Page 17 - DENG104_ELECTIVE_ENGLISH_I

Elective English–I Gowher Ahmad Naik, Lovely Professional University

Notes
Unit 2: A Free Man’s Worship by Bertrand Russell

CONTENTS
Objectives

Introduction
2.1 Introduction to the Author

2.2 Russell’s Work in Logic
2.3 Russell’s Work in Analytic Philosophy
2.4 Russell’s Theory of Definite Descriptions
2.5 Russell’s Neutral Monism

2.6 Russell’s Social and Political Philosophy
2.7 “A Free Man’s Worship”
2.8 Critical Analysis

2.9 Summary
2.10 Keywords
2.11 Review Questions

2.12 Further Readings

Objectives

After reading this unit students will be able to:
• Know about William Russel;
• Discuss A Free Man’s Worship.

Introduction

“A Free Man’s Worship” (first published as “The Free Man’s Worship” in Dec. 1903) is perhaps
Bertrand Russell’s best known and most reprinted essay. Its mood and language have often
been explained, even by Russell himself, as reflecting a particular time in his life; “it depend(s),”
he wrote in 1929, “upon a metaphysic which is more Platonic than that which I now believe
in.” Yet the essay sounds many characteristic Russellian themes and preoccupations and deserves
consideration—and further serious study—as an historical landmark of early-twentieth-century
European thought. For a scholarly edition with some documentation, see Volume 12 of The
Collected Papers of Bertrand Russell, entitled Contemplation and Action, 1902-14 (London, 1985;
now published by Routledge).

2.1 Introduction to the Author

Bertrand Arthur William Russell (b.1872 – d.1970) was a British philosopher, logician, essayist
and social critic best known for his work in mathematical logic and analytic philosophy. His
most influential contributions include his defense of logicism (the view that mathematics is in

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