Intellectual RubbishClass 9 English Chapter 4 Notes – Maharashtra Board

Summary: Intellectual Rubbish

Russell says we do not need to be geniuses to avoid silly mistakes; a few simple rules are enough. First, if something can be checked by observation, check it yourself. Aristotle wrongly believed women have fewer teeth than men, simply because he never counted.

Second, notice your own bias. If an opposite opinion makes you angry, you probably have no good reason for your own belief. The fiercest quarrels are about things for which there is no clear evidence either way.

Third, get to know opinions from other circles — by travelling, meeting people who disagree with you or reading a newspaper of another party. If you cannot meet such people, imagine an argument with them; Russell sometimes changed his mind this way. But copying foreign customs is not always good, as the Chinese and Manchus showed by each adopting the other's foolish custom.

Fourth, be careful of any opinion that flatters your self-esteem — about your sex, your nation or the human race. Each side can find evidence for itself, so such questions have no provable answer. Humans are only a brief episode on a small planet.

Fifth, fear is a major source of error, superstition and cruelty; conquering fear is the start of wisdom. Yet Russell ends lightly: some superstitions, like a prophetess who 'proved' she could walk on water by not doing it, make life amusing. A wise man will always find plenty of intellectual rubbish around him.

Key points to remember

• Author: Bertrand Russell, British philosopher and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature (1950)
• 'Intellectual rubbish' means foolish, baseless beliefs held by people, even educated ones
• Rule 1: check by observation when you can (Aristotle and the teeth)
• Rule 2: anger at an opposite opinion signals your belief goes beyond the evidence
• Rule 3: learn opinions held in other social circles; travel or read the other side's newspaper
• Rule 4: hold an imaginary debate with a person of a different bias (Russell imagined Gandhi's arguments)
• Rule 5: distrust any opinion that flatters your self-esteem — sex, nation, mankind
• Rule 6: admit and conquer your fears; fear breeds superstition and cruelty
• Two ways of avoiding fear: believing we are immune to disaster, or sheer courage
• Primitive magic aims at safety through talismans, spells and incantations
• Cowards (poltroons) are more prone to cruelty and superstition than brave people
• Oxymoron: two contrasting words used together, like 'open secret'

Intellectual Rubbish – Notes

1. Rules for avoiding silly errors

• Observe for yourself: Aristotle could have counted his wife's teeth. Thinking you know when you don't is a fatal mistake. Russell himself would not write that hedgehogs eat black beetles until he had seen it.
• Watch your anger: we feel pity, not anger, for someone who says two and two make five. Anger shows we secretly lack good reasons.
• Widen your circle: living in France, Germany, Italy and the USA reduced Russell's narrow, insular prejudice. Others seem mad to us — and we seem the same to them.
• Argue in imagination: an imaginary opponent is not limited by time or place. Russell tested his views against what Gandhi, who disliked machines and railways, might have said, and became less dogmatic.
• Distrust flattering opinions: men and women each think their own sex superior; each nation thinks itself best, treating its merits as important and its faults as trivial.
• Conquer fear: until we admit our fears, we cannot think truly about important matters.

2. Examples Russell uses

• Aristotle and women's teeth — believing without checking.
• Hedgehogs and black beetles — Russell's own unchecked belief.
• Iceland on the equator, 2 + 2 = 5 — opinions we pity rather than fear.
• Chinese and Manchus — instead of dropping their own foolish customs (small feet for women, pigtails for men), each adopted the other's; the Chinese kept pigtails until the 1911 revolution.
• Gandhi — an imaginary opponent who opposed machinery and the industrial revolution.
• Osiris with a telephone number near Boston, and men claiming to be the Messiah — amusing letters Russell received.
• The prophetess by a lake in New York State (around 1820) who said she could walk on water; when her followers said they believed it, she said there was no need to do it.

3. Fear, superstition and cruelty

• Fear works directly — by spreading rumours of disaster in war or imagining ghosts.
• Fear works indirectly — by making us believe in comforting things such as a magic potion of everlasting life, or a heaven for ourselves and a hell for our foes.
• Forms of fear: fear of death, of the dark, of the unknown, and a vague general fear.
• Superstition comes mainly from fear, and so does much cruelty. Nobody — a person, a crowd or a nation — acts sanely under great fear.
• Two escapes from fear: convincing ourselves that disaster cannot touch us (popular — hence magic, talismans, mascots) or sheer courage (hard, but true wisdom).

4. Language work

• Oxymoron: contrasting words together — act naturally, open secret, liquid gas, original copy, sweet sorrow, sound of silence.
• Homophones: device (noun, a tool or plan) / devise (verb, to plan); advice (noun) / advise (verb); practice (noun) / practise (verb).
• Collocations: fatal mistake, foreign customs, plentiful supply, simple device, savage controversy, modern technique, foolish custom.
• Opposites: cautious–careless, dogmatic–open-minded, contrary–similar, savage–civilised, beneficial–harmful, reasonable–unreasonable, hypothetical–actual, cruelty–kindness, immune–vulnerable.

5. Meaning of 'intellectual rubbish'

• 'Intellectual' refers to the mind and thinking; 'rubbish' means waste or nonsense.
• So intellectual rubbish is nonsense that people believe as if it were knowledge — superstitions, prejudices, unchecked 'facts' and blind beliefs.
• Russell's tone is gently humorous: he says a wise person will always find a rich 'diet' of such rubbish in every age.

Words and phrases to know

Key terms

Intellectual Rubbish – Flashcards

Read the question, answer it in your head, then tap the card to check. 20 cards.

Intellectual Rubbish – MCQ Quiz

15 questions. Tap an option — you will see at once if it is right and why.

How to study Intellectual Rubbish

⏱ About 35 minutes

1. Read (15 min)
   Read the essay slowly, one rule at a time, and note Russell's example for each rule.
2. Learn (12 min)
   Learn the six ways of avoiding error, the two ways of avoiding fear, the word meanings, oxymorons and homophones.
3. Practise (8 min)
   Answer the 'Try it yourself' questions, take the quiz and play 🎮 Play.