 Bertrand Russell Quotes 366 |
It is only necessary that the desires actuating the conduct of individuals and groups should be compossible desires and not such as, by their very nature, involve the thwarting of others. It would not be by any means impossible to secure that this should be so, apart from comparatively unimportant exceptions. Men’s desires are not an immutable datum. They are affected by circumstances and education and opportunity. With the skills that we at present possess, and by the diffusion of the knowledge possessed by economists and sociologists, the more destructive passions could be relegated to a position no more important than that occupied at present by the passions which lead men to private murder. If this were done, the whole world could before long achieve a measure of contentment and a general diffusion of happiness such as has not been known since organized society began.
Source： Bertrand Russell: Human Society in Ethics and Politics, 1954, part II: The Conflict of Passions, chapter 1: From Ethics to Politics, n.1
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Every day the media reports on catastrophes, accidents and major incidents that are happening all over the world. When we see and hear about them, we may think that the present day is a terrible time. However, if we look back at the history of mankind, we can see that our knowledge has continued to increase due to the development of science and technology, and that, generally speaking, the level of happiness of mankind has also continued to increase.
If this is the case, then it seems reasonable to expect that the level of human happiness will continue to increase in the future, probabilistically speaking, due to advances in science and technology and the expansion of mutual understanding through international exchange.
Human moods can be optimistic or pessimistic, but in good moods it is not unreasonable to hope, as Russell did, for one's descendants or for humanity, even though one will probably die in the near future.
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