Mysticism and Logic


Book Description




Mysticism and Logic


Book Description




Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays - The Original Classic Edition


Book Description

A contradictory sort of fellow - Will Durant, in his congenial The Story of Philosophy, describes Bertrand Russell as '...resolved to be hard-headed because he knows he can not be.' This is a bit unfair, as it doesn't really take into account Russell's philosophy, merely the man. But the two are so hard to separate! Basically, Russell believes that mysticism 'is the inspirer of what is best in man.' But that it is absolutely muddle-headed and has lead mankind down numerous philosophic blind alleys in the past thousand or so years. He was a mathematical genius, wrote prose that could cut like a razor blade concerning the most abstruse subjects in a manner understandable to most laymen, and was a profound skeptic in re matters religious. This latter got him into all kinds of trouble with women's societies and the like back in the earlier part of the century and actually got him fired from the City College of New York. So he packed his bags and went to teach at Harvard. You see, he was a British aristocrat (an Earl) and all this rabble rousing by the hoi polloi was really a non-issue for him. In his autobiography, he recounts how his mother always told him, 'Never follow a crowd to do Evil.' Russell never followed a crowd to do anything! All this biographical elaboration is to help readers understand the man who wrote this book which, in a nutshell, praises the mystical impulse in its pure, unadulterated form while deploring the aforementioned philosophical muddles to which it leads, and, on the other hand, glorifies (justly) the English schools of empirical logic and the scientific progress to which they have lead. One can hardly look at this computer screen and deny this claim. All this in a lucid and thoroughly enjoyable prose. Yes, Russell has seen his days of celebrity come and go (as well as his days in general, one might add, ) but if you chance by a wizened looking professor loaded down with heavyweight tomes on metaphysical systems, you might get a rather surprising response if you mention Bertie Russell. In his day, Russell was the Mick Jagger of Philosophy, and coeds used to quarrel over who got to bed down with him that night when he came to lecture that the stuff a good proportion of their professors were teaching was, quite literally, nonsense. And just think, he got away with it all! What fun!




Russell on Religion


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Russell on Religion presents a comprehensive and accessible selection of Bertrand Russell's writing on religion and related topics from the turn of the century to the end of his life. The influence of religion pervades almost all Bertrand Russell's writings from his mathematical treatises to his early fiction. Russell contends with religion as a philosopher, as a historian, as a social critic and as a private individual. The papers in this volume are arranged chronologically for optimum coherence of the development of Russell's thinking and are divided into five main sections: * Personal statements * Religion and Philosophy * Religion and Science * Religion and Morality * Religion and History. Students at all levels will find this a valuable insight into Russell's thought on religion.




TechGnosis


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TechGnosis is a cult classic of media studies that straddles the line between academic discourse and popular culture; it appeals to both those secular and spiritual, to fans of cyberpunk and hacker literature and culture as much as new-thought adherents and spiritual seekers How does our fascination with technology intersect with the religious imagination? In TechGnosis—a cult classic now updated and reissued with a new afterword—Erik Davis argues that while the realms of the digital and the spiritual may seem worlds apart, esoteric and religious impulses have in fact always permeated (and sometimes inspired) technological communication. Davis uncovers startling connections between such seemingly disparate topics as electricity and alchemy; online roleplaying games and religious and occult practices; virtual reality and gnostic mythology; programming languages and Kabbalah. The final chapters address the apocalyptic dreams that haunt technology, providing vital historical context as well as new ways to think about a future defined by the mutant intermingling of mind and machine, nightmare and fantasy.




Mysticism and Logic


Book Description

Russell explains his theory of logical atomism in 10 brilliant essays, which include popular treatments of religious and educational issues as well as more technical examinations of problems of logic.




Mysticism and Logic


Book Description

Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays is a collection of essays written and edited by Nobel Prize winning author Bertrand Russell. Russell was a heralded British philosopher, historian and mathematician, as well as a well-published author, and is considered one of the great minds of the 20th century. In this collection, Russell challenges romantic mysticism while promoting a logical and mathematics-based approach to interpreting the world around us. The collection opens with one of Russell's most well known essays, Mysticism and Logic, in which the author explains his worldview and the need for logic when interpreting life. Nine more essays follow this one, and touch on a range of topics including mathematics, life and death, plurality, the nature of existence, intelligence, and science's role in a liberal education. The first five essays of this collection are "entirely popular" according to Russell, whereas the final four are "somewhat more technical." Despite this disclaimer, the layman will still find these essays readable. Russell writes with a clarity and voice that is rare amongst philosophers. Indeed, his work is some of the most accessible of the important philosophical musings of recent times. While technical and precise, the author still writes in a popular style that will appeal to all readers. His words are insightful and moving, and will resonate deeply with the contemplative reader. Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays is one of the great philosophical works of modern times. It is a must read for all those who enjoy philosophy, mysticism, and logic. Russell has achieved a great feat with this book, and it is one that should be read and digested by all. Highly recommended. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.




Sophie's World


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A page-turning novel that is also an exploration of the great philosophical concepts of Western thought, Jostein Gaarder's Sophie's World has fired the imagination of readers all over the world, with more than twenty million copies in print. One day fourteen-year-old Sophie Amundsen comes home from school to find in her mailbox two notes, with one question on each: "Who are you?" and "Where does the world come from?" From that irresistible beginning, Sophie becomes obsessed with questions that take her far beyond what she knows of her Norwegian village. Through those letters, she enrolls in a kind of correspondence course, covering Socrates to Sartre, with a mysterious philosopher, while receiving letters addressed to another girl. Who is Hilde? And why does her mail keep turning up? To unravel this riddle, Sophie must use the philosophy she is learning—but the truth turns out to be far more complicated than she could have imagined.




Mysticism And Logic And Other Essays


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This book is a result of an effort made by us towards making a contribution to the preservation and repair of original classic literature. In an attempt to preserve, improve and recreate the original content, we have worked towards: 1. Type-setting & Reformatting: The complete work has been re-designed via professional layout, formatting and type-setting tools to re-create the same edition with rich typography, graphics, high quality images, and table elements, giving our readers the feel of holding a 'fresh and newly' reprinted and/or revised edition, as opposed to other scanned & printed (Optical Character Recognition - OCR) reproductions. 2. Correction of imperfections: As the work was re-created from the scratch, therefore, it was vetted to rectify certain conventional norms with regard to typographical mistakes, hyphenations, punctuations, blurred images, missing content/pages, and/or other related subject matters, upon our consideration. Every attempt was made to rectify the imperfections related to omitted constructs in the original edition via other references. However, a few of such imperfections which could not be rectified due to intentional\unintentional omission of content in the original edition, were inherited and preserved from the original work to maintain the authenticity and construct, relevant to the work. We believe that this work holds historical, cultural and/or intellectual importance in the literary works community, therefore despite the oddities, we accounted the work for print as a part of our continuing effort towards preservation of literary work and our contribution towards the development of the society as a whole, driven by our beliefs. We are grateful to our readers for putting their faith in us and accepting our imperfections with regard to preservation of the historical content. HAPPY READING!




Justice in War Time


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