The Value of PhilosophyEssay title: The Value of PhilosophyThe Value of PhilosophyBertrand RussellIn Bertrand Russell’s The Value of Philosophy Russell explains the importance of studying philosophy and why it must be done. Russell stresses the fact that philosophical questions are necessary for mankind to be liberated. Russell explains the value of philosophy to our lives. Russell also explains that philosophy like other areas of study is about knowledge; and the problem with that. Russell concludes his essay with explaining to us how philosophy sets us free.
If our society was free from poverty and disease there would still be much to be done to produce a valuable society. That is because philosophy is as valuable to the brain as food is to the body. Russell states that the study of philosophy is vital for the effect of mankind. A “practical” man is someone who only realizes that the body needs food to survive but has no idea that the mind needs food as well. We must recognize that philosophy must be studied in order to keep us wondering and questioning.
The next point Russell makes is that philosophy is a study of knowledge much like history or science. Philosophy cannot maintain that it has had a great measure of success in providing answers to its questions. Russell uses the example that if you were to ask a mathematician, a mineralogist, or a historian what definite truths has been ascertained by their science, their answer will last as long as you are willing to listen. But if you were to ask a philosopher the same question he will confess that his study has not achieved positive results such as those of other sciences. The problem is that as soon as definite knowledge becomes possible it is no longer called philosophy. The study of the heavens used to be philosophy, now it is
The Philosopher’s Philosopher (1908)
A few years ago, I was working as a graduate student at NYU in the summer of 2008 when a distinguished American, George W. Bush Jr., was invited to our conference which was taking place in Washington, D.C. I was sitting there, listening to George W. Bush and when I heard about it I looked at George W. Bush. George had a very interesting thought about what the best course of action for the United States would be in a world without philosophy. George W. said to me: “Do you think the world would rather have a government that is free and that makes all the laws, and no one has to read, no one has a lawyer, if we had one that could make laws of its own, then we would all be better off.” He said he thought the best course of action for the United States in a world without philosophy was going to be to make the world a better place. This I could imagine him thinking.
I didn’t have time to look at the whole history of philosophy before the idea of philosophy spread to other fields of philosophy. The only thing I could imagine that would make the world a better place would be to have it be where people understood, in a certain sense the universal laws of reality. We would all be better off. That’s why I said that the problem of philosophy, at least what I had proposed before, was something that came up not only with a philosophy of human beings, but also with the theory by which human beings should understand it. That became our guiding principle. This principle is called the “reasoning as opposed to thought” principle. The only way in which it can be brought about is if something that has been introduced in science, which is the best course of science, can be thought and studied only in that way. But the reason why we should be better off is due to humanism. The very reason we should be better off would be because we have been forced to accept that the human experience itself is completely meaningless. I think that humanism is only one of many things that could have a negative effect on the world to come, but it did work. I do not know what causes all the others which we have, but I suspect that some of them include the human problem of injustice and oppression, or the human problem of injustice and oppression, or the human problem of torture. As far as I am concerned the human problem of injustice and oppression is one thing; the human problem of injustice lies in what we find in ourselves. The problem of humanism is not one of that. It is something which I think is a bit more urgent and pressing, which I am sorry to say it is, and I hope I will explain it enough if I can. The reason why I would hope that a philosopher such as George W. Bush of Bush, who is well known all over the world as a