Bertrand russell portraits from memory and other essays

Idealism is broadly understood as the contention that ultimate reality is immaterial or dependent on mind, so that matter is in some sense derivative, emergent, and at best conditionally real.

Translate this page from English Print Page Change Text Size: T T T Critical Societies: Thoughts from the Past Critical Thinking, the Educated Mind, and the Creation of Critical Societies… Thoughts from the Past Commentary by Linda Elder and Rush Cosgrove The critical habit of thought, if usual in society, will pervade all its mores, because it is a way of taking up the problems of life.

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Men educated in it cannot be stampeded by stump orators They are slow to believe. They can hold things as possible or probable in all degrees, without certainty and without pain. They can wait for evidence and weigh evidence, uninfluenced by the emphasis or confidence with which assertions are made on one side or the other.

They can resist appeals to their dearest prejudices and all kinds of cajolery. Education in the critical faculty is the only education of which it can be truly said that it makes good citizens. William Graham Sumner, Leo Tolstoy, A critical society is a community of people who value critical thinking and value those who practice it.

It is a society continually improving. Its most distinguishing characteristic is its emphasis on thinking as the key to the emancipation of the mind, to the creation of just practices, to the preservation and development of the species.

Unfortunately there are no critical societies in the world. Nor have there ever been. The idea represents an ideal not yet achieved, a possibility not yet actualized.

There is no culture on earth where critical thought is characteristic of everyday personal and social life.

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On the contrary, the world is filled with superficiality, prejudice, bias, distortions, lies, deception, manipulation, short sightedness, close-mindedness, righteousness, hypocrisy, on and on, in every culture in every country throughout the world.

These problems in thinking lead to untold negative implications - fear, anxiety, sadness, hopelessness, pain, suffering, injustices of every imaginable kind. Yet humans have great capacity for rationality and reasonability.

The history of human accomplishments, achievements and contributions well documents this fact. But for the most part this capacity must be developed, actively, by the mind. It is our second, not our first, nature. What is more natural to the mind, what comes first in terms of human tendencies, and often takes precedence, is an orientation focused on self-gratification, self-interest, self-protection.

This perspective is innate, and many would say, necessary for survival. Still it leads to many problems and ultimately stands as a barrier to the development of fairminded critical societies. To envision a critical society, imagine a world in which problems are routinely solved through reasoning based on openmindedness and mutual respect, rather than vested interest and power.

Imagine a world which protects maximum freedoms and liberties, a world free from hunger and homelessness, a world in which people work to understand the viewpoints of others, especially those with whom they disagree.

Imagine a world in which people are encouraged to think for themselves, rather than mindlessly conform. There has never been a more important time in history to foster and develop critical societies. Whether and the extent to which we do will directly depend on our ability to solve the complex problems before us, to follow out the implications of our actions, to develop and use our collective intelligence in doing so.

To fix the problems looming before us, there is one thing we must get command of — our thinking.Portraits From Memory And Other Essays Bertrand Ressell. Paperback. CDN$ Next. Customers who bought this item also bought. Page 1 of 1 Start over Page 1 of 1. This shopping feature will continue to load items.

Critical Societies: Thoughts from the Past

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Portraits from Memory and Other Essays [Bertrand Russell] on initiativeblog.com *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. The Death of the Moth. Moths that fly by day are not properly to be called moths; they do not excite that pleasant sense of dark autumn nights and ivy-blossom which the commonest yellow-underwing asleep in the shadow of the curtain never fails to rouse in us.

A primary source is a work that is being studied, or that provides first-hand or direct evidence on a topic. Common types of primary sources include works of literature, historical documents, original philosophical writings, and religious texts.

Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, OM FRS (/ ˈ r ʌ s əl /; 18 May – 2 February ) was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, writer, social critic, political activist, and Nobel laureate.

At various points in his life, Russell considered himself a liberal, a socialist and a pacifist, but he also admitted that he had "never been any of these.