Current Reads: What is Everyone Reading?

For the discussion of philosophical books.

Moderators: AMod, iMod

Wootah
Posts: 223
Joined: Tue Apr 07, 2009 6:43 am

Re: Current Reads: What is Everyone Reading?

Post by Wootah »

Edward De Bono - Simplicity

Great read for finding structures that can help simp.
duszek
Posts: 2356
Joined: Wed Jun 03, 2009 5:27 pm
Location: Thin Air

Re: Current Reads: What is Everyone Reading?

Post by duszek »

Can you give some examples ?
Does he mention things like feng-shui ?

There is also a book: "Simplify your life" which I have not read.

One idea: you can simplify your life by not reading all the books that are worth it but by letting your friends tell you the quintessence of them instead. :mrgreen:
Wootah
Posts: 223
Joined: Tue Apr 07, 2009 6:43 am

Re: Current Reads: What is Everyone Reading?

Post by Wootah »

duszek wrote:Can you give some examples ?
Does he mention things like feng-shui ?

There is also a book: "Simplify your life" which I have not read.

One idea: you can simplify your life by not reading all the books that are worth it but by letting your friends tell you the quintessence of them instead. :mrgreen:
Nothing to do with feng shui. It's just on simplicity and what it means to make life simpler and some processes we can use to do it.
3 examples:
Combining - sometimes combining two activities makes life simpler. Doing the shopping and having a shop with everything you need.
Extracting - asking what is the purpose of this is to extract. For instance I remember reading a story about a person whose family used to cut the roast in half before cooking it. When they finally wondered why they did it they realised their mum did it. When they asked her she said it was because the oven in her house was too small. Of course this person had a different oven that the roast could fit in :)
Amputation - take something and chop off part of it. Look at what is left, what has changed, can it still work. Look beyond that and possibly a simpler way of doing things will arise.
amateurphilosophynerd
Posts: 205
Joined: Wed Feb 27, 2008 2:07 am
Contact:

Re: Current Reads: What is Everyone Reading?

Post by amateurphilosophynerd »

Richard Dawkins The God Delusion ( 200 pages)
and 214 pages to go of Nussbaum's Upheaval of the Emotions
I am aiming for the magic 24 then 25 to be 50% of the way through 50 Book Goal including of course beloved Librivox Audiobooks mainly but not exclusively in Philosophy (yes one DOES need to listen again).
Jack
Posts: 31
Joined: Wed Oct 17, 2007 3:09 pm

Re: Current Reads: What is Everyone Reading?

Post by Jack »

Martin Heidegger and the Pre-Socratics
Heidegger, Was heisst Denken?

An Introduction to His Thought
Weil kein Denker, so wenig wie ein Dichter, sich selbst verstehr.
by
GEORGE JOSEPH SEIDEL, O.S.B.
UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA PRESS . LINCOLN
User avatar
thinkahol
Posts: 4
Joined: Thu May 07, 2009 7:03 am

Re: Current Reads: What is Everyone Reading?

Post by thinkahol »

I Am a Strange Loop by Douglas Hofstadter (the author of Gödel, Escher, Bach)

http://books.google.com/books?id=OwnYF1 ... range+loop

"Book overview
Can thought arise out of matter? Can self, soul, consciousness, “I” arise out of mere matter? If it cannot, then how can you or I be here?

I Am a Strange Loop argues that the key to understanding selves and consciousness is the “strange loop”—a special kind of abstract feedback loop inhabiting our brains. The most central and complex symbol in your brain is the one called “I.” The “I” is the nexus in our brain, one of many symbols seeming to have free will and to have gained the paradoxical ability to push particles around, rather than the reverse.

How can a mysterious abstraction be real—or is our “I” merely a convenient fiction? Does an “I” exert genuine power over the particles in our brain, or is it helplessly pushed around by the laws of physics?

These are the mysteries tackled in I Am a Strange Loop, Douglas Hofstadter’s first book-length journey into philosophy since Gödel, Escher, Bach. Compulsively readable and endlessly thought-provoking, this is a moving and profound inquiry into the nature of mind."
duszek
Posts: 2356
Joined: Wed Jun 03, 2009 5:27 pm
Location: Thin Air

Re: Current Reads: What is Everyone Reading?

Post by duszek »

"The Wings of the Dove" by Henry James.

Kate Croy wants to satisfy everyone in the world, for example her greedy family, who push her into the arms of a rich aunt because they want the money for themselves.
She has a young friend and admirer (there were no boyfriends in those days, I suppose) who knows all about her difficult situation and is even willing to play a part.
bus2bondi
Posts: 1012
Joined: Fri Aug 29, 2008 3:08 am

Re: Current Reads: What is Everyone Reading?

Post by bus2bondi »

I was visiting suelo's moneyless blog this morning and found a link to his actual webpage aside from the blog and found something about Everett Ruess there. This made me start looking up more about Everett so i have been reading about him this morning. I didn't realize that he was who the movie 'Into The Wild' was based after (although i think the movie strays from the actual story a little i think as noone knows what actually happened to Everett and remains a mystery). Aside from reading about him and what he has actually written i stumbled upon a site for him that shows his actual artwork so have been looking through that too. I had never seen it before, but am now inlove with his art along with his story and writings.

http://everettruess.net/

http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Cafe/7423/ruess.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everett_Ruess
amateurphilosophynerd
Posts: 205
Joined: Wed Feb 27, 2008 2:07 am
Contact:

Re: Current Reads: What is Everyone Reading? nussbaum finished!

Post by amateurphilosophynerd »

I finished Nussbaum 'Upheavals of the Emotions, the Intelligence of the Emotions' last night all 714 pages before we meet the rather substantive Bibliography. Book 26 out of 50 proposed Reading List for this year. I am trying to work out what to read next.
Charles Taylor: Modern Social Imaginaries
Steven Lukes: Relativitivism (a prize!!)
Charles Taylor The Ethics of Authenticity
John Rawls : A Theory of Justice (big on my Justice list anyway but a massive volume yet another one to add to the voluminous pile)
Martha Nussbaum: Hiding from Humanity Disgust (key part of disability thing link with Upheavel I probably need to read Fragility of Goodness and other book ancient greek philosophy one?
Tom Shakespeare: Disability Rights and Wrongs this guy promises to be controversial which is always a good thing. There is good literature on Disability but not much by way of Political power and Political will.
(can back up conclusions Human Rights Act Govt trying to buck out of commitments, govt wants rellies to look after disabled not professionals an academic journal not good).
Any suggestions as to the way forward preferably so I maximise books read to bump up numbers but also get used to and acclimatized to reading massively huge volumes.
thanks
amateurphilosophynerd
Posts: 205
Joined: Wed Feb 27, 2008 2:07 am
Contact:

Re: Current Reads: What is Everyone Reading?

Post by amateurphilosophynerd »

I finished Nussbaum's Upheaval of Emotions a mega tome of 766pages
now I am reading Glover Causing death and Saving Lives and
Richard Dawkins The God Delusion which looks like a deconstruction exercise albeit an intelligent one.
I plan to follow with Steven Lukes 'Relativism' so its all gist to the mill as one might say.
Wootah
Posts: 223
Joined: Tue Apr 07, 2009 6:43 am

Re: Current Reads: What is Everyone Reading?

Post by Wootah »

grist to the mill ... http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/gris ... -mill.html

I just read CS Lewis The Great Divorce compared to your reading list that book seems like a comic.
tbieter
Posts: 1206
Joined: Wed Oct 17, 2007 6:45 pm
Location: St. Paul, Minnesota, USA

Re: Current Reads: What is Everyone Reading?

Post by tbieter »

Hey Ama:

Happy Halloween!

"I finished Nussbaum's Upheaval of Emotions a mega tome of 766pages."

Do you think that Professor Nussbaum is intellectually qualified to serve as a Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court?

Tom


amateurphilosophynerd wrote:I finished Nussbaum's Upheaval of Emotions a mega tome of 766pages
now I am reading Glover Causing death and Saving Lives and
Richard Dawkins The God Delusion which looks like a deconstruction exercise albeit an intelligent one.
I plan to follow with Steven Lukes 'Relativism' so its all gist to the mill as one might say.
amateurphilosophynerd
Posts: 205
Joined: Wed Feb 27, 2008 2:07 am
Contact:

Re: Current Reads: What is Everyone Reading?

Post by amateurphilosophynerd »

Happy Halloween/All Saints Day me I don't 'do' Halloween but Happy day nonetheless.


I think her ideas on emotions should be taken into account in legal ideas as they affect both men and women.
Men need to be encouraged to let it out just like we all need emotional care.
In that sense her ideas should be part of the US Supreme Court.(philosophy in charge would vary from analytic culture versions (Taylor Nussbaum) to more liberating ones (Continental cousins).
Nussbaums ideas are very insightful ie UPHEAVAL. lives have been changed forever by Upheaval which shifts emotions to a different plateuux not neccesarily a positive one.
Is that what you wanted to know or can I help you further.
nb
I have read Lukes Moral Relativism
Jonathan glover 'Causing Death and Saving Lives'
I have an Audiobook copy of TGD
and I have read Tom Shakespeare 'Disability Rights and Wrongs' because I was desperate for a disabled view as Glover was too prone to view the above as burdensome and his account needed Shakespeares rational balancing.
Current Read ' No Logo Naomi Klein' (so far a corker)
and Althusser 'On Ideology' because I needed a small compact book relating back to Critical Theory and Continental Philosophy itself full of challenges.
*intellectual promiscuity is an asset if you can give yourself to different authors in pursuit of being exposed to the widest possible range of ideas on a once read to get it done basis'
*best wishes all and to you TB I am honoured to have you make an enquiry of me*
Amerie
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Nov 28, 2009 7:05 pm

Re: Current Reads: What is Everyone Reading?

Post by Amerie »

John Locke - Second Treatise of Government

Riveting really...
amateurphilosophynerd
Posts: 205
Joined: Wed Feb 27, 2008 2:07 am
Contact:

Re: Current Reads: What is Everyone Reading?

Post by amateurphilosophynerd »

This List is updated every time I finish a book be it Audiobooks which are in Italics and normally from Librivox or conventional paper copy.
1.Book 1 Study is Hard Work Armstrong
2.Book 2 Gang Leader for a Day
3.Book 3 Jeffrey Deaver The Broken Window
4.Book 4 Snyder and Mitchell Cultural Locations of Disability
5.Book 5 Some said it thundered David Pytches
6.Book 6 Bertrand Russell The Problems of Philosophy
7.Book 7 Milan Kundera An Unbearable Lightness of Being
8.Book 8 Clare Boylan The Agony and the Ego
9.Book 9 Charles Taylor Sources of the Self the making of modern identity
10.Book 10 Naomi Klein The Shock Doctrine
11.Book 11 Doris Lessing The Golden Notebook
12.Book 12 Friedrich Nietzsche Beyond Good and Evil

13.Book 13 Sue Monk Kidd The Secret Life of Bees
14.Book 14 Machiavelli The Prince
15.Book 15 Jade Goody Forever in my heart Official Cancer Diaries
16.Book 16 Alexander mc call smith The No 1 Ladies Detective Agency
17.Book 17 Homer The Illiad
18.Book 18 David Hume An Enquiry into human understanding
19. J S Mill Utilitarianism

20. Alexander Mc Call Smith 'Tears of a Girraffe'

21. George Stock 'Stoicism'

22. Martin Lewis Three things about Money

23. Homer The Odyssey

24.Euthyphro Plato

25. Milton The Aeropagita

26 Martha Nussbaum Upheavals of Thought: the Intelligence of the Emotions 766 pages

27 Jonathan Glover 'Causing Deaths and Saving Lives'

28 Steven Lukes 'Moral Relativism'

29 Tom Shakespeare 'Disability Rights and Wrongs'

30 Sophie Kinsella ' The Undomesticated Goddess'

31. Naomi Klein 'No Logo'

32. Louis Althusser 'On Ideology'

33. George Bernard Shaw 'Pygmalion'

34. John Carey 'Pure Pleasure'

35. John Jacques Rousseau 'The Discourse on Ineqaulity'


36 Nietzsche The Joyful Science

37 Plato The Ion
Post Reply