Russell and the Greeks

Abstract

BERTRAND RUSSELL WAS raised in the Victorian era, but, unlike most aristocrats of the time, he was educated at home and avoided the usual classical education. Yet his works abound in references to the Greeks and Romans, whether to ideas of their philosophers or to incidents from their history. Indeed, few of his writings lack such references. The heritage of Greek civilization was always important to Russell, in several different ways. The breadth of his life and thought make him a representative figure of one modern view of the importance of the Greeks, between the Victorian eral and our own. This paper will consider a few topics concerning Russell's arritude towards the Greeks, and towards classical learning: First, his education and his own educational principles; then, the famous conversion incident of 1901 which included his reaction to Euripides' play, Hippolytus; third, the implications of Russell's attitude for his study of Greek mathematics and philosophy, and for his politics; and, finally, the enduring importance of Greek civilization to him.