What original work to read now?

For the discussion of philosophical books.

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Greylorn Ell
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Location: SE Arizona

Re: What original work to read now?

Post by Greylorn Ell »

Ansiktsburk wrote:I started to take an interest in philosophy about five years ago (i have a day-time job) after an evening-time course in "History of ideas" in Uppsala university

I got interested in philosophy, read some general works on history of philosophy and so. Then I have read some original works, but I cannot decide on what next original stuff to read.

Kind of hard for you to say, but if I say what I have read maybe you can see a continuation:

Platon - The Republic and some shorter dialogues (ok, but not fantastic, the counterparts to Socrates are too stupid)
Nietzsche - The Gay Sience (Love it!) and Zarathustra (beautiful, but too ego tripped)
Bergson - Time and the free will (really interesting, I like the flow idea)
Kant - The Prolegomena (Good stuff, but I need no more details)
Heidegger - Being and Time (Started to read mostly to understand the academic bullsh*tting, tough going, but surprisingly interesting)
Russell - the History of Western Philosophy (wonderful, not least the WW2 bias), On Denoting(well, I did maths on a Technical Institue level, but not my thing)
Wittgenstein - on certainty (cool!), Tractatus (just glanced, too much formal logic)
Sartre - Existentialism is a humanism (interesting)
Popper - the free society and its enemies (really interesting, made me see politics in a new way)

So, what's next, you who have read a lot? Many suggestions are welcome.
How to Read a Book, Mortimer Adler.

That suggestion is not an insult to your reading skills. Adler changed the way I read books, and I thought that I was a good reader.

After you've read Adler, you might consider perusing my book. Or, you might not.
Gl
Felasco
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Joined: Thu Nov 15, 2012 12:38 pm

Re: What original work to read now?

Post by Felasco »

Greylorn Ell wrote:After you've read Adler, you might consider perusing my book.
The only book I would ever consider reading is one by Greylorn Ell, because everyone else is incurably stupid.
Greylorn Ell
Posts: 892
Joined: Thu Jan 02, 2014 9:13 pm
Location: SE Arizona

Re: What original work to read now?

Post by Greylorn Ell »

Felasco wrote:
Greylorn Ell wrote:After you've read Adler, you might consider perusing my book.
The only book I would ever consider reading is one by Greylorn Ell, because everyone else is incurably stupid.
Felasco,

Bad attitude, for several reasons.

1. Mortimer Adler was not incurably stupid, even when he lived. He was a thoughtful philosopher.

2. Reading guys like Adler will make you smarter. If you actually comprehend his ideas.

3. Not everyone is incurably stupid. Many of those who post on this forum actually read ideas with which they are unfamiliar, rather than rely upon their belief that they are so fucking smart that they cannot benefit from the insights of others.

4. You are not qualified to read my book, so please do not even try. Even the two or three pages that you might imagine that you can kind of understand will just piss you off, and you obviously do not need more pissing off of.

Greylorn
Ansiktsburk
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Location: Central Scandinavia

Re: What original work to read now?

Post by Ansiktsburk »

Ansiktsburk wrote:
Hobbes' Choice wrote:Forget Rand.

Try this:


A PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES, 1492-PRESENT By HOWARD ZINN

Sadly It's not available on Kindle in the UK, why I know not.
So why not Google the PDF, and send it to your kindle?
Ok, Rand and Zinn does not look totally the same on how to run things...

I got through Zinn now, took me some time, quite a substantial volume, and obviously there were no Swedish translation.

Interesting. A well-written account of US history from a standpoint that is similar to Swedish social democrats. A lot of it was familiar to me, no big surprises, and gave no impression of being propaganda. I do recommend it to all being interested in an alternative US history.

But of course, I will not forget Rand. On the contrary, It seems as the natural work to continue after this one. After that I will go on to something more philosopical, I think.
As a matter of fact, Zinn, APHOUSA and Rand were really good suggestions. Read some collections of Rand's "papers". Those two were a good intro to american political history. Have since read Rawls (trivia-iep-sep-yalelectures-most of ATOJ) and Nozick (trivia-iep-sep-yalelectures- halfway through ASU). The latter two guys gets really interesting, Rand and Zinn line up so obvious for a "side", and even thouh Rawls kind of postulates Justice and Nozick postulates "don't force individuals", one can see the obvious tradeoffing between the two form something that looks like the real world, and something that one might agree with.
RickLewis
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Re: What original work to read now?

Post by RickLewis »

At one point Nozick and Rawls used to have offices next door to each other. Not a lot of people know that.
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