The New Enlightenment: Russell on Organization and Socialism

Abstract

Russell, perhaps the most influential philosopher of his era, felt that the lack of explicit organization was the problem facing the twentieth century. His quest for certainty and organization, as well as hatred of private property coupled with his quest for happiness, made socialism the only possible form of social-political order his Cartesian common sense could imagine. The “old” liberalism, with its evils of competition and private property and wars, was to be replaced by top-down organization in the form of socialism. Competition, for Russell, is inalterably opposed to organization. Organization and equality he took to be the “peaceful” and “logical” successors to classical liberty. This chapter overviews his views and their interventionist consequences.