In 1952, the English philosopher Bertrand Russell, wrote a paper entitled 'Is there a God?' in which he argued that the burden of proof of an unverifiable statement remained with the person making the claim, rather than on an observer attempting to prove the statement's falsehood. The analogy he used was that of a teapot, orbiting the Sun between Earth and Mars. Simply put, he argued that just because an observer could not prove the teapot didn't exist, that did not mean it did exist.
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| the Russellian solar system, with orbiting teapot, courtesy of Prima |
Personally, I believe Bertrand Russell was an entertaining and challenging writer and thinker. I do not endorse his views on all subjects, nor do I seek to force them on others.
My daughter Prima is fascinated by Russell, and in homage to his paper, she created a teapot in his honour.
And because we are all flawed beings, we failed to spell his name correctly:
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8 comments:
Perfect quirkiness. Now there will always (why shouldn't there?) be a teapot orbiting between Mars and Earth, ready to touch down and pour where needed most.
Well done Prima - it's a lovely teapot, unique, no matter what one's beliefs or lack thereof.
It's marvelous. I love the colors. I'm guessing that Bertrand would be proud to drink from it.
This proof fixation has been going on for a long time.
In this case you can't prove the thing either way, so I'm quite happy -being an agnostic - to let those with certainty either way cling to their beliefs.
In the meantime, how about a nice cuppa?
What a wonderful idea, to create a teapot in his honour! I'm sure he'd have loved it.
It's a lovely teapot, and should you grow tired of Bertrand Russell, it can always be rededicated to Russel Arnold, the former Sri Lankan Test cricketer and current commentator. (To make this especially appropriate, Sri Lanka is a leading world producer of tea.)
I love Tim jones comment. Prima is wonderfully talented ... and thoughtful.
The tribute teapot, so inspired, so wonderful, yet my own off-kilter nature pulls me to the illustrated orbits, thinking, these are my people. xo
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