Journal Journal: Russell and Philosophy
Reading Russell is an attempt by an enthusiast to document his reading of some of Bertrand Russell's important works. What is interesting is that, he is doing this since 2007 and it is still ON!
I first saw the name Bertrand Russell while I was browsing through Odyssey bookstore, Indiranagar, B'lore. Later, I bought Russell's A History of Western Philosophy from DC Books. Those times, I had great curiosity for philosophical topics. By the phrase "those times," it sounds like it is a long time ago, but No it was less than one year. How quickly I lost interest in subjects. Hmmmm.. But when I started reading Russell's interpretation of Philosophy, I felt inadequate. He was unapproachable to me, I felt. The books is a run-down on the developments from the ancient times, i.e from the venerable Greeks to the modern philosophers of Russell's contemporariness.
As the title suggests, it focus exclusively with "western" philosophy. Russell believes that the philosophical systems of Asia is mixed with spirituality and religion, and as such maybe he believes it is not worthy of consideration. I myself know nothing about any kind of Philosophy, let alone Asian. But from my limited reading what I understand is: Asian philosophy tries to conclude things by taking things for granted (i.e they imagine stuff without proper proof) OTOH Western philosophy gets stuck in need for proof for further expansion, which is unlikely to be obtained.
Well, then I found Will Durant's excellent The Story of Philosophy the book is easier than Russell's by many notches. The aim of Durant's work is also the same Russell'sâ"a scan of western philosophy. One of the most insightful parts I found from the book is about the early Greek philosophers. From the current advanced state of our civilization, we look Greeks both as super intelligent and sometimes as idiots. Durant's work tell why both are true with excellent examples.
(To be continued...)
