Mysticism and Logic by Bertrand Russell (PDF)

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⭐I am still in the process of reading Bertrand Russell’s “Mysticism and Logic”, but I’m pleased with my selection of the book.Russell was a brilliant philosopher, logician, and mathematician who lived for nearly a century — into his upper 90s. He was also a fantastically talented writer, who won a Nobel Prize for literature. However, even though my agnosticism prevailed for over 15 years, I can no longer endorse Russell’s worldview (atheism/agnosticism). Yet, his book under review here is nevertheless worth my reading, because it contains many insights into human knowledge, the profound mysteries that perennially entice many thinkers, and the challenges for us to find a path through our lives that is meaningful and rewarding.Whether believer in a Divine Realm or a non-believer, my recommendation for the reading of Russell’s “Mysticism and Logic” prevails. The book is engagingly written, has its ideas reasonably and intelligently presented, and should be an enjoyable read for anyone who loves to encounter discussions of some of the most fundamental human concerns. By the way, the book consists of a composite of separte essays, most of which are unrelated to mysticism.

⭐An excellent collection of essays. Mysticism and Logic: you get a flash of insight, and then when this has passed you try to justify your belief with logic. It’s useful to have a vision that you attempt to carry out by diligent work, but the problem with a mystical revelation is that it might be wrong and then you will either waste your time or twist the facts to justify this belief in which you are certain. In this essay Russell also criticizes philosophy based on evolution. Philosophy should not care about whether reality is good or bad, because if we are sure that reality has to be good then we will do a worse job figuring it out. Russell argues that philosophy should be invariant with respect to time, rather than about things evolving in time.The Place of Science in a Liberal Education: science should be learned not because it’s useful directly but because it leads to good habits of thought, a better quality of mind. Education should endeavor to make us see the world as far as possible as it is in itself, rather than from the point of view of personal desire. To understand how the planets move, it is a hindrance to talk about the perfect shape for planets’ orbits and then try to show this is consistent with observation. Rather we should earnestly try to understand how they move, and maybe they will move in nice shapes, maybe they won’t.A Free Man’s Worship: how to live life without believing in God. How to live knowing that the universe does not have a purpose, rather we have to create out own purpose, and that cosmically we are imperceptibly small.The Study of Mathematics: mathematics teaches what ideal reasoning is, also teaches that there is some truth in which it is worth believing. Russell talks more specifically about why mathematics is a meritorious part of education, what math should be taught to those who do not intend to become mathematicians, and, in a general way, how it should be taught.Mathematics and the Metaphysicians: the philosophy of the infinite in mathematics, and the work of Cantor, Dedekind and Weierstrass.

⭐Will Durant, in his congenial The Story of Philosophy, describes Bertrand Russell as “…resolved to be hard-headed because he knows he can not be.”-This is a bit unfair, as it doesn’t really take into account Russell’s philosophy, merely the man. But the two are so hard to separate!-Basically, Russell believes that mysticism “is the inspirer of what is best in man.” But that it is absolutely muddle-headed and has lead mankind down numerous philosophic blind alleys in the past thousand or so years (I think anyone who has read Kant or Hegel can’t help but come to this conclusion).-University professors (especially those of Philosophy) are excepted from the previous parenthetical remark! -But I don’t guess Russell (a Nobel prize winner in literature, by the way) matters so much anymore: This book I’m reviewing is out of print, nobody else has reviewed it and I haven’t heard his name mentioned in highbrow discussions for many a year. He was a mathematical genius, wrote prose that could cut like a razor blade concerning the most abstruse subjects in a manner understandable to most laymen, and was a profound skeptic in re matters religious. This latter got him into all kinds of trouble with women’s societies and the like back in the earlier part of the century and actually got him fired from the City College of New York. So he packed his bags and went to teach at Harvard.-You see, he was a British aristocrat (an Earl) and all this rabble rousing by the hoi polloi was really a non-issue for him. In his autobiography, he recounts how his mother always told him, “Never follow a crowd to do Evil.” Russell never followed a crowd to do anything!-All this biographical elaboration is to help readers understand the man who wrote this book which, in a nutshell, praises the mystical impulse in its pure, unadulterated form while deploring the aforementioned philosophical muddles to which it leads, and, on the other hand, glorifies (justly) the English schools of empirical logic and the scientific progress to which they have lead. One can hardly look at this computer screen and deny this claim. All this in a lucid and thoroughly enjoyable prose. Yes, Russell has seen his days of celebrity come and go (as well as his days in general, one might add,) but if you chance by a wizened looking professor loaded down with heavyweight tomes on metaphysical systems, you might get a rather surprising response if you mention Bertie Russell. – In his day, Russell was the Mick Jagger of Philosophy, and coeds used to quarrel over who got to bed down with him that night when he came to lecture that the stuff a good proportion of their professors were teaching was, quite literally, nonsense.-And just think, he got away with it all! What fun!

⭐この本を読んだきっかけは、直観的知識を重視する哲学を説いたベルクソンに対して、論理的思考を重視した数学・論理学者ラッセルの対比を知りたかったことでした。ラッセルは、1918年に出版されたこの本で、ベルクソンの直観哲学を批判しています。恐らく、現代哲学者のほとんどは彼らの著書でベルクソンを引用していません。「哲学の名著12選」を書いた古田光氏の本(1972年)にもベルクソンは年表にその著書「創造的進化」出てくるだけです。その理由には、ベルクソンが提唱した「生の躍動(elan vital)」が分子生物学の登場で、同じフランス人のノーベル賞分子生物学者ジャック・モノによって批判されたこと、および、ベルクソンの神秘主義(Mysticism)にも起因しているのでしょう。ラッセルの英語は、私が約48年前の高校生の頃しばしばテキストに引用されたものでした。その頃は知りませんでしたが、ベルクソンは、ジャック・シュバリエとの「ベルクソンとの対話」のなかで、「バートランド・ラッセルは、ある日プラトンのイデアの全く唯物論的なかれの解釈をわたしが口頭で論駁したことを、けっして許そうとしなかった。わたしに復讐してかれは次のように言ったものだ。<<ベルクソンにとっては、進化とは、一方では知性でその最高峰に達するが、これは数学者において完全な発展に達し、もう一方の本能では、その最高峰は蜜蜂と蟻とそれからベルクソンに見られる。>>」(仲沢紀雄訳・みすず書房、1969年)と言っています。この本のタイトルにある「Mystcism」はベルクソンに代表され、「Logic」は著者自身に代表されそうです。我々の現実は、LogicとMathematicsに基づく「科学」がもたらした「技術」によって、「地球温暖化」と言う危機に瀕していますが、そのような危機をベルクソンは、彼の実質的に最後の著書「道徳と宗教の二源泉」のなかで、人類の「肥大化する脳」に対して、それに追いつて成長出来ていない「精神」の状況を警告し、このままでは人類は科学技術が創り出す危機に瀕するだろうと書いています。恐らくおおかたの読者は、「神秘主義」を非科学的として敬遠するでしょうが、私の観点からは、「神秘主義」がいまもそのままであるのは、一重に科学者が「神秘主義」を科学的に解明していないことに起因するものだと思います。その例を挙げてみますと、「魂の目方は21グラム」の話があります。これは100年余り前に米国の内科医が科学誌に発表した論文から来るもので、100年以上すぎた今でも、その真偽の結論が出ていません。科学者はこれを馬鹿げた話として、研究していないからです。恐らく、この本を読もうとされているあなたも同じような考えをお持ちかも知れません。しかし、「魂の目方」はさておいて、近頃の米国社会に見られる「多重人格者」に関して、これらの患者を治療した精神科医、セラピスト等の本を読むと、これらの多重人格者は、人格が変化すると、その心理学的性格は当然として、物理的な形相(顔、手、体の大きさ、足の長さ)が変化することを報告しています。これらの変化は、「魂の目方が21グラム」の比ではない物理的な変化を示唆しています。にも拘わらず、科学者は何らの関心を示していません。このような態度をスイスの心理学者ユングは科学者の「知的怠慢」と言いました。我々日本人にはなじみの、大槻義彦先生(「火の玉研究の先生」)や立命館大の安斎育郎先生(「イカサマ摘発協会の会長」)等も「イカサマらしき超能力者」の摘発には躍起ですが、このような問題には取り組んでいません。いずれこれらの問題の決着はつくと、私は考えています。「直観」を軽視したラッセルの、いわば弟子的な立場にあったウィトゲンシュタインは、彼の哲学ノートのなかで1931年に、「私は、哲学者は現実の認識に関して、プラトンの達した認識にすら近づいていない、と書いているのを読む。なんと不思議な状況であろうか。プラトンがあのような認識に達し得たというのは、何と驚くべきことか、あるいは、我々がそこまで達し得ないのはと言ってもいい。プラトンが驚くべき程の賢者であったのだろうか？」と書いています。私は、その理由は、「プラトンは直観を重視した思考を実践したであろうに、我々はあまりにも、Rational, Scientific, Mathematical, and Logicalな思考をするためで、自分の直観を信用していないし、それを活用するように教育されていないためであろう」と思います。プラトンの「アトランティス」の考えは、彼の直観哲学を示唆しています。

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