Differences Between Plato and Bertrand Russell
Analytic Philosophy, Allegory, First-Order Logic, and Human Justice
Sep 30, 2009
Bertrand Russell identified with much of Plato's philosophy. While the two philosophers didn't agree on everything and their writing styles were very different, what they had in common is very interesting to many. They shared a passion for analytic philosophy that was generally unrivaled during their lifetimes.
Bertrand Russell – Analytic Philosophy and First-Order Logic
Russell wanted to use logic to clarify issues he found arising from the foundations of mathematics, but he also wanted to use that same kind of logic in order to clarify many of the issues he was seeing within philosophy. He was considered to be one of the founders of "analytic philosophy," and is often best remembered for the work he did while using first-order logic. That work was designed to show that a vast range of denoting phrases could be recast in terms of predicates and variables that were quantified.
As a result of that kind of work, Bertrand Russell is mostly remembered for the strong emphasis placed upon the importance of a logical form for resolving many philosophical problems. In that work, as in mathematics, Russell hoped that people would be able to resolve the difficulties they had in themselves and with one another, and that were seen to be otherwise intractable.
The goal was to show people how they could do this by applying logical machinery and various insights. Russell looked at issues like philosophy in much the same way he looked at mathematics – from a very logical standpoint that left little room for anything else in his life.
Plato – Analytic Philosophy and the Allegory of the Cave
Plato dealt with ethics in many of the writing he produced. In particular, the informative dialogues he offered in The Republic — more specifically, The Allegory of The Cave — dealt with ethics in a sense that's very abstract. That made Plato's view of ethics somewhat confusing.
Rather than confront them head-on, Plato philosophized in abstract and allegorical ways. For example, he often used dialogue between himself and other people in order to foster discussion of how individuals could be expected to react to influences outside themselves.
With The Allegory of The Cave, Plato focused on the way people see the world around them. Because the people in the cave know nothing but the cave, they don't have a concept of the outside world – or even that there is a world outside their line of sight. If they were loosed into the world, they wouldn't know how to act because everything would be foreign to them.
The logic that Bertrand Russell showed so strongly in his work with philosophy and mathematics wouldn't apply well to the people who left the cave Plato had created. It would mean trying to apply their logic to a world they saw as illogical, leaving them with serious conflict.
Plato, however, uses the cave as a metaphor for the idea that many people live "in the dark" and don't understand what's really taking place – which they would only come to realize if they left the cave and moved into the light. That logic, purely and simply, compares well with the logic of Bertrand Russell and many other philosophers. Information about all of them and their beliefs can be found online for further study.
Plato and Bertrand Russell Resources
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
