Scott Bradford: Off on a Tangent

Bertrand Russell

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) was a British mathematician, logician, and philosopher. He is considered one of the founders of analytic philosophy, which emphasizes formal logic and mathematics more than other philosophical methods.

I cannot see how to refute the arguments for the subjectivity of ethical values, but I find myself incapable of believing that all that is wrong with wanton cruelty is that I don't like it.
Russell on Ethics
Nine-tenths of the activities of a modern Government are harmful; therefore the worse they are performed, the better.
The Problem of China
No nation was ever so virtuous as each believes itself, and none was ever so wicked as each believes the other.
Justice in War-Time
Organic life...has developed gradually from the protozoon to the philosopher, and this development, we are assured, is indubitably an advance. Unfortunately it is the philosopher, not the protozoon, who gives us this assurance.
On the Scientific Method in Philosophy
Philosophy seems to me on the whole a rather hopeless business.
Letter to Gilbert Murray
The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.
Mortals and Others
When people begin to philosophize they seem to think it necessary to make themselves artificially stupid.
Theory of Knowledge

Scott Bradford is a writer and technologist who has been putting his opinions online since 1995. He believes in three inviolable human rights: life, liberty, and property. He is a Catholic Christian who worships the trinitarian God described in the Nicene Creed. Scott is a husband, nerd, pet lover, and AMC/Jeep enthusiast with a B.S. degree in public administration from George Mason University.