[Originally published on October 25, 2010, not one word different, but a better photo of Mr. Russell has been substituted.]
My wife didn’t laugh when I read her the following excerpt from Bertrand Russell’s 1909 essay, “Pragmatism,” but I did, and I hope you might too:
The legitimate conclusion from [William James’s] argument [that if we don’t have the necessary information for deciding between, for example, “God exists” and “God doesn’t exist,” we ought to choose one anyway in order to have a 50% chance of being right] would be that, in such cases as William James has in mind, we ought to believe both alternatives; for in that case we are sure [emphasis mine] of “knowing” the truth in the matter. If it were said that to believe both is a psychological impossibility, we would rejoin that, on the contrary, it is often done, and that those who cannot yet do it need only to practice the “will to believe” until they have learnt to believe that the law of contradiction is false – a feat which is by no means as difficult as it is often supposed to be.Who said philosophy couldn’t be a barrel of laughs?
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Another passage a page further down:
To go about the world believing everything in the hope that thereby we shall believe as much truth as possible is like practicing polygamy in the hope that among so many we shall find someone who will make us happy.Bertrand Russell was a great writer. Did you know that he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1950? Well, he was. “...in recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought.”
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Of course people can willingly, even cheerfully, believe in contradictions: just look at the Catholic Church's definition of the Trinity (one God, three persons, etc.). The best way to believe in contradictions, or in something one doesn't really believe in, is just to continuously state and restate one's belief. Thus all the people who go on and on about their faith in Jesus but say nothing about their faith in gravity or combustion engines. Bertrand Russell's finest contribution, in my opinion, is in mathematics. His "Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy" is one of my five favorite books. He delves into issues everyone else takes for granted, like why must the counting numbers occur in a certain order. The answer is different than you might think! And "Russell's Paradox" was pivotal in exposing the limitations of set theory, a "new math" that looked for a time as if it might consume every other. Thank you for a bit of Russell this morning!
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your arch observation that continuous statement of religious belief (and don’t forget the “God is great” mantra) calls that supposed belief into serious question. So do continuous attempts to proselytize others, whose main purpose is to find securer shelter among a growing number of supposed believers.
DeleteMany have heard Will Durant's summation of Aristotle's statement that "These virtues (Nichomachean Ethics) are formed in man by his doing of the actions", to wit: That "we are what we repeatedly do". This applies to vices as well-and if one considers blind faith a vice, then the repetitions described are designed specifically to bind us to dogma. I am minded of the Apostles' Creed, which we were to repeat regularly in church: "I believe in God the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth, and in His son Jesus Christ, our Savior...." While I didn't find the quote hilarious it reeks of wry humor!
ReplyDeleteThinking on this minds ME how light and freed I felt, that Sunday morning in my seventeenth or eighteenth year, about to partake solemnly of the ritual repetition of the words of the Eucharist, when I somewhat trepidatiously, but nevertheless firmly, decided, NO, I WILL NOT!
ReplyDeleteAnything we can believe, we can unbelieve or undo…or believe in addition to whatever else there is or isn’t.
ReplyDeleteContradictions are like chaos: the natural state of the universe. After all, people can love more than one person at a time—romantically, sexually, or anything else. And in quantum physics, a single particle can travel in (at least) two (even opposite) directions at the same time.