'These propositions may seem mild, yet, if accepted, they would absolutely revol
utionize human life.' With these words Bertrand Russell introduces what is indee
d a revolutionary book. Taking as his starting-point the irrationality of the wo
rld, he offers by contrast something 'wildly paradoxical and subversive' - a bel
ief that reason should determine human actions. Today, besieged as we are by the
numbing onslaught of twenty-first-century capitalism, Russell's defence of scep
ticism and independence of mind is as timely as ever.
