ABSTRACT
At the age of eighty, the distinguished British philosopher and humanist Bertrand Russell turned his hand to fiction and published a volume of short stories. 1 After a lifetime of philosophical inquiry, it is no surprise to learn that his fictions raise deep ethical questions. A particularly malignant character is his Dr Murdoch Mallako who takes occupancy of a villa in Mortlake, a suburb in the London borough of Richmond. His speciality is planting malevolent seeds in the minds of his clients, which he does with a clarity of logic that befits the author of these tales. The mysterious Dr Mallako inverts normal understandings of right and wrong and does so in a manner that serves the unspoken and, as yet, unacknowledged self-interests of his visitors. They leave his house shaken by his suggestions. But the seeds have been sown and, in time, they take root. However, the fruits they bear are not what they expected. All their wished-for rewards turn into depression and misery.
