Volume 11, Number 3 · August 22, 1968
Pilgrim
By Stuart Hampshire
The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell, 1914-1944
by Bertrand Russell
Atlantic-Little, Brown, 418 pp., $8.95
As there are religious conversions, there must be philosophical conversions also. Since the eighteenth century, philosophy has taken over some part of the ground that once belonged to institutionalized theologies, as a focus of divided feelings. As soon as God is no longer well defined and can be either invented anew or dismissed in each generation, the relation of man as a species to the rest of Nature becomes open ground for philosophy. It is to be expected that natural protestants, who are skeptics, and whose emotions follow their intellect—such men as Hume, Mill, James, Russell—will meet sudden crises of belief, moments of conversion, in which they see Nature as overwhelming them, or as supporting them, or as offering them reconciliation and rest.
Review, 2646 words
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