Bertrand Russell “Useless” Knowledge 1. Francis Bacon, a man who rose to eminence by betraying his friends, asserted, no doubt as one of the ripe lessons of experi- cence, that “knowledge is power.” But this is not true of all knowl- edge. Sir Thomas Browne wished to know what song the sirens sang, but if he had ascertained this it would not have enabled him to rise from being a magistrate to being High Sheriff of his county. The sort of knowledge that Bacon had in mind was that which we call scientific. In emphasizing the importance of science, he was belatedly carrying on the tradition ofthe Arabs and the early Middle Ages, according to which knowledge consisted mainly of astrology, ‘alchemy, and pharmacology, all of which were branches of science. A learned man was one who, having mastered these studies, had ‘acquired magical powers. In the early eleventh century, Pope Sil- vester Il, for no reason except that he read books, was universally believed to be a magician in league with the devil. Prospero, who in Shakespeare's time was a mere phantasy, represented what had been for centuries the generally received conception of a leaned ‘man, so far atleast as his powers of sorcery were concerned, Bacon believed-rightly, as we now know-that science could provide a ‘more powerful magicien’s wand than any that bad been dreamed of by the necromancers of former ages. 2, The Kenaissance, which was at its height in England at the time of Bacon, involved a revolt against the utilitarian conception of knowledge. The Grecks had ‘acquired a familiarity with Homer, 1s we do with musichhall songs, because they enjoyed him, and without feeling that they were engaged in the pursuit of learning. But the men of the sixteenth century could not begin to understand ‘him without first absorbing a very considerable amount of linguistic erudition, They admired the Greeks, and did not wish to be shut ‘out from their pleasures; they therefore copied them, both in read- ing the classics and in other less avowable ways. Learning, in the Renaissance, was part of the joie de eiere, just as much as drinking ‘or love-making. And this was true not only of literature, but also of stemer studies, Everyone knows the story of Hobbes’ first con- tact with'Buclid: opening the book, by chance, at the theorem of Pythagoras, he exclaimed, “By God, this is impossible,” and pro- ceeded to read the proofs backwards until, reaching the axioms, he ‘became convinced. No one can doubt that this was for him a volup- ‘tuous moment, unsullied by the thought of the utility of geometry in measuring fields, 3 It is true that the Renaissance found a practical use for the ancient languages in connection with theology. One of the earliest results of the new feeling for classical Latin was the discrediting of the forged decretals and the donation of Constantine. ‘The inaceu- racies which were discovered in the Vulgate and the Septuagint “Useless” Knowledge 239made Grock and Hebrew a necessary part of the controversial vMuipment of Protestant divnes. The republican maxims of Greece Say Rome were invoked to justify the resistance of Poritans tothe Sree and of Jesuits to monarchs who had thrown off allegiance tbe Pope, Bot al ths was an effect atber than a cause, of the ‘Ratval of lasieal learning, which had been in fll swing in Kaly For nealy a centry before Luther. The main motive ofthe Rena. errs wes mental delight, the restoration of certain richness and Felon in at and speculation which had been lost while ignorance find superstition kept the minds eye in blinkers. ie the Grecks it was foun, had devoted a part of thei atten tion'to matters net purely ierary of artistic, sich as philosophy, flenety, and astronomy. These stdies, therefore, were respect. site ut other sciences were more open to question. Medicine, it we hse, was dignified by the names of Hippocrates and Galen; Tut in the interVening period st had bgcome almost confined to ‘abe and Jews, and inectfcably intertwined with magic. Hence tho dubious reputation of such men as Paracelus- Chemisty was in tren worse edor, and hardly became respectable until the eighteenth century Sin this way it was brought about that knowledge of Greck and’ Latin, with a smattering of geometry and perhaps astronomy, ace to be considered the intellectual equipment of a geuteanan, ‘The Greeks disdained the practical applications of geometry, and {twas ony in their dedidence that they found ase fr astronomy in ihe guize of astology. The sixteenth and seventeenth centris, in the ina, stdied mathematics with Hellenic dsiterestednes, tnd tented to ignore the sciences which had been degraded by their connection with sorcery. A gradual change toward n wider tind more practical conception of Iowledge, which was going on throughout the eighteenth contary, was suddenly accelerated atthe tnd of that period by the French Revolution and the growth of shachinery, of which te former gave a blow to gentlemanly cultze le the latter offered new and astonishing scope forthe exercise, WFungentlemaniy ski, Throoghout the lst hundred and fifty yeas, Shen ave questioned mare and more vigorously the value of “use Tes Knowledge, and have come increasingly to believe that the tly knowledge worth having i that whic fs applicable to some tr of the economic life ofthe community. ‘6 In countries such as France and, England, which have a traditional educational system, the utitrian view of knowledge 240 Bertrand Russellhas only partially prevailed. There are stil, for example, professors ae Chinese in the universities who read the Chinese classes but are rmcquainted with the works of Sun Yat-sen, which created modern Chin, There are still men who know ancient history in so far as it was selated by authors whose style was pure, that is to say. uP fo ‘Mlexander in Greece and Nero in Rome, but refuse to Know the zh more important later history beeause of the literary inferiority ihe historians who related it. Even in France and England, how oie the old tradition i dying, and in more up-to-date countries over as Russia and the United States, itis utterly extinet: In Amer~ {he for example, educational commissions point out that fifteen Hergred words axe all that most people employ in business conte, vondence, and therfore suggest that all others should be avoided we the school curriculum. Basic English, a British invention, goes weil farther, and reduces the necessary vocabulary to eight hundred seeds, The conception of speech as something capable of aesthetic wane is dying out, and it is coming to be thought that the sole Prpose of words isto convey practical information, In Russa the vault of practical aims is even more wholehearted than in Ameren: Pi that is taught in educational institutions is intended to serve Some obvious purpose in education or government. The only escape semftarded by theology: the sacrod Scriptures must be studied by xem in the original German, and a few professors must learn phi fovophy in order to defend dialectical materialism against the ext: reer gt bourgeois metaphysicians. But as orthodoxy becomes more Gly established, even this tiny loophole will be closed. 7 Knowledge, everywhere, is coming to be regarded not as a good in tell, or as 2 means of czeating @ broad and humane out Jose on life in general, bt as merely an ingredient in technical skill, ‘This is part of the greater integration of society which has been Jrought about by scentic technique and military necessity: There Lromere economic and political interdependence than there was in former times, and therefore there is more social pressure to compel amv to live in.a way that his neighbors think useful. Educational a Tablishments, except those for the very tich, or (in England) such satave become invulnerable through antiquity, are not allowed to Spend their money as they lke, but must satisfy the State that they sremerving a useful purpose by imparting skill and instilling loyalty. ‘This iy part and parcel of the same movement which has Ted to compulsory military serve, boy scouts, the organization. of poli EXT parGes, and the dissemination of politcal pasion by the press. “Useless” Knowledge 241