Talk:Bertrand Russell: Difference between revisions
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"Russell was a pacifist, opposing both the first and second world wars." Misleading, I think. My understanding, which seems to be backed by sources cited on Wikipedia, is that he wasn't an absolute pacifist but a utilitarian, holding that war was ''nearly'' always worse than the alternative. He started supporting WW2 in 1940, deciding this was an exception. After the war he supported making a similar exception for destroying Stalinism, but warned this would have to be done before Stalin got his own nuclear weapons. Once that happened, he considered ''nuclear'' war worse than surrender. [[User:Peter Jackson|Peter Jackson]] ([[User talk:Peter Jackson|talk]]) 10:49, 21 March 2015 (UTC) | "Russell was a pacifist, opposing both the first and second world wars." Misleading, I think. My understanding, which seems to be backed by sources cited on Wikipedia, is that he wasn't an absolute pacifist but a utilitarian, holding that war was ''nearly'' always worse than the alternative. He started supporting WW2 in 1940, deciding this was an exception. After the war he supported making a similar exception for destroying Stalinism, but warned this would have to be done before Stalin got his own nuclear weapons. Once that happened, he considered ''nuclear'' war worse than surrender. [[User:Peter Jackson|Peter Jackson]] ([[User talk:Peter Jackson|talk]]) 10:49, 21 March 2015 (UTC) | ||
:From what I can see from other sources, you are correct. Either he changed his views during the second world war or he was a conditional pacifist ("pacificist"?), but I don't know which is correct. I suppose the article should be made more vague on this point. --[[User:Martin Wyatt|Martin Wyatt]] ([[User talk:Martin Wyatt|talk]]) 14:12, 21 March 2015 (UTC) | |||
Revision as of 08:12, 21 March 2015
"Russell was a pacifist, opposing both the first and second world wars." Misleading, I think. My understanding, which seems to be backed by sources cited on Wikipedia, is that he wasn't an absolute pacifist but a utilitarian, holding that war was nearly always worse than the alternative. He started supporting WW2 in 1940, deciding this was an exception. After the war he supported making a similar exception for destroying Stalinism, but warned this would have to be done before Stalin got his own nuclear weapons. Once that happened, he considered nuclear war worse than surrender. Peter Jackson (talk) 10:49, 21 March 2015 (UTC)
- From what I can see from other sources, you are correct. Either he changed his views during the second world war or he was a conditional pacifist ("pacificist"?), but I don't know which is correct. I suppose the article should be made more vague on this point. --Martin Wyatt (talk) 14:12, 21 March 2015 (UTC)