 Bertrand Russell Quotes 366 |
The young men in Plato’s dialogues show a devotion to philosophy which depends upon financial security and a smoothly running household of slaves. Lord Melbomne, whose conversation at Holland House, as recorded by Greville, is still fascinating in its breadth of culture, and who endured with such civilized fortitude the Byronic extravagances of his wife, derived the income which made his merits possible from the torture of children in coal mines. We must therefore admit that slavery and social injustice have, in the past, served a useful purpose in the development of civilization
Source: Bertrand Russell: Human Society in Ethics and Politics, 1954, preface.
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* a brief comment: original text in Japanese, translated with DeepL.com (free version)
Some may be quick to wonder whether Russell appreciated an aristocracy that was based on slavery even today. Russell was an aristocrat, but Russell himself wrote many times that the aristocracy in England should be abolished.
What Russell is trying to say is twofold: that ancient Greek philosophy, such as Plato's, is something to be appreciated, but we need to recognize that in the economic standards of the time, it was only possible because of slavery. In today's economic standards, this would mean that slavery is unnecessary and an abomination. Of course, even back then, if I were a slave in those times, I would consider slavery to be an abomination.