Theology and science occupy their own territory. All definite knowledge belongs to science, all dogma as to what surpasses definite knowledge belongs to theology. Between theology and science there is No Man’s Land, exposed to attack from both sides. For that the philosophy is present. The No Man’s Land is philosophy.
Then he added, “Philosophical conceptions are a product of two factors: one, inherited religious and ethical conceptions; the other, the sort of investigation which may be called ‘scientific’.”
Bertrand Russell who was born in 1872, he himself was a British philosopher as well as mathematician, logician, historian, writer, and social critic.
In this book, which was firstly published in 1945, Russell divided the philosophy chronologically into three parts: Ancient Philosophy, Catholic Philosophy and Modern Philosophy. This book is a widely read and influential philosophical history as we can see the conceptions of life and the world from the figure of philosophers in their days.
We can see why Russell more admired Plato’s imagination but favored Aristotle’s logic and realism. We can know why the Pope and Emperor lost their importance during the fifteenth century, and why Spinoza –according to Russell– was a greater philosopher but less influential than John Locke, etc. etc. not yet mentioning Descartes, Leibniz, Rousseau, Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, Marx, John Dewey and many other names in this book.
Throughout the long development, from 600 B.C. to the present day, philosophers have been divided into those who wished to tighten social bonds and those who wished to relax them. Nevertheless, philosophy has always to pursue the truth and rational understanding, grounded in logic and evidence.
Bertrand Russell was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1950.
This book is interesting and worthy to read, but, it’s quite heavy, though.
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Serpong, 27 Jun 2025
Titus J.
