Controversial

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28618, 21 June 1958, Page 3

Controversial

Bertrand Russell’s Best: Silhouettes in Satire. Selected and introduced by Robert E. Egner. Allen and Unwin. 113 x PP-

Professor Egner has made a selection of witticisms on a variety of topics from Bertrand Russell's books and articles. The intention is to provide a delightful anthology rather than a guide to Lord Russell’s thought and the/ editor has succeeded in making' an entertaining book. Inevitably, though, we begin to feel that this selection is a quintessence of Russell’s ideas on social, religious and political questions. Themes and' thoughts from various books are gathered together and recurring preoccupations begin to stand out.

Lord Russell carries into a less certain age the oytlook of a nineteenth century progressive. His is not a historically minded outlook; it tends to make an absolute distinction between present critical and scientific methods and past error. There is no hint that present day arguments against, say, Aquinas are not absolutely different from sophisms that a medieval philosopher might have expected from his colleagues and students. The intention is. of course, different. Russell intends to attack religion. He succeeds in rendering impossible certain illogical ideas about religion held by some people, though, from his own rationalist standpoint, he is most effective when attacking ideas which claim to be rational. A student Christian group might ha”e an interesting discussion examining his attacks, finding out how far he reaches the essence of religion and how far he is limited by his premises. To go with him we need to have unquestioning x faith in the adequacy of reason. Can we then agree with him that “all faiths do harm”?

Perhaps it unfair to note a certain incompleteness in a book of witticisms. Wit is not usually complete truth but a paradoxically emphasised element of a truth. Yet it is significant that Russell, like Shaw, so often chooses a witty form for his most characteristic utterances. In the sections of this anthology psychology. religion, sex and marriage, education, politics and, .ethics are in turn illuminated by the play of his wit. He is equally brilliant on all. these topics and in each displays the same limitations and virtues: Sometimes a cynical note creeps in, but the general tone is one of humanity. It is cruelty and the abuse of power that most distress him, and the occasional cynical note is realty satire, anger that things are not better. A cynic accepts the situation that provides topics for his wit. This lack of real cynicism is demonstrated if we examine his bitterest remark, made more than once, that if man destroys himself with science it will be no bad thing. This possibility is less theoretical than it was and as soon as the possibility became real, Russeil was outstanding in trying to prevent it. If he would not reject the expression, one might say he is a man of great faith in humanity.

lessor Parkinson’s other formulations, also such as that the amount of time spent on any item of the agenda is in an inverse relationship to its importance; or that the more important is a guest at a cocktail party, the nearer he will be found to the centre of square E/7 at time H + 90. Indeed the professor admits himself that the truths revealed here are the work “not merely of an admittedly gifted individual but of a vast and costly research establishment.” There is no need to stress the importance for any executive to be aware of the most recent advances in such studies as how to get business done on a committee the way one wishes and how to organise the retirement of seniors who stand in the way of promotion. The professor’s researches on these and other related matters are brought together in this book, and made readily available for the first .time. Professor Parkinson, at present Raffles Professor of History at the University of Malaya, has provided out of his earlier experience with the War Office and Royal Air Force a fascinating analysis of the organisation of modern business and government offices. In explaining these profound and difficult matters, the professor was fortunate in securing the services of Osbert Lancaster,, No modern textbook is complete without numerous illustrations. This differs from the modern trend only fn that the illustrations are relevant to the text