Routledge Library Editions: Russell: The Spinozistic Ethics of Bertrand Russell (Hardcover)

Bertrand Russell s professional philosophical reputation rests mainly on his mathematical logic and theory of knowledge. In this study first published in 1985 however Kenneth Blackwell considers Russell s writings on ethics and metaethics and uncovers the conceptual unity in Russell s normative ethic. He traces that unity to the influence of Spinoza s central ethical concept the intellectual love of God and then evaluates the ethic which he terms impersonal self-enlargement . The introduction discusses the metaethical background to Russell s ethic and the difficulties inherent in Russell s view that ethical knowledge is not possible. The first section then examines Russell s writings on Spinoza from 1894 to 1964 dividing them into three periods the second part analyzes Russell s two interpretations of the main concept traces impersonal self-enlargement in Russell s own ethical writings and evaluates the ethic in relation to other ethical theories and on its own merits as a way of living . This book provides a foundation for a positive re-evaluation of Russell s status in the major philosophical field of ethics and will be welcomed by students of moral philosophy as well as those interested in Bertrand Russell s works.