Bertrand russell debate copleston transcript

This extract is a transcript (a written-down version of a recording) of a famous radio debate between the Catholic priest and philosopher F.C. Copleston and the philosopher Bertrand Russell . The discussion was broadcast in 1948; Copleston went on to debate Religious Language with his friend, the philosopher A.J. Ayer .

The original debate was in three parts. The two debated the Cosmological Argument , Religious Experience and the Moral Argument for the existence of God. However, the extract in the Edexcel Anthology stops at the end of the section on religious experiences and this is all you need to know.

The entire extract is summarised here:

Introducing the Debate

The two debaters remain polite and civil throughout, even when they disagree (and get frustrated)
The two debaters define their terms before the argument and agree on those definitions
Their debate consists of setting out premises that lead to conclusions , then challenging those premises
The debate is conducted based on reason, not upon revelation : although he is a Catholic priest, Copleston does not try to support his argument by appealing to the authority of the Bible, the Catholic Church, his own religious experiences or miracles,
They avoid ad hominems (suggesting that an opponent must be wrong because of some personal quality like prejudice rather than because their argument is faulty)

The debate starts with a lengthy discussion of the Cosmological Argument . Copleston presents a version of the argument based on contingency, which is based on Aquinas' 'Third Way' and Leibniz's Principle of Sufficient Reason . Russell responds by questioning whether necessary existence (aseity) is a meaningful concept, whether we are justified in assuming that there are causes and whether the universe is something that requires an explanation: he famously argues that it is a 'brute fact'.

This argument ends in a draw (some would say Russell is the most persuasive), Russell argues that the question of an ultimate cause for the universe has no meaning as a scientific question and claims that the question cannot be understood in any other way. The two agree to move on.

The debate moves on to a shorter discussion of religious experience. This quickly turns into an argument over whether religious experiences resemble aesthetic experiences - is encountering God like encountering a character in a novel or a history book? Russell thinks these experiences are subjective (they exist only in the imagination) but Copleston links these to moral values which are objective (they exist in the real world).

This argument ends inconclusively. The two debaters are about to discuss the Moral Argument for the existence of God, but the Edexcel Anthology extract ends here.