/lit/ - Literature

>>22452740
>>22454702
>>22454665

>DEAR RUSSELL,

>I’m going to quarrel with you again. You simply don’t speak the truth, you simply are not sincere. The article you send me is a plausible lie, and I hate it. If it says some true things, that is not the point. The fact is that you, in the Essay, are all the time a lie.

>Your basic desire is the maximum of desire of war, you are really the super-war-spirit. What you want is to jab and strike, like the soldier with the bayonet, only you are sublimated into words. And you are like a soldier who might jab man after man with his bayonet, saying “this is for ultimate peace.” The soldier would be a liar. And it isn’t in the least true that you, your basic self, want ultimate peace. You are satisfying in an indirect, false way your lust to jab and strike. Either satisfy it in a direct and honorable way, saying “I hate you all, liars and swine, and am out to set upon you,” or stick to mathematics, where you can be true— But to come as the angel of peace — no, I prefer Tirpitz a thousand times in that role.

>You are simply full of repressed desires, which have become savage and anti-social. And they come out in this sheep’s clothing of peace propaganda. As a woman said to me, who had been to one of your meetings: “It seemed so strange, with his face looking so evil, to be talking about peace and love. He can’t have meant what he said.”

>I believe in your inherent power for realising the truth. But I don’t believe in your will, not for a second. Your will is false and cruel. You are too full of devilish repressions to be anything but lustful and cruel. I would rather have the German soldiers with rapine and cruelty, than you with your words of goodness. It is the falsity I can’t bear. I wouldn’t, care if you were six times a murderer, so long as you said to yourself, “I am this.” The enemy of all mankind, you are, full of the lust of enmity. It is not the hatred of falsehood which inspires you. It is the hatred of people, of flesh and blood. It is a perverted, mental blood-lust. Why don’t you own it.

Bertrand Russell BTFO scholastocmetaphysics in his history of western philosophy:

From Chapter XIII - Locke's Theory of Ideas:

>The third book of the Essay deals with words, and is concerned, in the main, to show that what metaphysicians present as knowledge about the world is purely verbal [...] All things that exist are particulars, but we can frame general ideas, such as "man," that are applicable to many particulars, and to these general ideas we can give names. Their generality consists solely in the fact that they are, or may be, applicable to a variety of particular things; in their own being, as ideas in our minds, they are just as particular as everything else that exists.

>Chapter VI of Book III, "Of the Names of Substances," is concerned to refute the scholastic doctrine of essence. Things may have a real essence, which will consist of their physical constitution, but this is in the main unknown to us, and is not the "essence" of which scholastics speak. Essence, as we can know it, is purely verbal; it consists merely in the definition of a general term. To argue, for instance, as to whether the essence of body is only extension, or is extension plus solidity, is to argue about words: we may define the word "body" either way, and no hann can result so long as we adhere to our definition. Distinct species are not a fact of nature, but of language; they are "distinct complex ideas with distinct names annexed to them." There are, it is true, differing things in nature, but the differences proceed by continuous gradations: "the boundaries of the species, whereby men sort them, are made by men." [...] This point of view was not generally accepted until Darwin persuaded men to adopt the theory of evolution by gradual changes. Only those who have allowed themselves to be afflicted by the scholastics will realize how much metaphysical lumber it sweeps away.

>>21964078
ok lets say 50 books a year, which is a feasible amount to read even for a modern person surrounded by distractions

500 books in 10 years
2500 books in 50 years
fuck, now ya got me thinking how im gonna die before i get the chance to read all the stuff i wanna read

also stop idolizing hitler you fucking psychos, you nerds... like i get its fun to be edgy but this mass murderer should not be the source for your values. try some bertrand russell instead.

in a letter to Bertrand Russell, DH Lawrence quoted a woman who had heard one of Russell's lectures:
>"It seemed so strange, with his face looking SO evil, to be talking about peace and love. He can't have meant what he said.

Is it really fair to judge an author's works based on their physical appearance and the characteristics of their face?

DH Lawrence's hilarious seething letter to Bertrand Russell:

DEAR RUSSELL,
I’m going to quarrel with you again. You simply don’t speak the truth, you simply are not sincere. The article you send me is a plausible lie, and I hate it. If it says some true things, that is not the point. The fact is that you, in the Essay, are all the time a lie.
Your basic desire is the maximum of desire of war, you are really the super-war-spirit. What you want is to jab and strike, like the soldier with the bayonet, only you are sublimated into words. And you are like a soldier who might jab man after man with his bayonet, saying “this is for ultimate peace.” The soldier would be a liar. And it isn’t in the least true that you, your basic self, want ultimate peace. You are satisfying in an indirect, false way your lust to jab and strike. Either satisfy it in a direct and honorable way, saying “I hate you all, liars and swine, and am out to set upon you,” or stick to mathematics, where you can be true— But to come as the angel of peace — no, I prefer Tirpitz a thousand times in that role.
You are simply full of repressed desires, which have become savage and anti-social. And they come out in this sheep’s clothing of peace propaganda. As a woman said to me, who had been to one of your meetings: “It seemed so strange, with his face looking so evil, to be talking about peace and love. He can’t have meant what he said.”
I believe in your inherent power for realising the truth. But I don’t believe in your will, not for a second. Your will is false and cruel. You are too full of devilish repressions to be anything but lustful and cruel. I would rather have the German soldiers with rapine and cruelty, than you with your words of goodness. It is the falsity I can’t bear. I wouldn’t, care if you were six times a murderer, so long as you said to yourself, “I am this.” The enemy of all mankind, you are, full of the lust of enmity. It is not the hatred of falsehood which inspires you. It is the hatred of people, of flesh and blood. It is a perverted, mental blood-lust. Why don’t you own it.
Let us become strangers again, I think it is better