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The Reith Lectures

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Significant international thinkers deliver the BBC's flagship annual lecture series.

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The Reith Lectures: Bertrand Russell - Authority and the Individual: The Conflict of Technique and Human Nature

1948: Bertrand Russell - Authority and the Individual

16/01/1949

The Conflict of Technique and Human Nature

Bertrand Russell - Authority and the Individual

BBC Radio 4 - The Reith Lectures, Bertrand Russell - Authority and the Individual, The Conflict of Technique and Human Nature

Bertrand Russell considers the role of human nature in the development of society.

Bertrand Russell examines the part human nature has played in the development of civilised society, and how it can be exploited for society's good, in his fourth Reith lecture.

The inaugural Reith Lecturer is the philosopher, mathematician, and social reformer Bertrand Russell. One of the founders of analytic philosophy and a Nobel Laureate, he is the author of Principia Mathematica, and the bestselling History of Western Philosophy, written in 1946. His Reith lecture series is entitled 'Authority and the Individual'. 

In his fourth lecture, entitled 'The Conflict of Technique and Human Nature', he examines what part human nature has played in the development of civilised society, and argues that poverty, suffering and cruelty are no longer necessary to the existence of civilisation. He believes these can be eliminated with the help of modern science, provided it operates in a humane spirit, and with an understanding of the springs of happiness and life. 

The Reith Lectures: Bertrand Russell - Authority and the Individual

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Philosopher and mathematician Bertrand Russell gives the inaugural Reith lecture series.

The philosopher, mathematician and social reformer Bertrand Russell gives the inaugural Reith lecture series on the subject of Authority and the Individual.

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