I've been especially hard on dear old Bertie Russell on this blog but he did say some things which were spot on, true and a useful explanation of certain phenomena, such as that comment you made:
“A stupid man's report of what a clever man says can never be accurate, because he unconsciously translates what he hears into something he can understand.”
― Bertrand Russell, A History of Western Philosophy
Which explains, quite literally, everything you've ever said about anything, even the things I've said that weren't especially clever but only obvious and rather mundane reasonable conclusions.
Quote mining Russell? I'm guessing it was found on a website.
ReplyDeleteLame. Really lame. The lowest form of appeal to authority.
Oh, I've got the book, my ancient paperback copy that's been decaying on my bookshelf for a while now. I look at it once in a while to remind myself of how he could also be a hatchet man. Though, yes, I did find it online.
ReplyDeleteI was actually looking for his quote to the effect that what a silly person thinks can be interesting but it can't be important when I came across this one.
Believe me, if you knew who I was addressing you'd know how apt it is to the sap. Though it would be an odd appeal to authority to dress him down as I was admitting that sometimes he could make a good point. I've quoted from his History of Western Philosophy to poke fun at the use of Occam's razor in the pop-Sagan inspired way. come to think of it I could have riffed off of the old quip he attriuted to Duns Scotus in the book, how when he was having supper with the king or something the guy asked him what separated a Scot from a sot and he is supposed to have said, "Only a table."
Russell's book reminds me, in a way, of Virgil Thomson's "American Music Since 1910" in which you can pretty much tell who he envies and who he resents and who he's friendly with by how he presents them. I wouldn't call either of them a major composer or a major philosopher but both of them could make a valid point when they didn't let their personal bias get in the way.
I misread your post and thought the Russell quote had been used against you.
DeleteI'm doing that a lot lately. I can guess who you were "corresponding" with. I was rather surprised that person would quote Russell.
That alone should have made me re-read the post and think again about it.
Continuing (I do this more and more, too), I have a copy of Russell's history; haven't cracked it in years.
DeleteIt still tickles me that he has to admit Aquinas was no slouch, even as he wants to discredit everything Aquinas believed. In that he's a more eloquent version of the New Atheist, but at least he knows Aquinas, which is more than can be said for his modern counterpart.
Yeah, it's not a bad book, but it's one to set aside ASAP. Other than for the odd applicable quote now and again.
I should probably have made my intent clearer. I doubt the guy I got slammed by ever read anything by Russell, not even the quote mined quotes which neo-atheists post not realizing how ironic it is that they're the ones using it.
ReplyDelete