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Elective English–I

Notes In other words, when viewed as being mental, a thought or idea may have associated with it
other thoughts or ideas that seem related even though, when viewed as being physical, they
have very little in common. As Russell explains, “In my mind, Caesar may call up Charlemagne,
whereas in the physical world the two were widely sundered” (CP, Vol. 7, 15). Even so, it is
a mistake, on this view, to postulate two distinct types of things (the idea of Caesar, and the
man Caesar) that are composed to two distinct substances (the mental and the physical).
Instead, “The whole duality of mind and matter, according to this theory, is a mistake; there
is only one kind of stuff out of which the world is made, and this stuff is called mental in one
arrangement, physical in the other” (CP, Vol. 7, 15).
Russell appears to have developed this theory around 1913, while he was working on his
Theory of Knowledge manuscript, and on his 1914 Monist article, “On the Nature of Acquaintance.”
Decades later, in 1964, he remarked that “I am not conscious of any serious change in my
philosophy since I adopted neutral monism” (Eames 1967, 511).
Russell’s most important writings relating to these topics include “On Denoting” (1905), “Knowledge
by Acquaintance and Knowledge by Description” (1910a), “The Philosophy of Logical Atomism”
(1918, 1919), “Logical Atomism” (1924), The Analysis of Mind (1921), The Analysis of Matter
(1927a), and Theory of Knowledge (CP, Vol. 7).

2.6 Russell’s Social and Political Philosophy

Russell’s social influence stems from three main sources: his long-standing social activism, his
many writings on the social and political issues of his day, and his popularizations of numerous
technical writings in philosophy and the natural sciences.
Among Russell’s many popularizations are his two best-selling works, The Problems of Philosophy
(1912) and A History of Western Philosophy (1945). Both of these books, as well as his numerous
books popularizing science, have done much to educate and inform generations of general
readers. Naturally enough, Russell saw a link between education, in this broad sense, and social
progress. As he put it, “Education is the key to the new world” (1926, 83). Partly this is due
to our need to understand nature, but equally important is our need to understand each other:
The thing, above all, that a teacher should endeavour to produce in his pupils, if democracy
is to survive, is the kind of tolerance that springs from an endeavour to understand those who
are different from ourselves. It is perhaps a natural human impulse to view with horror and
disgust all manners and customs different from those to which we are used. Ants and savages
put strangers to death. And those who have never travelled either physically or mentally find
it difficult to tolerate the queer ways and outlandish beliefs of other nations and other times, other
sects and other political parties. This kind of ignorant intolerance is the antithesis of a civilized outlook,
and is one of the gravest dangers to which our overcrowded world is exposed. (1950, 121)
At the same time, Russell is also famous for suggesting that a widespread reliance upon
evidence, rather than upon superstition, would have enormous social consequences: “I wish
to propose for the reader’s favourable consideration,” says Russell, “a doctrine which may, I
fear, appear wildly paradoxical and subversive. The doctrine in question is this: that it is undesirable
to believe a proposition when there is no ground whatever for supposing it true” (A1928, 11).

Still, Russell is best known in many circles as a result of his campaigns against the proliferation
of nuclear weapons and against western involvement in the Vietnam War during the 1960s.
However, Russell’s social activism stretches back at least as far as 1910, when he published his
Anti-Suffragist Anxieties, and to 1916, when he was convicted and fined in connection with
anti-war protests during World War I. Because of his conviction, he was dismissed from his
post at Trinity College, Cambridge. Two years later, he was convicted a second time. The

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