[Michiel]

What a coincidence, just this morning I read an account of "How Bertrand Russell was prevented from teaching at the College of of the City of New York" [1]. The judge deemed him to be a dangerous influence on students because he would undermine their morals. Therefor he should not be allowed to teach there.

Reading his 10 commandmends affirms for me that he was the wiser man. He taught later at Harvard and received a Nobel Prize for Literature.

[1]: http://www.skeptic.ca/Russell_&_CUNY.pdf

[thefreshteapot]

Firstly, reading the 10 Commandments, I didnt feel an instant connection to Teachers, rather a loose set of values for all. So I came back to Hackernews to read the comments, thanks to Michiel throwing the titbit of information about his rejection from New York, I went on to discover a fascinating individual, via wikipedia lead me down the rabbit hole of self-learning of a few other interesting folks who were closely or loosely linked to Bertrand. All this whilst sat on a boat, via 3G. (The world we live in is amazing!)

Take a moment to read his wiki entry and then ponder quietly to yourself, what sort of activities, Bertrand Russell would have championed today.

[EvilTerran]

If you've got the time to spare, even a passing interest in philosophy, and haven't read it already, I can't recommend his History of Western Philosophy highly enough. It's delivered with a tone that really imparts a sense of Russell's enthusiasm both for the subject and for teaching; I've never found 900 pages easier to read or more informative :)

[gjm11]

Russell's "History of Western Philosophy" is a wonderful book, but I am told by people more expert in the history of philosophy than I am that it's not terribly accurate. I don't think that's much reason not to read it, but treat knowledge acquired from it with caution.

(Allegedly Anthony Kenny's big single-volume history of philosophy is more accurate and also enjoyable to read. I have it on my shelves but haven't opened it yet, so can't confirm or deny that.)

[EvilTerran]

Yeah, I was advised to bear in mind that it was very much coloured by Russell's take on things.

In some ways, I treat it like a wikipedia article -- a mostly-good overview, which can be used as a guide to look up more rigorous accounts of any particular topics that interest you, but is kinda biased. But it's better written than wikipedia, and I'm more interested in Russell's bias than a random netizen's ;)