Pihlanto Pekka 
16 Human-Oriented Arguments Against Russell

Call for a Human-centred Philosophy

In many cases, I was of different opinion with Russell. In the last chapter called "The Value of Philosophy", it became clear, why. Russell wrote that many philosophers (wrongly) see the human being as the ultimate measure for everything, and that the truth is created by human being. According to my own starting point, the human actor should be kept in the centre of all scientific and philosophical endeavours - as well as in everyday life. I even suggested that we need a more human-centred philosophy. 
 

An Impression of "Objectivity" and Methodological Strictness 


Russell's approach seems to favour natural scientific approach, which doesn't take the human actor seriously. In accord with this, Russell often tries to give an impression of "objectivity" and methodological strictness - more than, in my opinion, would be possible when considering philosophy from the human point of view. Russell considers philosophy as an endeavour dealing with truth and the limits of knowledge and knowing, but truth and knowledge are always for somebody, a human actor, i.e. they cannot exist without some human subject. 
 
 

Change of Attitude in the Last Chapter(s)

Russell changes, however, his style and attitude in the last chapter, in which he fathoms the value of philosophy. His approach isn't any more as strict and natural scientific as it used to be. In contrast, he writes almost like a meditation guru, and he admits openly how little "truths" philosophers are able to offer. Also in the former chapter dealing with the limits of philosophical knowledge, his style and argumentation differs remarkably from the earlier chapters, in which he tended to give a strict picture of his philosophy. 
 
 

The Holistic Individual Image as a Point of Reference

Be it as it may, this reading task was most enjoyable, even if in many cases I couldn't agree with Russell's arguments - or perhaps exactly for this reason. Very often I used the holistic individual image (that I also dealt with in some previous reading tasks) as a point of reference, in order to present my human-oriented view that was different from Russell's. On the basis of this approach I presented some practical and human oriented philosophical comments to Russell's text. 

 

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Asko Korpela 20050217 (20050217) o  o AJK kotisivu o Russell