Editing Bertrand Russell (section)

===Philosophy===
{{Main|Bertrand Russell's philosophical views}}
Russell is credited with being one of the founders of [[analytic philosophy]]. He was impressed by [[Gottfried Leibniz]] (1646–1716), and wrote on major areas of philosophy except [[aesthetics]]. He was prolific in the fields of [[metaphysics]], [[Bertrand Russell's views on philosophy#Logic and philosophy of mathematics|logic and the philosophy of mathematics]], the [[Bertrand Russell's views on philosophy#Philosophy of language|philosophy of language]], [[Bertrand Russell's views on philosophy#Ethics|ethics]] and [[Bertrand Russell's views on philosophy#Epistemology|epistemology]]. When [[Brand Blanshard]] asked Russell why he did not write on aesthetics, Russell replied that he did not know anything about it, though he hastened to add "but that is not a very good excuse, for my friends tell me it has not deterred me from writing on other subjects".<ref>Blanshard, in [[Paul Arthur Schilpp]], ed., ''The Philosophy of Brand Blanshard'', Open Court, 1980, p. 88, quoting a private letter from Russell.</ref>

On ethics, Russell wrote that he was a [[utilitarian]] in his youth, yet he later distanced himself from this view.<ref>''The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell'', London: Routledge, 2000 [London: Allen and Unwin, 1969, Vol. 1], p.&nbsp;39 ("It appeared to me obvious that the happiness of mankind should be the aim of all action, and I discovered to my surprise that there were those who thought otherwise. Belief in happiness, I found, was called Utilitarianism, and was merely one among a number of ethical theories. I adhered to it after this discovery, and was rash enough to tell my grandmother that I was a utilitarian." In a letter from 1902, in which Russell criticised utilitarianism, he wrote: "I may as well begin by confessing that for many years it seemed to me perfectly self-evident that pleasure is the only good and pain the only evil. Now, however, the opposite seems to me self-evident. This change has been brought about by what I may call moral experience." Ibid, p. 161).</ref>

For the advancement of science and protection of liberty of expression, Russell advocated [[The Will to Doubt]], the recognition that all human knowledge is at most a best guess, that one should always remember:

{{blockquote|None of our beliefs are quite true; all have at least a penumbra of vagueness and error. The methods of increasing the degree of truth in our beliefs are well known; they consist in hearing all sides, trying to ascertain all the relevant facts, controlling our own bias by discussion with people who have the opposite bias, and cultivating a readiness to discard any hypothesis which has proved inadequate. These methods are practised in science, and have built up the body of scientific knowledge.

Every man of science whose outlook is truly scientific is ready to admit that what passes for scientific knowledge at the moment is sure to require correction with the progress of discovery; nevertheless, it is near enough to the truth to serve for most practical purposes, though not for all. In science, where alone something approximating to genuine knowledge is to be found, men's attitude is tentative and full of doubt.<ref name="free" />}}