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The Religious Aspect of Bertrand Russell's Philosophy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2011

R. F. Alfred Hoernlé
Affiliation:
Harvard University

Extract

A philosophical argument is the attempt to record and communicate a vision. Or, if this phrase appears to fasten upon the philosopher the stigma of a mere visionary, let me say an intellectual perception—intellectual, because what he perceives is not even mainly made up of sense-data; perception, because it shares the directness and the self-sufficiency with which the sheer quality of sounds and sights comes to him. In speaking thus of vision or intellectual perception, I have no intention of setting up any antithesis between seeing and thinking or reasoning, nor do I mean to deny that the most comprehensive and penetrating philosophical visions are achieved, I might almost say built up, only through a toilsome process of reflection and argument. I use vision in the wide sense in which even thinking is a way of seeing, is indeed essentially the effort to see things as they are. There is no need to quote authorities, however great. My appeal is to the whole tradition which, from the earliest days of philosophy, has drawn from the eye and from its medium, the light, the language for expressing the way in which philosophical truth strikes upon the mind.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1916

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References

1 Mysticism and Logic; Hibbert Journal, vol. xii, no. 4, p. 781.

2 Mysticism and Logic; Hibbert Journal, vol. xii, no. 4, p. 782.

3 Our Knowledge of the External World (hereafter quoted as “Lowell Lectures”); lect. 1, passim.

4 Spencer Lecture on Scientific Method in Philosophy; Oxford, 1914.

5 Philosophical Essays; II, III.

6 Hibbert Journal; vol. xi, no. 1, pp. 46–62.

7 Philosophical Essays; pp. 60, 61.

8 Ibid. p. 69.

9 Philosophical Essays; p. 69.

10 Philosophical Essays; p. 62.

11 Ibid. p. 64.

12 Philosophical Essays; p. 66.

13 Ibid. p. 70.

14 Ibid. p. 74.

15 Ibid. p. 73.

16 Ibid. p. 71.

17 The Free Man's Worship, a Consideration of Mr. Bertrand Russell's Views on Religion; Hibbert Journal, vol. xii, no. 1, pp. 47–63.

18 The Essence of Religion; Hibbert Journal, vol. xii, no. 1, p. 59.

19 Philosophical Essays; p. 68.

20 The Essence of Religion; p. 62.

21 Ibid. p. 57.

22 Ibid. p. 62.

23 Ibid. p. 62.

24 Philosophical Essays; p. 66.

25 The Essence of Religion; p. 62.

26 The Essence of Religion; p. 60.

27 Ibid. p. 47.

28 Ibid. p. 51.

29 Ibid. p. 46.

30 Ibid. p. 46.

31 The Essence of Religion; p. 49.

32 Ibid.

33 Spencer Lecture; Oxford, 1914.

34 Lowell Lectures; p. 27.

35 Philosophical Essays; p. 61.

36 Hibbert Journal; vol. xi, p. 47.

37 Hibbert Journal; vol. xi, p. 46.

38 Philosophical Essays; p. 64.

39 Hibbert Journal; xi, p. 46.

40 Ibid. p. 47.

41 Ibid. p. 47.

42 Hibbert Journal; xi, p. 49.

43 Hibbert Journal; xi, p. 50.

44 Problems; p. 34.

45 Ibid. p. 39.

46 Lowell Lectures; p. 42.

47 Ibid. p. 77.

48 Ibid. p. 83.

49 Ibid. p. 77.

50 Lowell Lectures; p. 82.

51 Ibid. p. 83.

52 Problems of Philosophy; p. 29.

53 Lowell Lectures; p. 74.

54 Ibid. p. 82.

55 Lowell Lectures; p. 82.

56 Vol. xvi, no. xxxvi-4 (Aug. 1914).

57 The Essence of Religion; p. 48.

58 Problems of Philosophy; p. 244.

59 Problems of Philosophy; p. 246, (summarized).

60 Ibid. p. 249.

61 Ibid. p. 247.

62 Ibid. p. 249.

63 Mysticism and Logic; Hibbert Journal; vol. xii, no. 4, p. 787.

64 The Essence of Religion; p. 60.

65 Problems; p. 249.