Bertrand Russell, “The Value of Philosophy”
2 responses, every reading response will consist of two parts. The first part consists of a section outlining what you took to be the main point(s) of the assigned reading. The second part consists of a section outlining something you found interesting/confusing/problematic and a discussion of why you found it to be that way. These responses are to be no less than one page (double spaced) and no more than two pages in length.
topic one ..
Bertrand Russell, “The Value of Philosophy”
In this selection, Bertrand Russell draws attention to many aspects of philosophy that he finds especially valuable. He begins by pointing out that philosophy is different from other fields in that it does not typically have direct effects on the world and society in general. Instead, philosophy influences the lives of the people who study it and, thus, has an indirect effect on the world. Thus Russell encourages us to look at what effects philosophy has on the lives of those who study it to ascertain the value of philosophy.
There are three aspects of philosophy that are especially valuable. First, philosophy is valuable because it is a “good of the mind.” Russell points out that even if we lived in a society utterly without poverty and without any sort of suffering due to lack of financial and physical resources, there would still be much to do to improve society. We need more, as a society, than the mere necessities that help to sustain biological life. We also need food for the mind, and that is what philosophy can help give.
Second, philosophy helps to keep alive a certain “speculative interest” in the universe that would otherwise be missing from our lives. Because philosophy rarely (if ever) gives definitive answers (and even when it does come up with definitive answers in a particular field, that field ceases to be part of philosophy), it is a field that is quite different from other sciences, which do give definitive answers. Were we to remain satisfied with those answers that could be had definitively, we would lose the wonder and awe that philosophy helps keep alive. This, according to Russell, would be an unfortunate loss.
Finally, philosophy helps break us of a sort of dogmatism that would otherwise overtake our minds. Because philosophy is so uncertain, studying it encourages us to question every aspect of our lives, and not merely accept the dictates of custom and habit. As a result, we become freed from certain prejudices. Because the questions that philosophy studies are so wide-ranging and because its methodology is supposed to be so impartial, it helps us to escape our own private worlds by encouraging us to contemplate the whole world from a completely different perspective.
Overall, Russell maintains that philosophy is to be studied for the sake of the questions that it asks, and not for the sake of attaining definite knowledge of any particular topic. The greatness of the questions that philosophy studies helps to make our minds great, too.
Prompts
1) Explain why and in what respect Russell thinks that philosophy is importantly different from other fields of inquiry.
2) How does Russell argue that philosophy is a “good of the mind”?
3) According to Russell, what is the value of “speculative interest” and how does philosophy help keep it alive?
Multiple-Choice Questions
1. According to Russell, science is valuable primarily for…
a. Its effects on mankind in general.
b. Its effects on the student.
c. The technology it produces.
d. None of the above.
2. Which of the following best characterizes what Russell means by the “practical man prejudice”?
a. Overlooking the value of philosophy
b. Taking science to be the only valuable subject to study
c. Overlooking the fact that the goods of the mind are as important as the goods of the body
d. Taking philosophy to be the only valuable subject to study
3. According to Russell, philosophy aims at which of the following types of knowledge?
a. The kind that gives unity and system to the body of the sciences
b. The kind that results from a critical examination of the grounds of prejudices and beliefs
c. All of the above
d. None of the above
4. According to Russell, philosophy doesn’t give definite answers to its questions because…
a. As soon as definite knowledge is possible the subject ceases to be called philosophy.
b. Part of the value of philosophy is its uncertainty.
c. The kinds of questions it asks must remain insoluble.
d. (a) and (c).
5. According to Russell, the “man who has no tincture of philosophy”…
a. Takes the world to be definite, finite, and obvious
b. Contemptuously rejects unfamiliar possibilities
c. Goes through life imprisoned by local prejudices
d. All of the above
6. Which of the following isn’t a reason Russell offers as to why philosophy is valuable?
a. It increases our knowledge as to what may be
b. It keeps alive our sense of wonder
c. It allows one to rationally defend one’s personal aims
d. Contemplating philosophical subjects enlarges one’s Self
7. According to Russell, what is the problem with philosophies that assimilate the world to Man?
a. They aren’t actually philosophies
b. They impair any attempt at forming a union between the Self and not-Self
c. They diminish our feeling of certainty
d. There is no such problem, according to Russell
8. For Russell, the “free intellect”
a. Will see without a here and a now
b. Values abstract and universal knowledge
c. Disvalues knowledge in which one’s personal history factors
d. All of the above
9. According to Russell, a benefit of making one’s mind accustomed to freedom and impartiality is…
a. That one will become more free and impartial in the world of action and emotion.
b. That one will be more employable.
c. That one will be better fit to find out the Truth in all philosophical matters.
d. That one will be able to recognize right from wrong.
10. Philosophy, for Russell, is to be studied…
a. For the sake of finding definite answers to questions of human interest.
b. For the sake of the questions themselves.
c. For the sake of finding the answers one needs to go on in this world.
d. For the sake of improving the world.
True/False Questions
1. According to Russell, what makes science valuable is different from what makes philosophy valuable.
2. Russell holds that philosophy is valuable because of the answers it gives one to questions of human interest.
3. For Russell, man is the measure of all things.
4. A benefit of studying philosophy, according to Russell, is that it frees one from one’s circle of private interests.
5. Russell contends that philosophy does not involve uncertainty, despite common thought.
Topic 2
Saint Thomas Aquinas, “The Existence of God”
Aquinas’s main tasks in this selection are (1) to present and reply to two objections against the existence of God, and (2) to articulate five ways to prove that God exists. The two objections are as follows: First, it might be argued that if there were something infinitely good, there wouldn’t be anything bad. And because there are obviously bad things, there must not be anything infinitely good. Second, it might be argued that everything in the world can be accounted for on the basis of natural phenomena even if we accept that God doesn’t exist. Aquinas gives us reason to think that these two objections are mistaken, but to understand his reasons, we need to see his articulation of five ways to argue for the existence of God.
The first way is by appealing to the fact that things in the world change. Because everything that changes is made to change by something else, and this process cannot go on to infinity, there must be a first cause of change. This is God.
The second way is by noticing that there are efficient causes in the world. Because nothing can be its own efficient cause, and there cannot be a change of efficient causes that goes on to infinity, there must be a first efficient cause.
The third way appeals to modal considerations. Aquinas points out that if a thing exists contingently, there must have been a time at which it did not exist. But then if everything were contingent, there would have been a time at which nothing at all existed. If that were true, though, there would be nothing in the world now, because nothing can begin to exist without being brought into existence by something else. Because there clearly are things that exist in the world now, there must be some being that is not contingent—some necessary being.
The fourth way appeals to the fact that some things in the world are more or less noble or true or good. For there to be degrees of some quality, there must be something that is the noblest or the truest or the best. That thing is God.
Finally, the fifth way appeals to the fact that even things that lack consciousness appear to act for a purpose. But because they lack consciousness, we need some conscious being that provides their purpose and directs them. This intelligent being is God.
We can now see how Aquinas responds to the two objections mentioned earlier. Against the first objection, Aquinas points out that God might allow bad things to happen if he could bring good out of them. And against the second objection, he again points out that because we must trace everything that changes back to something that doesn’t change, we can’t after all explain everything in the world without appealing to God.
Prompts
1) Why does Aquinas think that a series of causes cannot go back to infinity?
2) Reconstruct and evaluate Aquinas’s argument that if everything could fail to exist, then there would have been a time at which nothing existed.
3) Why does Aquinas think that we can’t explain everything merely in terms of natural phenomena?
Multiple-Choice Questions
1. According to the ontological argument, God exists because…
a. No ontology could be complete without including a being that necessarily exists.
b. God is that than which nothing greater can be meant, and if God didn’t exist, He wouldn’t be greatest.
c. God exists in thought.
d. God by definition necessarily exists.
2. Against the ontological argument, Aquinas argues that even if God means “that than which nothing greater can be thought”…
a. This doesn’t do anything to guarantee that God exists in anything more than thought.
b. There could still be things greater than God that exist.
c. God still must exist, because there must be a first efficient cause.
d. None of the above.
3. The first objection to God’s existence states that by God we mean something infinitely good, and…
a. Nothing could be infinitely good, so God doesn’t exist.
b. This isn’t the only way someone could define God, so God doesn’t necessarily exist.
c. God’s existence is thus inconsistent with there being bad things in the world, so God can’t exist.
d. God must precede the notion of goodness, and this would be a contradiction, so God doesn’t exist.
4. Central to Aquinas’s first argument for God’s existence is the claim that…
a. Something can change itself
b. Whatever undergoes change must be changed by another thing
c. Actuality and potentiality are the only real properties something can have
d. There is no real change
5. According to Aquinas, why can’t something be its own efficient cause?
a. Because then it would be prior to itself, which is impossible
b. Because series of causes can’t back to infinity
c. Because then there would be no first efficient cause
d. None of the above
6. According to Aquinas’s third argument, why must God exist?
a. Because something must exist of necessity
b. Because otherwise there would be a time when nothing existed
c. Because otherwise nothing could exist now
d. All of the above
7. For Aquinas, there must be something maximally true, good, and noble, because…
a. God must exist.
b. There are a limited number of things in the world.
c. There must be something by which to measure gradations of goodness, truth, and nobility.
d. All of the above.
8. According to Aquinas’s fifth argument, God must exist because…
a. Things that lack consciousness still act with purpose, and they need something to direct them.
b. God is the greatest entity, and to be the greatest entity, God must exist.
c. Arrows must be directed by archers.
d. Objects within nature have no purpose.
9. Which of the following best characterizes Aquinas’s response to the objection that God can’t exist because there is evil in the world?
a. Since God is supremely good, He would only allow evil to exist if He could bring good out of it
b. In order for good to exist, evil must exist
c. God is infinitely good
d. None of the above
10. According to Aquinas, we must trace purposeful acts back to a cause higher than human reason and will because…
a. Humans are created by God.
b. These can change or go out of existence.
c. Everything in nature works for a definite end.
d. None of the above.
T/F Questions
1. Aquinas rejects the ontological argument for the existence of God.
2. According to Aquinas, it is impossible that something that undergoes change to cause that change.
3. According to Aquinas, something can be its own efficient cause.
4. Aquinas holds that it is an open question whether or not God exists.
5. For Aquinas, it is possible that something come into existence from nothing.
