Importance and place of human in Russell's philosophy

ABSTRACTAKINCIOĞLU Saadet, İmportance and Place Of Human İn Russell?s Philosophy, Master Of Arts with Thesis, Ankara, 2010.The aim of this study is to analyze the place of humans, who always had a philosophical issue to deal in every century, in Russell`s philosophy, one of the thinkers of 21st century. Being one of the important thinkers of 21st century and getting attention not only through theoretical philosophy but also through practical philosophy, Russell based his ideas on offering solutions to people or humanity that suffered greatly under the big social problems of this century. By stating that wars have devastating effects on people, Russell thinks that wars put people into a state of being lonely and he pays attention to the fact that what can be done to eradicate this situation. Russell, witnessing depressive years of war, highlights that the main reason for social unrest and uneasiness is policies supporting war and adds that each person is valuable and unique. Religion, morality, structures which are based on these and imposed people with the idea of living together as society put limits to humanity and passivize all. Russell says all these institutions which have been thought to be never shaken by any are actually rotten by themselves. He wants this to be known and questions all the basics of religion and moral norms. He thinks most predominant thing in life is freedom and it should not be restricted. To him, the things that can constitute heritage of humanity are free thought and free actions. Creativity is what makes a person a human being and what carries the norms of humanity to prospective generations. For that reason, obstacles in front of creativity should be removed and people should be encouraged to think and act freely.Key Words:1-Person, 2-Religion, 3-Ethics, 4-Politics, 5-Education