Bertrand Russell and Albert Einstein through the meanders of scientific pacifism

Abstract

ABSTRACT Bertrand Russell and Albert Einstein were ideally united in their staunch commitment to peace, which culminated in their famous 1955 Manifesto. This article analyses primarily their ideas that can be attributed to ‘scientific pacifism', a kind of leitmotif of their ideological battle that begun in conjunction with the First World War. They shared Freudian theories according to which the real reasons for the war were to be found in the primitive impulses of human nature; in other words, war was intrinsic to human nature rather than an historical social construct. Unlike Einstein, Russell conceived of scientific pacifism as the result of the overcoming of the typically British utilitarian logic, since it was based on a limited view of human nature. Einstein interpreted scientific pacifism primarily as an anthropological issue (Russell also explored the latter aspect in depth); Einstein sought to interpret the reasons why one of the most civilized nations such as Germany had caused the beginning of the Great War through its bellicose attitude and, later, conceived of and carried out an extermination campaign against the Jews. Both were aware that individual governments’ craving for power, based on human instincts, would hinder any limitation of national sovereignty.