Bertrand Russell and the utility of philosophy.

I think this is a hot theme in this forum.

I have chosen Bertrand Russell as a master of ceremonies for diverse reasons:
1. He is not suspected to be a religious person. He is a confessed atheist and no far to scientist positions.
2. Russell’s The Problems of Philosophy is a popular text, easy to understand.
3. Even if I don't support every thing in it I consider that we can find a reasonable explanation of some main philosophical problems. It was one my guides when I begun study philosophy and it was very useful to me.

I will start to explain his ideas little by little and we will see where the way lead us.
I will quote his own words as long as I am able, because they will certainly be better than mine.

The chosen chapter of the book is XV: “The value of philosophy”.

Here we go.

Introduction:

Quote:

Many men, under the influence of science or of practical affairs, are inclined to doubt whether philosophy is anything better than innocent but useless trifling, hair−splitting distinctions, and controversies on matters concerning which knowledge is impossible. This view of philosophy appears to result, partly from a wrong conception of the ends of life, partly from a wrong conception of the kind of goods which philosophy strives to achieve. Physical science, through the medium of inventions, is useful to innumerable people who are wholly ignorant of it; thus the study of physical science is to be recommended, not only, or primarily, because of the effect on the student, but rather because of the effect on mankind in general. Thus utility does not belong to philosophy. If the study of philosophy has any value at all for others than students of philosophy, it must be only indirectly, through its effects upon the lives of those who study it. (...) But further (...) we must first free our minds from the prejudices of what are wrongly called 'practical' men. The 'practical' man, as this word is often used, is one who recognizes only material needs, who realizes that men must have food for the body, but is oblivious of the necessity of providing food for the mind. If all men were well off, if poverty and disease had been reduced to their lowest possible point, there would still remain much to be done to produce a valuable society; and even in the existing world the goods of the mind are at least as important as the goods of the body. It is exclusively among the goods of the mind that the value of philosophy is to be found; an only those who are not indifferent to these goods can be persuaded that the study of philosophy is not a waste of time.

via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/2KT3nUV