Bertrand Russell Books
The books of Bertrand Russell are frequently cited in research papers on philosophy, religion or even mathematics. As one of the most important thinkers of the 20th Century, Russell's books make interesting studies. Have the writer's at Paper Masters explicate your project in a custom research paper that explores Russell's writing.
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, historian, political activist and social critic. Over the course of his lengthy life and career, he wrote numerous books on a wide variety of subjects. A complete list of Bertrand Russell books is an exhaustive undertaking, and most essays on his life and career tend to focus solely on the major ones.
Indeed, Bertrand Russell's published output begin in 1896 with German Social Democracy, an examination of politics in that nation. It was written when he was teaching German social democracy at the London School of Economics. His last work, the final volume of his three-volume autobiography, appeared in 1969. In between, Bertrand Russell books span the entire Dewey decimal system.
- In 1897, he published his first mathematical treatise - An Essay on the Foundations of Geometry
- 1900 released Russell's Critical Exposition of the Philosophy of Leibnitz
- What I Believe - Bertrand Russell's defense of humanism, appeared in 1925
- Why I Am Not a Christian - published in 1927
With Russell's first three books, Bertrand Russell displayed the wide range of his genius. The later work has been especially controversial, as he questioned the historical existence of Jesus and claimed that religion was based primarily on fear.
Discuss the selection from Bertrand Russell's "Why I Am Not A Christian"
Why does he insist that Christianity is the "enemy of real morality"?
Russell's essay is actually more of a transcription of a lecture he gave in 1927, in which he refutes several of the then-prevalent arguments for the existence of God. The point of which, was to discuss his view about the non-existence of God based upon the inability of the Christian arguments for God's existence to hold up to scrutiny. Russell's case began with the "First-cause Argument" in which he counter-argued that if everything has a purpose and a cause, then it is only logical that God, too, has a cause and a creator, and ended with the observation that the foundation of religion, including Christianity, is one of fear. During the course of his discussion, Russell paid special attention to the issue of morality, calling Christianity's, and Christ's, "morality" into question, referring to the "Christian religion, as organized in its churches, has been and still is the principle enemy of moral progress in the world,".
The point Russell makes begins with a discussion of "The Moral Problem". The primary point is to question, if Christ was a moral being, then how could he have preached so intensely on the idea that anyone who did not kneel to him, was damned to everlasting punishment? Russell's argument is that a truly humane person would, instead of sowing fear into the world, would be more concerned with uplifting it. Therefore, a religion which supports the process of cutting off of one's own hand (if it is not to one's liking), and of witch burning, and Inquisitions, all in the name of saving humanity from Hell, seems more adept at creating cruelty and pain than actually uplifting people. Therefore, to Russell, Christianity, which had for so long sewn desperation, pain, and death into the daily lives of its believers, served more as the enemy of moral behavior than as a supporter.