Introduction
This is a quote from British philosopher Bertrand Russell’s essay ‘The good life’. He says that although both love and knowledge are necessary, love is more fundamental as it makes people look for knowledge about how to benefit those whom they love. Knowledge is necessary because, without it, people will accept what they have been told, which might spell harm to the one for whom they bear the most genuine feeling of love and benevolence. So, a good life primarily results from the feeling of love as inspiration and is guided by knowledge.
Many decades later, the legendary Zen Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh was to echo Russell when he said, “To love without knowing how to love wounds the person we love.” Russell, however, is careful enough to note that ‘knowing how to love’ requires that we first come to know of love’s many dimensions.
Many Dimensions of Love
According to Russell, love includes a variety of feelings. To him, love “on principle’ doesn’t seem genuine. It moves between two poles: (i) pure delight in contemplation; and (ii) pure benevolence. In respect of love for inanimate objects, delight is the sole feeling of love, for according to Russell, “we cannot feel benevolence towards a landscape or a sonata.” He claims that the source of art is to be presumably found in this type of delight, as a rule, and we may guess from our own experience that it is stronger in very young children than in adults. This is because adults are prone to view objects in a utilitarian manner; as something of use to fulfil some purpose which is not the case with young children. When love finds its expression as feelings towards human beings considered as an object of aesthetic contemplation, we tend to see them as charming or reverse. The other pole of love is benevolence; mother Teresa and others loved and served lepers who could have given no aesthetic delight; parents love and sacrifice everything for their children even if they are hideous to look at.
Russell says love at its fullest is an indissoluble combination of the two elements, delight, and well-wishing. For instance, the pleasure of a parent in a beautiful and successful child combines both elements; so does such couple love where there is secure possession and no jealousy. A person, who wishes to be loved, wishes to be the object of love containing both these elements.
Love and knowledge for Good Life
There have been at different times and among different people many varying conceptions of the good life. To some extent, the differences were amenable to the argument; this was when men differed as to the means to achieve a given end. Some think that prison is a good way of preventing crime; others hold reformation and education would be better. A difference of this sort can be decided by sufficient evidence. But some differences cannot be tested in this way. Tolstoy condemned all ways; others have held the life of a soldier doing battle most deserving of the right to be very noble. Here there was probably involved a real difference in terms of ends. Those who praised the soldier usually consider the punishment of sinners a good thing in itself; Tolstoy did not think so. On such a matter, no argument is possible. This view of the good life cannot, therefore, be proved right; however, it is worth agreeing to: The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge.
Knowledge and love are both indefinitely extensible; therefore, however good a life maybe, a better life can be imagined. On the other hand, neither love without knowledge nor knowledge without love can produce a good life. When pestilence appeared in a country in the Middle Ages, holy men advised the population to assemble in churches and pray for deliverance; the result was that the infection spread with extraordinary rapidity among the crowded masses of supplicants. This was an example of love without knowledge. The late war afforded an example of knowledge without love. In each case, the result was death on a large scale.
We’ve seen it is primarily loved that inspires one to seek knowledge that would guide them to benefit those they love and make their lives good. But, on the other hand, if knowledge does not exist, one will be content to believe what they have been told, which could harm the person they love and want to benefit from. Medicine affords the best example of this. A physician with his knowledge is more useful to a patient than the most devoted but ignorant friend, and progress in medical knowledge results in far greater benefit to the health of the community than ill-informed philanthropy.
Love inspires people to live a life of principles and morality. However, morality per se is a curious blend of utilitarianism and superstition. The latter is the origin point of all moral rules. It all started with certain acts being considered as angering the gods and causing divine wrath to descend upon the entire community even though the guilty would be an individual. So, these acts were forbidden by law with the conception of sin, as that which is displeasing to God. Curiously, no reason can be assigned to why certain acts were branded, thus displeasing. Utilitarianism focuses on the knowledge of outcomes to determine whether something is right or wrong. It considers the one that will produce the greatest good for the greatest number of people as the most ethical choice. This is how war is justified, and so is a business decision. However, Utilitarianism has limitations; we do not know the future and hence cannot say if the consequences of our actions will be good or bad. It is evident that a man with scientific knowledge will not be intimidated by sacred scripture or religion. He will not accept any act as sin without inquiring what will cause harm—the act itself or the belief that it is a sin. He will invariably discover superstition and will realize that, like the Aztecs, it involves needless cruelty instituted by the custodians of traditional morality, perhaps to afford a legitimate outlet for their sadistic desire to inflict pain. Superstitions and sin would vanish if people were actuated by feelings of love and benevolence towards their fellow humans.
Conclusion
In conclusion, we can say that to live a good life in the complete sense, a man must be inspired by the love for the self as well as for the others; and also love for knowledge as well as human values which will guide him to act with kindness, morality, and benevolence for the love of humanity.
