Russell the Political Theorist

Reviews 85 RUSSELL THE POLITICAL THEORIST PETER STONE Political Science / U. of Rochester Rochester, NY 14627, USA PRSE@TROI.CC.ROCHESTER.EDU Bart Schultz, ed. "The Social and Political Philosophy of Bertrand Russell", Parts 1-2. Philosophy of the Social Sciences, 26 Gune, Sept. 1996): 157-266, 317-68. US$30 (the 2-issue set). Talent requires training in order to produce consistent strong performance . Indeed, without training of some sort, talent may not count for much. Michael Jordan might well have played basketball better than anyone else in history. Had he received no training or coaching at all, however, I 86 Reviews doubt that his extraordinary natural ability would have proven a match for the highly developed skills of even a mediocre NBA player. He might have excelled, but more likely there would have been a lot of variance, flashes of brilliant play surrounded by much that was commonplace, with an abundance of truly abysmal mistakes. Interestingly enough, this description also fits Bertrand Russell's career as a political theorist, and with good reason. The recent two-part symposium in Philosophy ofthe Social Sciences on "The Social and Political Philosophy of Bertrand Russell" demonstrates this fact. The contributors to this valuable symposium-an august group of philosophers and political scientists, several of whom are noted for previous work in Russell studies-address a varIety of issues relating to Russell's political theory and practice. Together, they paint a picture of a wildly intelligent and passionately concerned thinker who lacked the training for first-rate political thought. Russell, in short, could have used a good coach in political theory. Training, of course, is not an end in itself; possession of a doctorate in political theory is neither necessary nor sufficient for good work in the field. Rather, training has value because of what it imparts. Political theory, like most other human endeavours,I benefits from careful reflection on the nature of the activity, with an eye to eliminating mistakes and improving performance . In basketball, players study techniques leading to better dribbling, passing, and shooting; in political theory, practitioners consider the warrant for the various parts of the normative arguments they advance. In both cases, of course, the development of skill usually requires some sort of coach; no man is an island, and both political theorists and' basketball players need mentors to train them. But the best players and political theorists become "self-coaching", able to engage in critical reflection on their own work which will lead to improvements in the long run. Not everyone can become a Michael Jordan or a John Rawls, but virtually any player in any "sport" can do better through practice, provided that practice is accompanied by reflection as to what needs improvement. Over the course of his long life, Russell reflected upon and wrote about many topics, including mathematics, philosophy, and social and political affairs. He attacked the first two with a passion for precision, permitting neither himself nor others any sloppiness or lack of rigour. But despite an engagement with political affairs that lasted approximately 75 years,2 Russell I For a sustained defence of this conception of human activity, one that explicitly relies on the analogy with playing and coaching in sportS, see Eugene Meehan, The Thinking Game: a Guide to Effective Study (Chatham, N.J.: Chatham House, 1988). 2 I take Russell's interventions in politics to stare with the publication of his book German Social Democracy in 1896, and to end only with his death in 1970. 'Reviews 87 never gave political issues the sort of careful attention and painstaking analysis he devoted to epistemology, metaphysics, and mathematics. In short, he never became a self-coaching political theorist; and his work reflected this fact.3 Many people have noted this gap between Russell's technical philosophy and his political theory. Bart Schultz, the editor of the symposium (and one of the few political scientists not to ignore Russell), wrote in his introduction, "It is difficult ... to fit Russell together as a whole, to bring the life, the ethics, and the politics into easy relation with the analytic philosophy" (p. 158). Russell himself, however, would probably not have found this lack of...

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