Philosophy Faculty Publications

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-2023

Publication Source

Russell: The Journal of Bertrand Russell Studies

Abstract

In July 1915, after hearing Jane Addams speak in London on her efforts for peace during wartime, Bertrand Russell wrote to an American friend, “You can gather what I think and feel by talking to Miss Addams. She seemed to me to have exactly the same outlook as I have.” In this paper I compare how Russell and Addams used the era’s scientific theories in formulating their pacifism. After recounting Addams’s and Russell’s experiences during the war, I show how Addams and Russell accounted for civilization’s “descent into barbarism” in parallel ways. I then contrast their conceptions of what counts as progress in civilization, and show how these differences shaped their critiques of war. In the final section I compare how their responses correlated with the forms their activism took during the war.

Inclusive pages

104-131

ISBN/ISSN

0036-0163 (print); 1913-8032 (online)

Document Version

Published Version

Comments

The article is made available for download with the permission of the author and the publisher. View the issue on the journal website (https://mulpress.mcmaster.ca/russelljournal/issue/view/484) or browse the issue at https://muse.jhu.edu/issue/49343

Publisher

Bertrand Russell Research Centre, McMaster University

Volume

42

Issue

2

Peer Reviewed

yes

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