Bertrand Russell Quotes
While it is true that science cannot decide questions of value, that is because they cannot be intellectually decided at all, and lie outside the realm of truth and falsehood. Whatever knowledge is attainable, must be attained by scientific methods; and what science cannot discover, mankind cannot know.
3rd Earl Russell of Kingston
Bertrand Russell, 1872-1970, British Philosopher & Reformer, Religion and Science, 1935
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3rd Earl Russell of Kingston
Much of modern science involves non-intuitive concepts that can rarely if ever be discovered using common sense. It was hard enough for most people to accept the notion of an infinite number, but now we know that there are many infinite numbers and they are all different form one another. Darwinian thinking was contrary to most learned thought of the day, and even much public opinion today. Even Albert Einstein had to struggle to comprehend the findings of Quantum Mechanics which are very non intuitive—one object can be in two different places at the same time. Meanwhile, most people are totally unaware that the world around is does not correspond to normal human intuition and common sense. Yet these are the same and only tools that we continue to use in making decisions about our society. And the fundamental truths of yesterday, the foundation of past thinking and glory, are the naïve simplifications and errors of today and become the superstitions of tomorrow.
The Latin means “the voice of the people is the voice of God.” See Alcuin if York {593018} for a quick history of the statement. Essentially, in science public opinion is irrelevant or at least should be. One of the major political issues in our society is whether ideology and/or public opinion should control policy and practice of scientific issues, methods, and practices.
Belief and/or ideology of even teh vast majority or the world has no influence on the vaidity and truth of science. A particualr scientific statement is true or not based an many factors, none of which have anything to do with beliefs, world views, custims, cultures, or religious doctrine.
Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell OM FRS was a British polymath, philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, writer, social critic, political activist, and Nobel laureate. Bertrand Russell was one of the most influential and widely known intellectual figures of the twentieth century. In 1950 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for his extensive contributions to world literature and for his “rationality and humanity, as a fearless champion of free speech and free thought in the West.“
