ABSTRACT
Icarus, having been taught to fly by his father Daedalus, was
destroyed by his rashness. I fear that the same fate may overtake
the populations whom modern men of science have taught to fly.
Icarus or the Future of Science
Russell’s views on ethics evolved significantly during his long life. It is not incidental to the evolution of his ideas that he witnessed some of the most horrific episodes of human history, including nine million civilian deaths in the First World War, almost fortytwo million civilian deaths in the Second World War, with the Nazis’ extermination of over six million Jewish people, Stalin’s extermination of fifteen million (a conservative estimate), the Soviet military dominance of Eastern Europe, and the world on the brink of a thermonuclear holocaust during the Cuban Missile Crisis. He began as an objectivist, agreeing with Moore that one can intuit the good. Next he became a Spinozist, for whom ethics lies in the elimination of self-interest and the contemplation of God (as nature). Soon he became a consequentialist, hoping to find scientific principles that could harmonize and control the conflicts of desires and values that threaten the extinction of mankind.
