Power - Softcover

Russell, Bertrand Arthur

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0393004791 ISBN 13: 9780393004793

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 1969

Synopsis

Power: A New Social Analysis is a work in social philosophy written by Bertrand Russell. Power, for Russell, is one's ability to achieve goals. In particular, Russell has in mind social power, that is, power over people.

The volume contains a number of arguments. However, four themes have a central role in the overall work. The first theme given treatment in the analysis is that the lust for power is a part of human nature. Second, the work emphasises that there are different forms of social power, and that these forms are substantially interrelated. Third, Power insists that "organisations are usually connected with certain kinds of individuals". Finally, the work ends by arguing that "arbitrary rulership can and should be subdued".

Throughout the work, Russell's ambition is to develop a new method of conceiving the social sciences as a whole. For him, all topics in the social sciences are merely examinations of the different forms of power – chiefly the economic, military, cultural, and civil forms. Eventually, he hoped that social science would be robust enough to capture the "laws of social dynamics", which would describe how and when one form of power changes into another. As a secondary goal of the work, Russell is at pains to reject single-cause accounts of social power, such as the economic determinism he attributes to Karl Marx.

About this title

About the Author

Betrand Russell (1872- 1970). The leading British philosopher of the twentieth century, Russell made major contributions in the areas of logic and epistemology. Politically active and habitually outspoken, his ethical principles twice led to imprisonment.

Review

"Extremely penetrating analysis of human nature in politics."

Edition details

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 1969
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0393004791
• ISBN 13: 9780393004793
• Binding: Paperback