Organic life, we are told, has developed gradually from the protozoon to the philosopher, and this development, we are assured, is indubitably an advance. Unfortunately it is the philosopher, not the protozoon, who gives us this assurance.
Interpretation
This quote critiques the idea that human evolution is unequivocally an advance, highlighting the subjective nature of such assessments.
Bertrand Russell's quote reflects on the evolution of organic life, emphasizing that the notion of progress from protozoa to philosophers is primarily constructed by the philosophers themselves. This perspective prompts us to question the validity of declaring any stage of development as superior, suggesting that such judgments may be biased and self-serving, as they arise from a more advanced but possibly flawed viewpoint.
In practice
In a discussion about scientific advancements and their impact on society, this quote could highlight the subjective interpretation of progress.
St. Paul introduced an entirely novel view of marriage, that it existed primarily to prevent the sin of fornication. It is just as if one were to maintain that the sole reason for baking bread is to prevent people from stealing cake.
Freedom comes only to those who no longer ask of life that it shall yield them any of those personal goods that are subject to the mutations of time.
Of these austerer virtues the love of truth is the chief, and in mathematics, more than elsewhere, the love of truth may find encouragement for waning faith. Every great study is not only an end in itself, but also a means of creating and sustaining a lofty habit of mind; and this purpose should be kept always in view throughout the teaching and learning of mathematics.
At all times, except when a monarch could enforce his will, war has been facilitated by the fact that vigorous males, confident of victory, enjoyed it, while their females admired them for their prowess.
Moreover, the attitude that one ought to believe such and such a proposition, independently of the question whether there is evidence in its favor, is an attitude which produces hostility to evidence and causes us to close our minds to every fact that does not suit our prejudices.
Extreme hopes are born from extreme misery.
...let us continue to work together to develop and nurture in future generations a culture of human rights, to promote freedom, security and peace in all nations.
I've come to think that's what heaven is- a place in the memory of others where our best selves live on.
The cause and root of nearly all evils in the sciences is this-that while we falsely admire and extol the powers of the human mind we neglect to seek for its true helps.
Democracy is when the indigent, and not the men of property, are the rulers.
Politics disappears; it vanishes. What remains constant is human life. So I try to develop a perspective in my writing where politics is just one of the pieces of furniture in this furnished world. It is not the purpose. It is not the goal.
I don't know why I still find it so hard to accept that words are faulty and by their very nature innacurate
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