Book Review: Principles of Social Reconstruction by Bertrand Russell

 

Principles of Social Reconstruction is a compilation of lectures written by Bertrand Russell in 1915 and delivered the very next year.  Based on eight chapters this book covers themes of growth, state, war, property, education, marriage, religion and the potential of the human race.

Russell says that ‘without understanding and sympathy it is impossible to find a cure for the evil from which the world is suffering’.  He further adds that all human activity springs from the two sources: impulse and desire. Russel thinks that men not only need material goods, but more ‘freedom, more self-direction, more outlet for creativeness, more opportunity for the joy of life, more voluntary co-operation, and less involuntary subservience to purposes not their own. The author says that public opinion is largely created by the state with the help of oratory and the influence of the press. Moreover, he adds that ‘public opinion is as great an enemy to liberty as tyrannous laws’.  Both for internal; and external affairs the worst enemy of freedom is considered war by Russell.

In the third chapter war as an institution is discussed. Power or wealth are the two objects identified by Russell, which are desired by groups which make war. Russell believes that a ‘large proportion of mankind have impulse to conflict rather than harmony. This is same in the case of private lives and relation of states. In this chapter a suggestion is provided which says: “If the world is to be saved, men must learn to be noble without being cruel, to be filled with faith and yet open to truth, to be inspired by great purposes without hating those who try thwart them’.

In the chapter on property the author says that political institutions can play an important part by helping ‘individual creativeness, vigor, vitality, and the joy of life’. Russell opines that the evils in the current system result from the difference in the interest of consumer, producer and the capitalist. Chapter five of this book is on education. The author says: “Education is, as a rule, the strongest force on the side of what exists and against fundamental change: threatened institutions, why they are still powerful, possess themselves of the educational machine, and instill a respect for their own excellence into the malleable minds of the young”. He espouses that education should provide children with the knowledge and mental habits required for forming independent opinions. Russell says that ‘almost all education has a political motive.’ Preserving independence and impulse is more needed than instilling obedience and discipline by a teacher, says Russell. More money should be spent to secure teachers with more leisure and natural love of teaching. In addition to that the author says that men fear thought more than anything else on earth.

In chapter six the author addresses the question of marriage as a political institution. More and more women find motherhood unsatisfying, more and more there comes to be a conflict between their personal development and the future of the community, says the author. Russell states that: “It is the combination of love, children, and a common life that makes the best relation between a man and a woman. In chapter on religion and the churches, he is not in favor of professional priesthood. He is of the view that curiosity is the primary impulse out of which the whole edifice of scientific knowledge has grown. A reconciliation of instinct, mind and spirit is essential for men to remain whole. It is instinct that gives force, mind that gives the means of directing force to desired ends, and spirit that suggest impersonal uses for force of a kind that thought cannot discredit by criticism. He concludes chapter seven by saying that for those people who once enter the world of thought, it is only through spirit that happiness and peace can return.

In the last chapter titled ‘what can we do’ Russell explores the insecurities and possibilities of man on this planet. He says that ‘it is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents men from living freely and nobly’. In the same chapter he further states that: “Education, marriage, and religion are essentially creative, yet all three have been vitiated by the intrusion of possessive motives”.  Russell is of the view that economic systems play an important role in promoting or destroying lives. According to him, after slavery, the present industrial system is the most destructive of life that has ever existed.

In this compilation of essays Bertrand Russell argues that impulse has more effect than conscious purpose in crafting men’s lives. Life built on creative impulses, according to him is the best life. Liberation of creatives should be the principle of reform both in politics and in economics. This conviction led Russell to the writing of these lectures.