“Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life,” wrote Bertrand Russell in the prologue to his autobiography: “the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind.”

This five minute video, a preview of a three-part series produced in 2005 for Ontario public television called “The Three Passions of Bertrand Russell,” features a recording of Russell reading passages from the prologue, entitled “What I Have Lived For.” You can read the original text at the Bertrand Russell Society, an excellent online resource, that also makes available free books by Russell, including:

• An Essay on the Foundations of Geometry (1897)
• The Principles of Mathematics (1903)
• Our Knowledge of the External World (1914)
• Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy (1919)
• Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays (1919)
• The Analysis of Mind (1921)
• The Conquest of Happiness (1930)

You can also download the first edition of Russell’s landmark 1910-13 collaboration with Alfred North Whitehead, Principia Mathematica, as well as many of Russell’s essays, including:

• “A Free Man’s Worship” (1903)
• “On Denoting” (1905)
• “The Elements of Ethics” (1910)
• “The Ethics of War” (1915)
• “On Propositions” (1919)
• “Theory of Knowledge” (1926)
• “Why I am Not a Christian” (1927)

To explore the full list of available resources, and to learn how you can support the society’s activities, visit the Bertrand Russell Society website.

Also don’t miss some great Russell material in our own archives, including all six of his 1948 BBC Reith Lectures, a clip from a Canadian television interview featuring his views on God, and his eloquent 1959 message to the future.

Three Passions of Bertrand Russell (and a Collection of Free Texts) is a post from: Open Culture

Last summer Alain de Botton, one of the better popularizers of philosophy, appeared at TEDGlobal and called for a new kind of atheism. An Atheism 2.0. This revised atheism would let atheists deny a creator and yet not forsake all the other good things religion can offer — tradition, ritual, community, insights into living a good life, the ability to experience transcendence, taking part in institutions that can change the world, and the rest.

What he’s describing kind of sounds like what already happens in the Unitarian Church … or The School of Life, a London-based institution founded by de Botton in 2008. The school offers courses “in the important questions of everyday life” and also hosts Sunday Sermons that feature “maverick cultural figures” talking about important principles to live by. Click here and you can watch several past sermons presented by actress Miranda July, physicist Lawrence Krauss, author Rebecca Solnit, and Alain de Botton himself.

If Atheism 2.0 piques your interest, you’ll want to pre-order de Botton’s soon-to-be-published book, Religion for Atheists: A Non-Believer’s Guide to the Uses of Religion.

Thanks to Elana for sending this our way.

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Alain de Botton Wants a Religion for Atheists: Introducing Atheism 2.0 is a post from: Open Culture

Michel Foucault (1926-1984) was an enormously influential French philosopher who wrote, among other things, historical analyses of psychiatry, medicine, the prison system, and the function of sexuality in social organizations. He spent some time during the last years of his life at UC Berkeley, delivering several lectures in English. And happily they were recorded for posterity:

• Four Lectures on Truth and Subjectivity (1980)
• Six Lectures on Discourse and Truth (1983)
• Three Lectures on “The Culture of the Self” (1983)

These last lectures are also available on YouTube (in audio format):

One of Foucault’s more controversial and memorable books was Discipline and Punish (1977), which traced the transition from the 18th century use of public torture and execution to–less than 50 years later–the prevalence of much more subtle uses of power, with a focus on incarceration, rehabilitation, prevention, and surveillance. Here he is in 1983 commenting on that book (thanks for the link to Seth Paskin). The Partially Examined Life podcast recently discussed the book with Katharine McIntyre, doctoral candidate at Columbia. Foucault’s image of the panopticon well captures modern privacy concerns in the electronic age.

Finally, we leave you with a Schoolhouse Rock-style presentation of Foucault’s book The History of Sexuality, Volume 1 and some vintage video of Foucault’s 1971 debate with Noam Chomsky. Foucault’s lectures have been added to the Philosophy section of our Free Online Course collection.

Mark Linsenmayer runs the Partially Examined Life philosophy podcast and blog. He also performs with the Madison, WI band New People.

Michel Foucault: Free Lectures on Truth, Discourse & The Self is a post from: Open Culture

How many of the great philosophers have you actually heard speak? This clip comes from the 1976 documentary Sartre by Himself, which features discussions with Jean-Paul Sartre and his near-equally famous wife Simone de Beauvoir, among others. The film was released with English subtitles in 1979, a year before Sartre died.

In this clip, Sartre criticizes modern intellectuals as “specialist workers in practical knowledge,” who apply “universal notions and practices” to particular purposes determined by a political establishment. This can cause a conflict of conscience: Sartre gives the example of scientists working on the atomic bomb, but also professors whose efforts solely benefit a small group of prosperous students. Sartre thinks intellectuals use this kind of conflict to feel better about themselves–they may sign petitions, side with the working class, etc.–while still not seriously questioning themselves. Intellectuals rage against the machine but are still playing their assigned role in it. “[They are] very pleased to have an unhappy conscience, because that is what allows [them] to denounce.”

This is an example of his famous notion of “bad faith,” where we disassociate ourselves from our actions, or more commonly where we claim to have more limited choices than we actually do. Bad faith is possible because of the nature of the self, according to Sartre: there is no predetermined “human nature” or “true you,” but instead you are something built over time, by your own freely chosen actions, too often using the roles and characteristics others assign to you.

Early in his career, he constructed a theory of consciousness and the self that makes this plausible. The work in which he did this, “The Transcendence of the Ego,” is the subject of the most recent episode of The Partially Examined Life philosophy podcast, profiled in this earlier Open Culture post. The podcast has since taken off: it’s currently featured on the main podcast page in the iTunes store and has broken the top 40 in “top audio podcasts,” reaching #1 in the philosophy category.

Visit the Partially Examined Life web page, get the episodes on iTunes, and subscribe to the PEL blog feed.

Mark Linsenmayer hosts The Partially Examined Life and fronts a band called New People.

Jean-Paul Sartre Breaks Down the Bad Faith of Intellectuals is a post from: Open Culture

Since the late 1990′s, Alain de Botton has been breaking down difficult philosophical and literary ideas and seeing how they apply to people’s everyday lives. He did this with his 1997 bestseller, How Proust Can Change Your Life. And he took things a step further with his television series called Philosophy: A Guide to Happiness.

Then, in the summer of 2008, de Botton and some colleagues set up The School of Life, a London-based institution that offers courses “in the important questions of everyday life,” in areas we all tend to care about: careers, relationships, politics, travels, families, etc. The school also hosts a series of “Sunday Sermons” that feature “maverick cultural figures” talking about the virtues they cling to, and the vices to be wary of.

Today, we’re featuring several of these sermons. Above, the actress, writer, and director Miranda July takes an offbeat and endearing look at strangers, and the role they play in our lives. Then come some notable mentions:

Physicist Lawrence Krauss on Cosmic Connections. (Also don’t miss this other unrelated but splendid talk by Krauss.)

Author Rebecca Solnit on Hope.

And Alain de Botton himself on the importance of defying pessimism.

Again, you can find the full list of sermons organized chronologically here.

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Life-Affirming Talks by Cultural Mavericks Presented at The School of Life is a post from: Open Culture

When not founding tech companies, Damon Horowitz teaches philosophy through the Prison University Project, bringing college-level classes to inmates of San Quentin State Prison. In three minutes, Horowitz raps about philosophy meeting real life — about how prisoners convicted of serious crimes come to terms with Socrates (who finished his days in prison), Heidegger, Kant, categorical imperatives, questions of right and wrong, and the rest. The “talk” was originally presented at TED 2011 last March.

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Bertrand Russell & Other Big Thinkers in BBC Lecture Series (Free)

Philosophy in Prison: Weighty Conversations about Right and Wrong is a post from: Open Culture

Death masks — they have been around since the days of King Tut in Ancient Egypt, and (perhaps) Agamemnon and Cassandra in Ancient Greece. A way to remember the character and expressions of the dead, this memorial practice continued right down through the Middle Ages when wax and plaster became the materials of choice.

Today, we’re left with facial imprints of important historical leaders (Cromwell, Napoleon, Peter the Great); cultural giants (Dante, Shakespeare, Voltaire, Newton, Beethoven, James Joyce, Nietzsche above); and some recently more departed icons (Hitchcock and Timothy Leary).

Princeton University hosts online a fairly large collection of Life and Death Masks, and the good folks at Biblioklept highlight masks of the intelligent, powerful and famous on an ongoing basis. Unfortunately these collections skew almost entirely male – a sign of the times that came before us…

Death Masks: From Dante to James Joyce and Friedrich Nietzsche is a post from: Open Culture

From dead parrots to The Meaning of Life, Monty Python covered a lot of territory. Educated at Oxford and Cambridge, the Pythons made a habit of weaving arcane intellectual references into the silliest of sketches. A classic example is “Mrs. Premise and Mrs. Conclusion Visit Jean-Paul Sartre,” (above) from episode 27 of Monty Python’s Flying Circus. The sketch features writing partners John Cleese as Mrs. Premise and Graham Chapman as Mrs. Conclusion, gabbing away in a launderette about how best to put down a budgie. Mrs. Premise suggests flushing it down the loo. “Ooh! No!” protests Mrs. Conclusion. “You shouldn’t do that. No that’s dangerous. Yes, they breed in the sewers, and eventually you get evil-smelling flocks of huge soiled budgies flying out of people’s lavatories infringing their personal freedom.” From there the conversation veers straight into Jean-Paul Sartre’s The Roads to Freedom. It’s a classic sketch–vintage Python–and you can read a transcript here while watching it above.

Another classic is the “Philosopher’s Drinking Song,” shown above in a scene from Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl. The song was written and sung by Eric Idle. In the sketch, members of the philosophy department at the “University of Woolloomooloo” lead the audience in singing, “Immanuel Kant was a real pissant who was very rarely stable; Heidegger, Heidegger was a boozy beggar who could think you under the table…”

And one of our favorites: “The Philosophers’ Football Match” (above), a filmed sequence from Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl, pitting the Ancient Greeks against the Germans, with Confucius as referee. The sketch was originally broadcast in 1972 in a two-part West German television special, Monty Python’s Fliegender Zirkus.

Monty Python’s Flying Philosophy is a post from: Open Culture

In 1959, Bertrand Russell, then pushing 90, could still give a good interview. We have previously featured vintage video of Russell sending a message to people living 1,000 years in the future and also contemplating the existence/non-existence of God. Now comes more footage from ’59, and this time he tells us all about how smoking a pipe saved his life. It makes for a good anecdote (get more on his near-death experience here), though not an endorsement for taking up the habit….

via Biblioklept

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Bertrand Russell: “I Owe My Life to Smoking” is a post from: Open Culture

We have the animation of Ancient classics covered. Oedipus starring vegetables? Check. An animation of Plato’s Cave Allegory narrated by Orson Welles? Check. Another version of the Cave Allegory made with claymation? Yes, we have that too.

Now it’s time for something a little more modern – Mike McCubbins offers an animated adaptation of Albert Camus’ classic, The Fall, published in 1957, the same year that Camus won the Nobel Prize for Literature for his work that “illuminates the problems of the human conscience in our times.” Give McCubbins five minutes and he’ll give you the visual essence of the philosophical novel. H/T @dangermindsblog

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The Fall by Albert Camus Animated is a post from: Open Culture