But Swift's Yahoos, repulsive as they are, lack the worst qualities of modern man, since they lack his intelligence. To describe man as a mixture of god and beast is hardly fair to the beasts. He must rather be conceived as a mixture of god and devil. No beast and no Yahoo could commit the crimes committed by Hitler and Stalin. There seems no limit to the horrors that can be inflicted by a combination of scientific intelligence with the malevolence of Satan.
Source： Bertrand Russell: Human Society in Ethics and Politics, 1954, part II: The Conflict of Passions, chapter 10: Prologue or Epilogue? n3
More info.：https://russell-j.com/cool/47T-2_1003.htm
* a brief comment:
When I was a student, one type of modern Japanese reading comprehension question that frequently appeared on university entrance exams was a written response prompt such as: “What does the underlined word mean (or what does it refer to)? Explain in 50 characters or fewer.” I wonder if such questions are still common today.
In those cases, the underlined word was often used in an unusual way, not in its standard sense, or with an emphasis on some exceptional nuance that is not typically highlighted.
The word “intelligence” in today’s quotation from Russell functions in just such a way. Unlike “knowledge,” the word “intelligence” is rarely used with a negative connotation. But here, Russell specifically focuses on a negative aspect of intelligence.
By the way, in the passage, we encounter both the words “devil” and “Satan” (note that “Satan” is capitalized!). Can readers really grasp the distinction between them without any explanatory note?
Since both terms appear together in this passage, I chose to translate “Satan” as 「サタン」 and add a footnote. However, if only “Satan” had appeared, wouldn’t it likely have been translated simply as 「悪魔」 in Japanese? But doing so would obscure what Russell is actually trying to say.
As indicated by the capital “S,” Russell is referring here to “Satan as the embodiment of absolute evil endowed with reason and will.”
Because Christianity is involved here, something we tend to overlook, it is important to pay careful attention to the context.
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