Aethetics and Epistemology

Home

TWO OLD WHITE GUYS
A Short Socratic Dialogue : Socrates and Bertrand Russell
Presentation for Philosophy 215
by Brett Clippingdale

Context: (in progress)
Socrates: discussion of muse, women as discussed in "The Symposium", his relentless search for a wiser man, Delphic muse "no man wiser than Socrates."
Bertrand Russell: discussion of Principia Mathematica, the "tyranny of custom", pacifism.

Setting: Socrates and Bertand Russell meet ... well, somewhere, after death ...

Socrates: I am told you are a man of great wisdom and knowledge. Please tell me what you know.

B. Russell: I'd hoped to ask you the same question! By the way, where are we?

Socrates: That is, perhaps, the greatest question. A mystery that each person must decide for himself ...

B. Russell: (interrupts) ... or herself ...

Socrates: (puzzled) So, I wish to know whether, after 2500 years, there is any man wiser than I, and since you are a man reputed to have great knowledge and wisdom ...

B. Russell: You taught us all to think about our thinking, but have you really thought about your question, or just its answer?

Socrates: Please, I've waited 2500 years.

B. Russell: My dear master, what you hear about me being a man of great knowlede may true, but of wisdom, I cannot say. I began my life investigating the philosophy of mathematics ...

Socrates: (interrupts) Ah, so you're a Pythagorean?

B. Russell: No. Let me say only that we understand much more than Pythagoras about what triangles show about the world, but probably less than he about the secrets, the mystery, within a triangle itself. Developing his theories, man now has the ability to accurately target missiles at another country with whom he is at war; or, he could use the same technology to rocket himself, Daedalus-like, to the moon. He is able to either destoy the world or leave it, or both. He is also able to exploit every resource in the world to the point of exhaustion. Some natural philosophies now exist that could help all of mankind be less damaging to the earth, using the wind and the sun to power our industries, but we seem more interested in destroying the world than conserving it. Alas, we know absolutely nothing more than you about why we are, or even who we are.

Socrates: Perhaps you know less, for when I was a citizen of Athens I honored it and supported it by going to war; and evidently, the world still exits.

B. Russell: But this is the crux of the problem. We have developed and extrapolated the philosophies of your students to the point where they threaten our very existence. This is why I believe we must be courageous enough to think of yet bigger philosphies.

Socrates: Such as?

B. Russell: Such as peace and conservation. And by contemplating them, turning our back on these limited philosophies which eat their young, we may become larger ourselves. We must think not of what we are, but what we can be.

Socrates: I've heard Einstein say that, but I must say his scientific knowledge seemed much greater than yours.

B. Russell: It's true, and in fact I fear that my reputed level of wisdom is no great than his, either.

Socrates: But is your wisdom great than mine? After 2500 years, is there still no man wiser than I?

B. Russell: This is where I'd asked you to think about your question. It was you who showed me how to question all my answers, to free my mind from the tyranny of custom. So I will not think myself wiser than you if I show you how to think about this one question.

Socrates: But it was the defining question of my life.

B. Russell: All this time I've honored your convention of speaking only of men. But are you sure there is no woman wiser than you?

Socrates: I have not thought much about it.

B. Russell: Well, perhaps there are none wiser than you, I don't know. But when the muse, an inspired female, said there is no man wiser than you, she may have meant your grandmother was wiser. Or she may indeed have meant that no one at all is wiser than you. But this does not mean, my friend, that you are necessarily wiser than all others. For I have shown you that even after 2500 years, humankind is no wiser than those who lived before us. It is a matter of great humility and mystery.

Socrates: Yes, I see. But we did not write about mysteries in my day. Those were deep myseries, not expressible with mere words.

B. Russell: And so it is with mysteries even today, though the least wise never seem to give up trying.

Top