 Bertrand Russell Quotes 366 |
Philosophers are both effects and causes: effects of their social circumstances and of the politics and institutions of their time; causes (if they are fortunate) of beliefs which mould the politics and institutions of later ages. In most histories of philosophy, each philosopher appears as in a vacuum; his opinions are set forth unrelated except, at most, to those of earlier philosophers.
Source: Bertrand Russell: A History of Western Philosophy, 1945, preface.
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In recent years, rather than discussing philosophers in a vacuum, there has been an increase in the number of articles dealing with philosophical thought, including a fair amount of biographical information. But that wasn't the case in Russell's time.
This may be due to the fact that in the past, biographical facts about individual philosophers were not well known, but philosophers and others who believed that philosophical theories could be discussed regardless of the environment in which the philosopher was I imagine there were a lot of researchers there.
Russell's "History of Western Philosophy" (published in 1945) deals in detail with the historical, economic, social, and family environments of individual philosophers, which may have influenced their theories. This is an interesting history of philosophy to read. Some people, like the late Tatsuo Hayashi, criticize Russell's History of Western Philosophy harshly. However, the writing of this book... Along with On Marriage, it was one of the reasons Russell won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1950.