BRACERS Record Detail for 57583
To access the original letter, email the Russell Archives.
BR declines to speak on Aristotle: "I know very little Greek".
BR's "point of view is too different from that of most philosophers to be given out as if it were conventional."
BR TO BBC / J. GRENFELL WILLIAMS, 19 JULY 1947
BRACERS 57583. ALS(X). BBC Written Archives
Proofread by K. Blackwell
<letterhead>
27 Dorset House
Gloucester Place
N.W.1.
19 July 1947
Dear Mr. Williams
I do not think I am the proper person to talk about Aristotle for you. In the first place, as I know very little Greek, my knowledge of him depends mainly on translations. In the second place, I have a vehement dislike of him: I think him a prosya middle-aged bore, who finally quenched the fire of Greek speculation, and imposed on Europe an obscurantist régime from which it has not yet wholly recovered.
This point of view is too different from that of most philosophers to be given as if it were conventional.
Yours sincerely
Russell.
Textual Notes
- a
prosy Because of a whole punched in the letter, only the letters “osy” can be seen; but Russell used “prosy” in History of Western Philosophy to describe Alexander’s view of Aristotle (“a prosy old pendant”, Bk. I, Ch. 19).
