriage, and it was his son-in-law, Vandeul, who finally pub-
that honour, and then the National Assembly voted down the lished Diderots (almost) complete works in 1796.
proposal. He still has not made it.
Writing Career
Life Diderot published almost none of his philosophical writings dur-
Denis Diderot was born in Langres in Champagne in 1713. He ing his lifetime, although he read them to his friends and circu-
was intended to succeed to the canonry held by an uncle, and so lated them in manuscript.
was tonsured at the age of thirteen. However, after completing There were a number of reasons for Diderots mostly posthu-
his studies he entered into a bohemian life in Paris. In 1741 he mous publication. Firstly, the ideas which he put forward were
met a linen maid named Antoinette Champion. Denis father dis- potentially dangerous. He came as close as he dared to setting out
approved of the liaison and had him imprisoned in a monastery. a materialist (and by implication, atheist) position; even Voltaire,
He escaped and married Antoinette in 1743. He then settled into although anti-clerical, claimed to be a deist [the idea that there is a
a respectable existence, supporting himself through translating God, but one not interested in human affairs, Ed]. Even putting an
from English. He may not have been a strictly faithful husband, atheist view into the mouth of a fictional speaker risked entangling
but his liaisons with Madame de Puisieux and Sophie Volland the writer with the church and state authorities. By the end of his
seem to have been primarily about his need for intellectual com- life Diderot had had enough of that. Also, he presented his ideas in
panionship. In Le Neveu de Rameau he wrote, Mes penses, ce sont dialogue form (or, as he preferred to call them, entretiens conver-
mes catins My thoughts are my strumpets. sations), and many of these involved his contemporaries. Some of
In his lifetime Diderot was mainly known as an art critic and these dialogues, such as Mystification, seem to have been worked-up
as one of the editors of the Encyclopdie. The latter role was polit- versions of real conversations. Finally, Diderot was a perfectionist
ically uncomfortable. The Encyclopdie was licensed, banned, (or a tinkerer): he kept revising his dialogues, until he was satisfied
unbanned, rebanned in France, until the editors gave up and (more or less). As a result, editing Diderot has become a major chal-
announced that the final volumes would be officially published in lenge in French scholarship.
Switzerland. In 1766 the printer of the Encyclopdie was sent to the His earlier dialogues are fairly straightforward. Here Diderot
Bastille. appears as a character and puts forward his views. A good example
Diderot was imprisoned for a few months (at Vincennes, not is the Entretien Entre M. dAlembert et M. Diderot (1769). In this
the Bastille). In this context his Entretien avec la Marchale (1776) work, Diderot advances a thoroughly materialist position, includ-
is revealing. Here Diderot seeks to convince his pious interlocu- ing an argument carried on through several pages that rocks may
tor that an atheist such as himself can be a decent human being possess a degree of consciousness [see Issue 117, Ed]. In later dia-
(un honnte homme). But the conclusion reads: logues Diderots technique becomes more subtle, one might even
say quirky. At the end of the dialogue I just cited, dAlembert
La marchale: By the way, if you had to give account of your princi- accepts the strength of Diderots arguments but insists that he will
ples to our magistrates, would you admit to them? stick to his own position. But in the later Le Rve de dAlembert
Diderot: I would do my best to spare them a vicious act. (1769), dAlembert becomes the mouthpiece for Diderots own
La marchale: Ah, coward! And if you were on the point of death, views, albeit that he does so while sleeping in an armchair. Dr Bor-
would you submit to the ceremonies of the church? deu and Mlle de lEspinasse then discuss what dAlembert has
Diderot: I would not fail to do so. been saying in his sleep, and when he wakes up, tell him to go back
La marchale: Fie! Hypocritical rogue! to sleep, or simply not to interfere with their conversation. (In the
continuation of the dialogue, they manage without dAlembert
In 1765 Diderot sold his library to Empress Catherine of Rus- altogether.) This format reflects Diderots very modern belief
sia in return for a lump sum and a pension, plus the use of it for the that it is in our unconscious that we will find our true thoughts,
rest of his life. This transaction eventually led to his only journey whereas our mind edits them to be presentable to our conscious-
outside France. From 1773 to 1774 he travelled first to Holland, ness. Therefore, what dAlembert has uttered in his unconscious
then to Saint Petersburg, then again to Holland. state is what he really believes. However, reality is more complex
Diderot seems to have been of an easy-going nature. He col- than this.

Denis Diderot
Portrait by Louis-Michel van Loo, 1767
Involved Conversations cheekily, he claims to be quoting what Bougainville omitted from

The finest example of Diderots conversational philosophy is the his published account!)
Supplment au Voyage de Bougainville (1772). In this dialogue Unusually for Diderot, the participants in this dialogue are
Diderot confronts one of the major theories of the Eighteenth anonymous. Theyre identified only as A and B. It might be pre-
Century, which concerned the state of nature in which primitive sumed that B is Diderots representative, since he has a lot more
humanity was supposed to exist, and the noble savage who was to say. But as we shall see, this is not a safe presumption.
supposed to live in it. Rousseau had approached the idea of the The starting point of the dialogue is the purported speech of an
primordial state of man from a theoretical perspective; he aged Tahitian chief denouncing European intervention in native
hypothesised what primitive man would have been and how customs. It is a splendid piece of Rousseauesque rhetoric (Diderots
mankind had arrived at the civilized state he has now achieved. own speech is never rhetorical), and it provokes A to comment that
(Bear in mind those male pronouns; they will be relevant.) it sounds rather European. To this B replies that it was translated
Diderot, on the other hand, starts from a real example from Tahitian into Spanish and thence into French. He then adds
Bougainvilles description of Tahitian society. (However, rather that the chief gave the text to his translator Orou the night before

Brief Lives
he delivered it so that Orou could
translate it into Spanish in order Resolution & Adventure in Matavai Bay
that Bougainville could have the William Hodges, 1776
Spanish version in his hand while
the diatribe was being pronounced.
Even this start undermines the
nave idea of the noble savage.
Firstly, the translation of the
speech reminds us that the concept
itself has been filtered through
Western sensibilities by way of
translation that we see the noble
savage through European specta-
cles. Secondly, it suggests that the
noble savage is not so artless or
spontaneous as Rousseau would
have us believe, but is, for example,
perfectly capable of constructing
an appropriate speech in advance.
The bulk of the speech consists
of a dialogue between Orou and
Bougainvilles chaplain. The chap-
lain has been assigned to lodge with
Orou, and Orou offers him the choice of his three daughters or his and they give themselves to you. One suspects that the first part
wife as sexual partners. The chaplain protests in the name of his of the sentence is more accurate than the second. Diderot contin-
religion and his celibacy. Orous youngest daughter begs him to ually emphasises that the result of sexual freedom is pregnancy: in
oblige her, on the basis that her elder sisters both have children other words, that the man has only the pleasure, while the woman
and she has none, which embarrasses her. The chaplain yields, also suffers the consequences. On this model, living in a state of
while feeling guilty (he will later have sex with both other daugh- nature may be a far better option for men than for women.
ters, and, out of politeness, with Orous wife too). In the dialogue Moreover, if the ladies might be saying something other than
which follows Orou argues for his sort of morality, in which peo- they think, can we be sure that A and B are themselves expressing
ple make free choices in their relationships, whereas the chaplain their true thoughts? All that is lacking from this conversation is
is forced to admit that by contrast, Europeans make relationship the disclaimer: The views expressed in this dialogue are not nec-
promises which they do not keep. essarily those of the author or of the speakers.
However, in the middle of this dialogue, at the request of A, B
breaks off to recount the story of Polly Baker (as adapted from a True Philosophy
report by Benjamin Franklin). Initially seduced and impregnated Voltaire and Rousseau knew what they thought and tried to con-
by a local man, Polly Baker went on to bear five children out of vince others to think the same. Denis Diderot probably knew what
wedlock, whom she considered a benefit to New England, he thought; but in his later dialogues he puts forward different and
although she was regularly condemned in the courts. contending views, then subtly undermines them. This shows that
At the end of this dialogue it is suggested that A and B should Diderot was a philosopher a lover of wisdom in the truest sense.
join the ladies. The following exchange is interesting: He loved facts, and collected them for the Encyclopdie; but he also
explored ideas, recognising that unlike facts, they are not final, and
A: Suppose we read them the conversation between the chaplain and that people often omit to consider ideas that might contradict
Orou? their own. Rather than telling us what we ought to think, Diderot,
B: What do you think they would say about it? like Socrates, encouraged us to think for ourselves. He would, on
A: I really dont know. that basis, probably have sympathised with those who voted
B: And what would they think about it? against admitting him to the Panthon. In fact, he might well have
A: Perhaps the opposite of what they would say. voted with them.
MARTIN JENKINS 2017
Were suddenly reminded that the dialogue between Orou Martin Jenkins is retired community worker and Quaker in London.
and the chaplain, the bulk of the text, has been between two
males; that the only female voices which have been heard are A Note On Texts
those of Orous youngest daughter and of Polly Baker; and that Diderots philosophical dialogues are not readily available in
Polly Baker challenged a patriarchy which tolerated her seduc- English translation, with the exception of the Penguin Classics
tion but condemned her attempts to live with the results. Orou is edition of Rameaus Nephew and dAlemberts Dream. The most
also a patriarch. In respect of his women he says to the chaplain, convenient French edition is that of Jean Varloot, Le Neveu de
They belong to me, and I offer them to you; they are their own, Rameau et Autres Dialogues Philosophiques, by Folio Classique.

Lovely to see you Professor Tallis, to talk It doesnt, and in many ways we often
about your new magnum opus, Of Time think that clock time is the last word so
and Lamentation. What were your moti- that if I quarrel with the clock about how
vations for writing this book? much time has passed, then the clock in
Well, its part of a much bigger project. the end must be right. But of course, the
As a secular humanist, I feel Ive clock only measures quantity and time is
managed to liberate myself from super- much more rich and complex than that.
natural accounts of humanity, but the So the book first of all addresses the
alternative for many people is a natural- reduction of time to a quasi-spatial
istic account the idea that were just dimension, as in relativity theory, made
pieces of nature. One aspect of that is explicit in Minkowskian four-dimensional
the notion that the natural sciences are space-time. Ultimately this geometrises
ultimately going to give us a complete time, folding it into the geometry of
account, not only of the rest of the space and as a result much is lost. In the
universe, but of ourselves in it. Its this book, I examine how time seems to be
scientism that has been one of my targets reducible to t only if we somehow erase
over many years, and its one of the the observer, if we forget that in order for
drivers for writing this book about time. time to be measurable, it has to be
There are other motives. But the scien- measured by someone. So even on its
tific reduction of time to little t is a own terms, the physics of time gives an
very good example of where scientism incomplete account of its operations.
gets us, and its a rather dismal place. I want to put the human experience of
By t you mean representing time as a value

rather than as something real?
I mean as a pure quantity of a variable; as
time at the centre of time. Thats quite
difficult, because if you seem to say that
the very existence of time depends on
humanity, then youre rejecting an awful
Raymond
Tallis
a mere dimension, one of four dimen- lot of what we know from science, partic-
sions, the other three being space x, y, ularly that there was a temporal sequence
and z as a result of which our notion of of events before there was any conscious-
time is seriously impoverished. The ness, never mind human consciousness.
scientific account of time is of course The Big Bang came before the emer- Our columnist has just
extraordinarily useful. It has enabled us to gence of the planets, and the Earth came
predict physical events and control them before there was life, and life came before released a major book on
in a way we could not have imagined in a there was conscious life. So clearly time
prescientific age. The danger is that this antedates human consciousness. So Im the philosophy of time.
success leads us to believe that the physics not implying that physical time is internal
of time, or time as seen in physics, is the to human consciousness, because that
Grant Bartley interviews
last word on the subject that physics of would then put me in a very difficult him about Of Time and
time is its metaphysics as well. position in regards to what we know
Think about the things you can do to about the history of the universe. Lamentation.
t. You can multiply it by itself. You can
put it under another parameter as a How does the physicists mathematical
denominator, as when youre measuring picture relate to reality itself?
velocity [= d/t, Ed]. You can marry it up Thats a really interesting question and
to the speed of light to measure inter- one that I must address, because if Im
stellar distances, and so on. Now these saying that t isnt really the essence of
are the kinds of things you can do to time, Im claiming that the quantitative
time when its been stripped of all that approach to the world, although extraor-
we associate with it in human life. But dinarily effective, doesnt fully grasp
think of trying to put a bargain break reality. In the book I explore three views
weekend as a denominator, or multiply- of why mathematics has been so success-
ing a happy afternoon by itself. Its not ful in physics, and why physics has been
possible, and it makes you realise what such a powerful science. The first is that
has been stripped away from time when mathematics is just a very useful tool for
it has been reduced to t. dealing with a particular aspect of real-
ity, namely its quantities. The second is
So the scientific conception of time as a the much bolder claim that, essentially,
quantity doesnt relate to the human experi- mathematics is not a partial portrait of
ence of it? the world, but is the complete portrait of
Interview June/July 2017 Philosophy Now 51

the world, the most faithful portrait. with what seems at first sight the easiest existing are future events. Of Time &
And finally, there is industrial-strength one, which is the present. Lamentation discusses logical fatalism.
Pythagoreanism, which says essentially This derives from an interesting argu-
that the world consists of mathematical Is there a present, and if so, is it specious? ment by Aristotle that goes as follows:
objects. In the end I think Im with the To me the most specious notion is the either its true that there will be a sea
majority of physicists in seeing mathe- idea of the durationless instant, or atom battle tomorrow, or its true that there
matics just as an incredibly powerful of time. I think it was William James wont be a sea battle tomorrow. If one of
tool, giving quantitative answers to who pointed out that no-one would these statements is true, it must be true
quantitative questions. The world, spontaneously think that time was made already in which case, the future is
however, doesnt consist solely of quanti- of durationless instants. The instant, as already fixed. The question is, are we
tative answers to quantitative questions. A.N. Prior said, is purely a construct. logically stitched up? In other words, is
Mathematics is very powerful because it If you look at the present, at now, it the future already determined?
reduces places to decimal places, but is quite puzzling. Since Classical times, The way one deals with this is to
places arent decimal places; theyre people have said the present is the line look very critically at the assertions that
more than that. Those who think that between that which has not yet are made in the argument. The reality
the world consists of mathematical happened and that which has already is, when youre talking about a future
objects are making the famous mistake happened, and the line, as it were, has sea battle, youre not talking about any
of confusing the map and the terrain. no width. And if you look at time as seen actual event, youre talking about a class
by physicists, it is composed of unex- of possible events, and those events
Why do scientists so resolutely want to hang tended points. But the present isnt couldnt all be possible together,
onto time as a pure quantity, do you think? made out of durationless instants. Any because one sea battle might include
Its part of the whole project of physical given moment of consciousness is Able Seaman Jones dying and another
science from Galileo onwards, that it already reaching into the future and sea battle Able Seaman Jones not dying.
takes quantities to be the real deal, as it drawing on the past. This is something So clearly, the referent of the proposi-
were, and dismisses qualities as things that was made much of by phenomenol- tions in the argument couldnt be a real
that are merely of the mind and are not ogists such as Husserl, but I develop this event. But the future still has a reality in
fully real. Dont mistake me, I think idea to a greater degree. terms of present, stable, objects, and
physics is the greatest cognitive achieve- ongoing processes.
ment of humanity, and it has delivered Could you tell us what you mean by reaching To come back to the present, just as
many practical benefits for us in terms of into the future and drawing on the past? the present sometimes seems to be
life expectancy, health expectancy and so As Im looking at you now I recognise squeezed out by the past and the future,
on. But what it doesnt deliver is a your face. Your face makes sense to me the opposite danger is that the present
rounded account of even the material because of my past experience, and swallows up the other tenses. There is a
world, even less of the human world, the because of the reason weve come to strong philosophical movement called
world in which physicists live and do meet, which makes sense of what is presentism, which is the idea that only
their physics. Thats why the second part happening. The very intelligibility of the that which presently exists is real, and
of the book is devoted entirely to lived present draws on the past. But in addi- therefore there is only one tense, the
time. I look at the three tenses, past, tion, the intelligibility of the present present tense. But if the only reality
present and future, and also glance at arises from its being pregnant with were the present, then how could there
eternity as well, because I think thats whats going to happen next. Our being be things that are true of, or false of, the
quite interesting. I look at the tenses in here gives me a sense of whats going to past? How could I say truly that Socrates
turn, after defending tensed time against happen in the next few minutes, and was an Athenian, and say falsely that
the scientific claim that tenses are illu- beyond. The intelligibility of the present Socrates was an Englishman? If the past
sory, and against some philosophers who not only draws on the past, but also on has no reality, there can be no truths
think that tensed time is simply a by- the ongoingness of the present, of whats about it, because truth supervenes on
product of the relationship between going to happen next, and indeed, what being. So the past has its own reality,
language and the world. They think that is expected of me. and its a very complex reality. Theres
when were talking about the past were the past of direct recall, and then the
really talking about an event thats prior How do the past and the future relate to now? past of the whole lattice of facts that we,
to the statement that is being made. For This is one of the most interesting ques- the human race, curate collectively the
example, if I say that something tions: What is the status of tomorrow, past of history.
happened last week, what Im really today? What of tomorrow is here
saying is that that event happened a already? There are certain items that Does tensed time necessarily require a human
week before my present utterance. I definitely are here already. For example, observer, or a conscious observer at least?
dont think that reduction works, for all there are ongoing processes, thatll still Yes, it certainly does, but that doesnt
sorts of reasons that I discuss. So I be ongoing in five minutes time. There mean it has a second-rate type of exis-
defend tensed time against the philoso- is the room in which we are sitting, tence. It doesnt make it any more second
phers, and against the physicists, and which will be the furniture of tomorrow rate than colours, for example, which
then examine the tenses in turn. I begin as well as of today. What isnt already also depend on observers.
52 Philosophy Now June/July 2017 Interview

Raymond Tallis
Portrait by Gail Campbell, 2017

Does it make sense to ask about time itself co-exists in the space-time continuum, measure time. So we watch the clock
as opposed to a sense of time? which is nonsense, because that would hand moving, and we think thats time
I think thats the most difficult question, mean that opening the door and closing flowing.
and the most interesting one. I do the door were occurring at the same
explore it at great length, and in the time; or perhaps, not occurring at any If flowing isnt a good metaphor, what
end, I havent reached a resolution. But particular time, or (as Herman Weyl would be a good way of phrasing the change
let me throw out a few thoughts. It suggested) not occurring at all. or movement of or through time?
seems to me that the notions of earlier I can give you any number of bad
and later must presuppose conscious- What about an eternal experience? Is that metaphors: the idea of time as a growing
ness. Thunder isnt aware of being later idea coherent? block, time as a moving spotlight, and so
than the lightening. It doesnt connect The whole idea of eternity is a difficult on, but none of these work for all sorts
itself with the lightening. The thunder one. Both religious and non-religious of reasons which I go into in the book. I
occurs when it occurs, the lightening notions of eternity have lots of prob- think weve got to do without
occurs when it occurs, there is no lems. First of all, what is eternity? Is it metaphors. Basically, we scrape off the
earlier or later. There isnt a sequence everlastingness endless time or is it metaphors, and we see what were left
except when that sequence is observed timelessness? That ambiguity becomes with. Then we start by looking for some
by an individual who is linking the two particularly pressing when we think very pared-down, parsimonious defini-
events. If being earlier or later were a about people entering eternity, either at tion of time and actually, we fail again.
constitutive or intrinsic property of a particular moment, or at the end of Look at some of the definitions that have
events, then the world would be a real their lives because you then have to been given: time is our perception of the
mess, because each event would be enter eternity, which may be timeless, sequence of events; time is the direction
earlier than millions of events and later at a particular time, which is clearly a of causation; or time is that which
than millions of other events. So even paradox. And by the way, living in eter- permits change without contradiction so
earlier-and-later time so-called B- nity is a pretty bleak business, because in that I can say of you that youre in
Series time, as John McTaggart called it order for things to go on forever they London and youre in Edinburgh, and
does seem to require consciousness to mustnt change, and if theres no thats not a contradiction because youre
bring together two events, to locate change, nothing as messy as metabolism in London one time and Edinburgh
them in a temporal relation. Its much can happen, and nothing as messy as another. But if you look at all those defi-
easier to deal with tensed time: its needs can be felt. I dont think unbeliev- nitions, they end up being circular. For
perfectly obvious that past, present and ers like me are missing out on much. example, the one that says time is that
future do appear to require human which permits change as the world
consciousness. Having said that, we Do you not think it might make sense for cannot have two states at once, you have
know that there are objective sequences there to be a higher dimension of time from helped yourself to at once, a temporal
of events that took place before which you could see the flow of time? notion. The idea that time is our percep-
consciousness, as we discussed. So we This seems to invite the question: If tion of the sequence of events is even
have the problem of human time being time is flowing, how quickly is it flow- more obviously circular: the sequence is
contained if you like in physical time; ing, and what is it flowing in? And the a temporal sequence. Theres no non-
and physical time being extracted from answer is, Well, its flowing at one circular definition of time. This doesnt
the universe by human consciousness. second per second; and as for what its worry me, because the very fact that it is
This is a situation that Quine refers to as flowing in, it must be flowing in second- something real and sui generis [uniquely
reciprocal containment. order time. Very unsatisfactory. You of its own kind] means it cant be
cant have the kind of measure that has reduced to anything else.
In an observerless universe, could there still the same dimension on the numerator
be an order of events, but not in terms of a and the denominator [t/t], because they Maybe we can say we know what the move-
temporal order as we understand it? So you cancel each other out. Someone might ment of time is because we experience it?
could say that events are in spacetime say, So time doesnt flow: that must Im not too sure we do experience the
ordered in a particular sequence, but its mean that its static, and indeed, the movement of time. We notice events
only when you put a human being in that universe is static. The answer is no: just which are dynamic, and we also notice a
you get what we might call time? because something isnt flowing doesnt certain subgroup of events, which are
Maybe. It seems that if you try to remove mean to say its static. Likewise, just the movements associated with the
the human observer, and you try to because prime numbers arent very measurement of time with clocks. But
assume what Nagel called a view from nutritious doesnt mean that theyre a I dont think we have a direct experience
nowhere an impossible view, because it very poor source of nutrition. I believe of the movement of time in the way in
would be a view without a viewpoint it is a category mistake to think of time which we have a direct experience of
you would have the sum total of the as flowing or as static. So you may ask, movement in space. Rather, we experi-
space-time continuum. But one doesnt why do we find the idea of time as flow- ence that certain things happen at a
know what the space-time continuum is ing irresistible? Its because we project particular time; that certain things take a
in the absence of an observer. Some into time itself the dynamism of events, certain time; and that something
philosophers have said that everything including the events by which we happened before something else; and
54 Philosophy Now June/July 2017 Interview

Interview
that something was in the past and that if it didnt make sense to the agent. Basi- happens when nothing
other something was in the future. But cally, whenever I act, Im putting else happens. This is
theres nothing non-temporal, as it together a very large number of physical unhelpful, because essen-
were, that these things add up to. events that wouldnt have co-occurred if tially it assumes we can have
it hadnt been for the sense from the time in the absence of change and events.
Is time inextricably linked to change? past of what I want to do, and the sense And theres a whole pile of other defini-
Well there have been lots of thought of the coming future of what I want to tions of time. Their failure makes a
experiments imagining a world in which achieve. This is that not being identical Wittgensteinian approach to the defini-
all change stopped, including some very with the moment, which is, if you like, tion of time appealing. Nevertheless, I
cunning ones, involving somehow imag- an instantiation of Sartres notion of the resist the notion that time is a term that
ining that you can look at whats for-itself not being what it is and being refers to a cluster of concepts that may
happening in that world. If everything what it is not. have a family resemblance but dont add
stopped universally at once, then no-one up to anything in itself. Wittgensteins
could make observations, so Sydney How was your thinking about time influenced approach is more compelling when we
Shoemaker suggests we should imagine by the ideas of time of other horosophers, apply it to items such as games. His ques-
a situation where a third of the world such as Immanuel Kant, John McTaggart, tion was, what do the Olympic Games and
freezes periodically, and then another A.N. Whitehead or D.H. Mellor? Ludo have in common that makes them
third freezes periodically, and then the I found that Kants assumption that time both games? And his answer was, not very
third third of the world freezes periodi- was one of the forms of sensible intu- much, so were foolish to think that theres
cally, but they have a different periodic- ition wouldnt stand up against the fact something shared by all games that makes
ity of freezing, such that once in sixty that we know there are genuine tempo- them games, even if they do have family
years the whole world froze. The ques- ral sequences before human conscious- resemblances one to another. But I think
tion is, would there then be a change in ness. When it comes to McTaggart, I there is something corresponding to time.
time? And there are reasons for thinking disagree both with his rejection of Its not a mere construct out of the shad-
not. First of all, there would be no tensed time, and his use of that rejection ows cast by words. But its none of those
measures of changing time. Secondly, to deny the reality of time. D.H. Mellor things Ive just discussed. In my long look
there would be no way of determining was one of my favourite interlocutors, as at time I try to put together all the differ-
the period for which time is frozen: he writes so beautifully and succinctly. ent things we may say about time, all the
there would be no difference between We disagreed on tensed time, and I also ways of approaching it, and paint a
an instant and an eternity. So it would disagreed with his notion that time is portrait that does justice to its complexity.
seem that in some sense time is insepa- the causal dimension of space-time. I conclude that time is both real and irre-
rable from change but allowing for the ducible to other things. Im very much
fact that time is equally present in things Before I finally ask what is time, can I ask with Lee Smolin, who said that if
that are stable. you, what is time not? anything is absolutely fundamental in the
Having scraped off all the metaphors universe, it is time.
How is human freedom linked to time? and having restored living time, I say,
I think tensed time is absolutely central well, lets look at some definitions. One That brings us to the $64,000 question:
to human freedom. Creatures who live definition is, time is our perception of What is time, Professor Tallis?
and experience tensed time uniquely, the sequence of events; but that has Time is not reducible to anything else, and
human beings are not identical with the problems, as weve discussed. Secondly, therefore cant be captured in a definition.
physical moment that they are in. So as time is something that permits change. It has many aspects and it cannot be trans-
Im sitting here now, the very intelligibil- Here time is purely permissive for, as it lated into a mere dimension comparable to
ity of the experience Im having means I were, logical reasons: it allows some- length. Even those who deny the impor-
am to some extent rooted in my past, and thing to be both round and square by tance of its lived reality must accept that it is
reaching towards a future. And not being being round at one time and square at never going to be simple, never just one
identical with a particular moment in the another. But this definition assumes we thing. The most ardent reductionist has to
physical world is the very seed and source have the notion of time built in already: accept the difference between temporal
of our freedom. basically it says that object A can be red order, temporal duration and temporal
at time t1 and blue at t2. So weve location. This is evident when we consider
To me this links up with what Sartre said already used time in our definition. Also, real events. Agincourt occurred after the
about a human being being a for-itself and permissive time is dangerously close to Battle of Hastings; Agincourt lasted for a
not an in-itself, meaning that consciousness the idea that time itself is a cause. If time day; and Agincourt took place in 1415.
is a type of freedom from material reality. had causal efficacy, then every event Complexity beyond little t! PN
Theres certainly a link. But his view was would have two causes: one would be its
too general; I look at freedom more own private cause, of which it is an Grant Bartley edits Philosophy Now.
specifically, and in fact I look at real effect, and the other would be time. So
actions and real agency. Firstly, any real thats an overdetermination of causes. Raymond Talliss new book Of Time and
action has to make sense to the agent; Another definition is that, as Richard Lamentation: Reflections on Transience was
and secondly, it wouldnt have occurred Feynman jokingly said, time is what published in May 2017 by Agenda Publishing.

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Philosophy Incarnate
Sheldon Currie watches Socrates take on the modern academy.
A
reincarnated Socrates showed up needing work to sus- Commandments.
tain his eating and drinking habits, so he applied for a Okay. So what do the Commandments say?
job teaching philosophy at a modern university. Thou shalt not kill.
Not a lot of students interested in the liberal arts these days, But does it say, thou shalt not murder?
the Dean said. But we do have a small group on a course, and She thrust her hands out toward Socrates: Murder involves
yesterday the professor ran off with one of the secretaries. killing.
Where did you get your degree? Well, if you were a mother of two children and an intruder
Athens. got into your house and threatened to kill your husband and
Can we get a recommendation from your professor? abduct the two kids, and youve got a weapon and you kill the
I dont think so. Hes dead. intruder to prevent it, is that murder?
Our previous philosophy professor dropped dead himself I guess so. But its justified.
last year which is why we got his successor, who turned out to If its justified, its not wrong, then, is it?...
be a dedicated skirt hound. Ill tell you what: Well give you a This is frustrating, blurted out the young man in the cap.
short term trial contract. Renewable if it works out. Hows that? Is it? Socrates smiled. Good. So far so good. Lets con-
How short? tinue: If youre the commander of an army unit guarding the
Pretty short. Until the student evaluations. A few weeks. capital, and the Spartans attack, what do you do?
All right. I need the money. When do I start? The Spartans! You mean the football team? the baseball
Theres a class scheduled for this afternoon. This semester cap man answered.
the students are studying ethics, although what ethics has to do No. I mean the army.
with philosophy is beyond me. Ive got a PhD in Business. Ill You have to shoot them, maybe kill them if they keep coming,
introduce you. dont go away.
So. Is that murder?
This is your new teacher, Socrates, the Dean said, then left. Youre the teacher. You tell us. Thats your job.
A young man in the front row let his hand drift above his Yes. I am the teacher. And I am doing my job, asking you ques-
head and asked: Where you from, Soc? tions. Youre the students. Answer the question. Thats your job.
Athens. Im outta here. I got ball practice.
Wer zat? Okay, Socrates said. Thats all for today. Well try again
We get to zat later. But lets get started. Our topic today is next week.
murder. And well start with a question: Is murder wrong? If
so, why is it wrong? What do you think? Socrates stood in front of the Deans desk. The Dean read the
Another student, in a far corner of the room, in a baseball names on the piece of paper he held in his hands and asked:
cap with the peak pulled down to obscure his eyes, blurted out, Thats a list of all the students in your class on ethics?
Definitely wrong. Yes.
Does everybody agree? Twelve hands flew toward the ceiling. You failed them all? Why?
Okay. Why? Why is murder wrong? Please move your They didnt learn anything.
chairs to form a circle. Discuss the question Why is murder I interviewed each one of them. They said you didnt teach
wrong? Find an answer. Im going to take a break, if you dont them anything.
mind. Gods know, I need a drink. Ill be back for your answer Thats not true.
in twenty minutes. Sometimes in philosophy there are multi- They said you didnt answer any questions in class.
ple answers. Sometimes not. When you get the answer, or maybe It was them. They didnt answer any questions.
answers, appoint a spokesperson. What questions?
The questions I asked them.
Okay. Here we go. Whos doing the talking? Well, thats because you didnt give them any answers.
A tall young woman in short-shorts and a tank top raised her Thats true. Why should I give them answers?
hand and stood up with a face full of confidence. We decided So they could answer the questions.
on two answers, she proclaimed. First of all, no answer is nec- That doesnt make any sense.
essary. Everybody knows murder is wrong. Really. So what did you teach them?
Well, Socrates said, then everybody must know why. Or, I taught them what they dont know.
at least, somebody you, for example, must know, if everybody They already knew what they dont know.
knows. So. Why is murder wrong? Thats not true. But they do know that now. Thats a start.
Well... its in the Bible. The Commandments. If the students dont pass their courses, they wont come
Whats the Bible? back. Then theyll never know. And well be out of a job.
The book God wrote. Is that so? Thats a pity.
Oh. Which god? So, heres the thing, said the Dean. The students must
Theres only one God. pass, or the professor loses his job.
I dont think so. What about the gods of history, music, war, The students did not pass. Therefore the professor lost his job.
and, well, dozens more? SHELDON CURRIE 2017
Theyre all rolled up into one. Jesus. And He wrote the Sheldon Currie is a novelist and critic based in Nova Scotia.

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ISSUE 120 JUNE / JULY 2017 UK 3.75 USA $7.99 CANADA$8.

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