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Ideas That Have Harmed Mankind: Man's Unfortunate Experiences with His Self-Made Enemies
Including Sadistic Impulses, Religion, Superstition, Envy, Economic Nationalism, Pride, Racism, Sex Superiority, Creeds, And Other Evil Things.
- GenresPhilosophy
34 pages, Hardcover
First published May 31, 2011
About the author
Bertrand Russell
1,489 books7,528 followersBertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, OM, FRS, was a Welsh philosopher, historian, logician, mathematician, advocate for social reform, pacifist, and prominent rationalist. Although he was usually regarded as English, as he spent the majority of his life in England, he was born in Wales, where he also died.
He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1950 "in recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought."
He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1950 "in recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought."
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
September 1, 2021
A good reminder; we're a big family, and only tolerance, stability and education altogether can save us.
Some shining ideas to me:
* If somebody suffers, that person finds the right (easier) to make evil for others.
* The broken view of marriage due to broken view of men superiority over women causes men to earn their wives by forcing them to be more creative to *achieve* the wife, while the wife is getting dull by time. If this becomes common in a society, then well above the curve men can't find an equal interesting partner for themselves and become homosexual.
Some shining ideas to me:
* If somebody suffers, that person finds the right (easier) to make evil for others.
* The broken view of marriage due to broken view of men superiority over women causes men to earn their wives by forcing them to be more creative to *achieve* the wife, while the wife is getting dull by time. If this becomes common in a society, then well above the curve men can't find an equal interesting partner for themselves and become homosexual.
June 5, 2014
"Perhaps,though I scarcely dare to hope it,the hydrogen bomb will terrify mankind into sanity and tolerance. If this should happen we shall have reason to bless its inventors."
Who other than Russell will say these words.?!!
About the content..
In this text,Russell attempts to analyze the ideas that have harmed mankind. He says that ideas and principles that do harm are,as a rule,though not always,cloaks for evil passions. The matter with beliefs,especially when they are ancient and systematic and embodied in organizations,is that they have a greater power of delaying desirable changes of opinion and of influencing in the wrong direction people who otherwise would have no strong feelings either way. The harmful systems of beliefs he analyses are:
-religious or superstitious beliefs
-envy
-pride(of nationality,race,sex,class or creed)
-imagining themselves as special instruments of the Divine Will.
A few words about the text..
As an analysis of historical events and behavior of man throughout,this text offers a good view of what's wrong with the world. But the question is,is this all.? Are the cited ones the only problems.? NO. But as a beginning and in a general sense,this text is good enough as any.
Russell says that the feeling of sin and vindictive punishment are the causes of all these ideas or principles. He says that if the feeling of sin is eradicated,the amount of cruelty in the world would be greatly diminished. Hobbes and similar thinkers would have kicked Russell for saying this,but this solution seems good enough to me provided man isn't 'cruel,nasty and brutish'. As an analysis,the text is good. But the solution it offers seems to be from a completely ideal point of view.
Who other than Russell will say these words.?!!
About the content..
In this text,Russell attempts to analyze the ideas that have harmed mankind. He says that ideas and principles that do harm are,as a rule,though not always,cloaks for evil passions. The matter with beliefs,especially when they are ancient and systematic and embodied in organizations,is that they have a greater power of delaying desirable changes of opinion and of influencing in the wrong direction people who otherwise would have no strong feelings either way. The harmful systems of beliefs he analyses are:
-religious or superstitious beliefs
-envy
-pride(of nationality,race,sex,class or creed)
-imagining themselves as special instruments of the Divine Will.
A few words about the text..
As an analysis of historical events and behavior of man throughout,this text offers a good view of what's wrong with the world. But the question is,is this all.? Are the cited ones the only problems.? NO. But as a beginning and in a general sense,this text is good enough as any.
Russell says that the feeling of sin and vindictive punishment are the causes of all these ideas or principles. He says that if the feeling of sin is eradicated,the amount of cruelty in the world would be greatly diminished. Hobbes and similar thinkers would have kicked Russell for saying this,but this solution seems good enough to me provided man isn't 'cruel,nasty and brutish'. As an analysis,the text is good. But the solution it offers seems to be from a completely ideal point of view.
June 30, 2015
Nothing came out of Mr. RB were slip of tongue. He wrote the very essences of meaning in very deep and beautifully-crafted sentence.
This essay was a short one, but it covers a content of a thick book.
Anyone should read on of his book, at least one in their life time, or his essay.
This essay was a short one, but it covers a content of a thick book.
Anyone should read on of his book, at least one in their life time, or his essay.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews