B. Russell’s “The Principles of Social Reconstruction”

Abstract

According to Bertrand Russell, political theory must be based on the motivating force of creativity, in other words, on a creative impulse, rather than on competition or a possessive impulse. Political institutions should promote creativeness at the expense of possessiveness. The State, war, property are the main political embodiments of the possessive impulses; education, marriage, and religion ought to embody the creative impulses. Liberation of creativeness ought to be the principles and the basis of social reconstruction. The purpose of the presented report is to show how much relevant Russell’s book is even in a hundred years after its first publication.