11-20-2008, 04:32 AM
The History of Western Philosophy-Bertrand Russel
History of Western Philosophy
http://www.scribd.com/doc/3054580/The-Hist...Bertrand-Russel
The Catholic Church was derived from three sources. Its sacred history was Jewish, its theology
was Greek, its government and canon law were, at least indirectly, Roman. The Reformation
rejected the Roman elements, softened the Greek elements, and greatly strengthened the Judaic
elements. It thus co-operated with the nationalist forces which were undoing the work of social
cohesion which had been effected first by the Roman Empire and then by the Roman Church. In
Catholic doctrine, divine revelation did not end with the scriptures, but continued from age to age
through the medium of the Church, to which, therefore, it was the duty of the individual to submit
his private opinions. Protestants, on the contrary, rejected the Church as a vehicle of revelation;
truth was to be sought only in the Bible, which each man could interpret for himself. If men
differed in their interpretation, there was no divinely appointed authority to decide the dispute. In
practice, the State claimed the right that had formerly belonged to the Church, but this was a
usurpation. In Protestant theory, there should be no earthly intermediary between the soul and
God.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->
Betrand Russell was an eugenist:
<b>
"The ideas of eugenics are based on the assumption that men are unequal, while democracy is based on the assumption that they are equal. It is therefore, politically very difficult to carry out eugenic ideas in a democratic community when those ideas take the form, not of suggesting that there is a minority of inferior people, such as imbeciles, but of admitting that there is a minority of superior people. The former is pleasing to the majority, the latter unpleasing. Measures embodying the former fact can therefore win the support of the majority, while measures embodying the latter cannot." ( from The Sanctity of Life and the Criminal Law)</b>
These are the words of Bertrand Russell, who is being quoted by Professor Glanville Williams. Williams is the Rous Ball Professor of English law at Cambridge University, a fellow of the English Eugenics Society, and, for the last twenty three years, head of the English Abortion Law Reform Association. What Williams is saying is that the elitist ideas of eugenics can come to power in democracies by encouraging attacks on minorities, much as Hitler came to power by scapegoating the Jews.
...
It's time to debunk the myth of this "grand philosopher"
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->