 Bertrand Russell Quotes 366 |
The man who wishes to preserve sanity in a dangerous world should summon in his own mind a Parliament of fears, in which each in turn is voted absurd by all the others.
Source: Bertrand Russell: Nightmares of Eminent Persons, 1945, Introduction.
More info.: https://russell-j.com/cool/46E-INTR01.HTM
* a brief comment (Translated with DeepL.com)
How can it be 'irrational' to 'have a fear of terrible things'?
If you think so about it, you may not understand what Russell is saying. If you know what Russell means by "each fear should be taken in turn and voted as irrational by all other fears", then you might understand what he is trying to say.
So I asked ChatGPT to try it out. The following brilliant answer was provided.
'It is not irrational to have a fear of terrible things. Fear is a natural response to perceive danger and deal with it appropriately. However, in Bertrand Russell's text, the problem is that fear can become "excessive" and prevent us from making calm decisions and taking action.
Irrationality, in Russell's words, can be thought of as "a state in which individual fears are perceived as excessive in comparison with other fears, and the whole is out of balance". He argues that when all fears are present in the mind at the same time and in conflict with each other, it is 'irrational for certain fears to appear excessively large'.
Russell proposes a 'parliament of fears', which involves looking at all fears objectively and comparing them with each other, 'assessing the relative importance and reality of each fear'. This, he believes, will "enable calm and rational thinking, not dominated by excessive fear".
In short, fear itself is natural and necessary, but it is considered "irrational to allow fear to become so inflated that it blinds us to other important matters and realistic judgements."