Philosophic doubt
service, could proclaim that the war against Hitler should be supported. I can tell him for I asked Russell at the time. His answer was =that he had changed his previous opinion about the nature of evil and that he now believed that evil had a positive existence. (Roughly speaking he had, I sup- pose, switched from the hole-in-the-dough- nut theory to the hair-in-the-butter theory.) Hitler, said he, exemplified his new view and must be opposed.
When I asked him what action he was going to take to disabuse the minds of all those whom he had influenced in the oppo- site direction, he replied that 'a man must teach what he believes to be the truth at any given time'. I ought to have asked what necessity a man had to go teaching but missed my chance. I did say that I was glad to learn that my old grandmother seemed to have been right all along.
Previous page
