How to Escape from the Intellectual Rubbish? Summary by Russell

Summary of How to Escape from the Intellectual Rubbish by Russell

How to Escape from the Intellectual Rubbish?

This piece is a part of Russell’s essay “An Outline to Intellectual Rubbish”. It begins with the statement that no superhuman ability is needed to avoid foolish opinions. He asserts that there are simple rules to save one not from all the errors but from silly errors. He cites the example of Aristotle who declared that women had fewer teeth than men.

Russell says that if Aristotle had asked Mrs. Aristotle to keep her mouth open until he finished counting, he would have saved himself from making a very serious mistake. He did not do so because he thought he knew.

This according to Russell is the greatest mistake. He further illustrates this situation by stating his own beliefs about hedgehogs and the beliefs of the ancient and medieval authors about unicorns and salamanders. Russell says that one’s opinions are to be brought to the test of experience.

There are also many ways by which one can become aware of one’s bias. If an opinion contrary to one’s own makes him/her angry, then they must understand that they themselves are doubtful on the subconscious level. He explains the difference between arithmetic and theology.

Arithmetic is about knowledge, but Theology is only about opinions. Knowledge is the result of observations but opinion need not be so. So whenever one gets angry about another person’s opinion, the person should be on his/her guard and make observations to ascertain their idea.

Russell talks about dogmatism and suggests ways to get rid of it as well. They are

1. To become aware of the opinions held in social circles different from one’s own. Travel is a good way of reducing the intensity of insular prejudice. Here Russell sights his personal experiences of travelling. When he was young he lived much outside his own country, especially in France, Germany, Italy and U.S.
2. If one cannot afford to travel, one can communicate with people who have different opinions. This will help one to think from the other's perspective.
3. Otherwise one can read a newspaper belonging to the opposite party. If such people and newspapers seem to be mad or mean one has to caution oneself that they will be seen in the same situation by others.

Russell gives another interesting observation that knowing the customs of other countries will not help always. When the Manchus conquered China, it was the custom among the Chinese, that the women have small feet, and for the Manchus, the men wore pigtails. Instead of these two people dropping their foolish customs, each adopted the custom of the other. The Chinese continued wearing pigtails until the Manchu's dominion ended in 1911. One must, however, learn to judge and accept only what is good in other people and cultures. Blind conformity to another faith or practice will not do any good.

Another method to avoid dogmatism is to imagine arguments with a person having a different bias. The one and only advantage of the method is it is not subject to the limitations of time and space. Russell says that he had changed his mind several times as a result of such kind of imaginary dialogues.

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Russell asks one to be careful in taking opinions that flatter one’s self-esteem. It is very difficult to handle this problem because everybody is conscious of his/her sense of superiority. According to Russell, this should be tempered with a little modesty and reasonableness. Our standard of values should not be absolute because there are other people and other cultures. Their standards and systems of values are equally respectable and valued in their lives.

He further states that it is more difficult to deal with the self-esteem of a man as a man because we cannot argue out the matter with some non-human mind. The only way to solve this general human superiority is to remind us about the episodic human life on a small planet. Moreover, humans should know that the other parts of the cosmos may contain lives superior to themselves. 

Fear, Russell says, is another common source of error. Imagination works negatively and harmfully when one invents certain kinds of fear (disastrous war, ghosts) or entertains illusory gains (eternal life, heaven) etc. one must learn to admit, at least to themselves, these fears.

When one overcomes fear he/she becomes less superstitious and more rational. Russell gives some examples to show how magic, sorcery and witchcraft only create illusions of freedom. One becomes really free only when they conquer fear rationally.

Russell, citing the example of Socrates on the day of his death, specifies that people speculate about future life (life after death) because they are unhappy with today’s world. Such thoughts are also signs of fear.

Two Mark:

Russell suggests five ways of avoiding dogmatism. One is by making oneself aware of opinions that are in opposition to his own. This can be achieved by travelling and also by mingling and conversing with people having different opinions. The second method is avoiding blind imitation or conformity. The third is by indulging in arguments with an imaginary character that holds a different opinion. The fourth way is by dealing with self-esteem or one’s sense of superiority which is the most difficult one. The last one is overcoming fear, rationally. It is fear that leads to disastrous wars and unhappiness. So it has to be overcome consciously.