Philosophy Now Forum

Rand is a woman who rejected the Abrahamic God and then spelt her life trying to emulate him.

Current read update: Hannah Arendt' The Human Condition'
which is proving to be a book requiring a detailed read going against every trend to disregard the notes and push on regardless.
So far she is coming across as a very insightful woman.
Suicide Hume seems to think suicide is justifiable ( I don't want to go down this path as book is not complete and at home and in life I am subject to much suicidal ideation) and seems to go down various philosophical paths by way of justification.
I am trying to read 12-16 books to catch up so I can get up to date and eventaully read 400pp a week.
cheers folks!

several Companions Companion to Contintental Philosophy;
Political Philosophy A Companion Blackwell
Political Companion An Anthology
and Freedom an Anthology
this is towards Research draft appraisal as I need to get some overview of current philosophical thinking in order to know where to locate it.
At the moment I am catching with small volumes to get numbers up.!!

Over the summer, well when my exams are over, I hope to read:

An Introduction to Political Philosophy - Jonathan Wolff
The Prime Minister: The Job and Its Holders Since 1945 - Peter Hennessy
Existentialism: A Guide for the Perplexed - Steven Earnshaw
The Outsider - Camus
Nausea - Sartre

Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

Hunters of Dune by Brian Herbert and the other dude that's cashing in on Frank Herbert's ability to write compelling sci fi

I'm halfway through Jacob Bronowski's "The Ascent of Man".

I just undertook Oscar Wilde's Picture of Dorian Gray, after seeing an article on it in issue 65.

Psychonaut wrote:Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

Hunters of Dune by Brian Herbert and the other dude that's cashing in on Frank Herbert's ability to write compelling sci fi

What are these books about Psychonaut re Hannah Arendt who thinks one way we escape is use Sci fi. I know Heroes and Dr Who but these authors are unknown to me.
best wishes

Grapes of Wrath is a wonderful story of an impoverished family in Depression era America.

Hunters of Dune is a sequel to one of the most awesome books within the science fiction pantheon; Dune by Frank Herbert. It is intelligent sci fi on an operatic scale and I would recommend it to anyone.

Another book I have just finished reading (I devoured it in a couple of days) is Stone Junction by Jim Dodge, which is a rather compelling read about an outlaw mystic with magic powerz.

Charles Stross: Accelerando. Sci-Fi future-shock novel. Fast read, tons of ideas about identity, memory, consciouness, et al in a reality on the way to the Singularity.

Hi

Accelerando - fast read - like it !!

However, I'm in slo-mo at the mo.
After a whirlwind journey thro' 'Zen and the Art of motorcycle maintenance' a good few years ago ( twas the kick-start of my interest in philo ! ) - I never got round to the follow-up 'Lila'.

Recently, found a copy in the basement of an old bookstore and intend to take my good sweet time with this one.

I'm only on page 48...and already fascinated with Pirsig's thoughts and style. I don't want to read 'deep' academic criticism of it before I experience this...it may change my outlook.
However, if anyone here is interested in being my travel companion, the choccie bickies are on me !

M.

I've come full circle and am rereading Walden - a book which I was inspired to read following discussions here, with Non Sum, over 2 years ago.

Been recommending it to a friend with no success but managed to convince myself to go back to it.

Before that I read a collection of poetry by Max Ehrman, the guy who wrote Desiderata and prior to that read a collection of poetry by W.H. Auden.

Back to academic books for now though - takes the fun out of them when you HAVE to read them somewhat.

"Categories" by Aristotle, which is not so long, so after that: "First Analytics" etc.

And for literary pleasure:
"Questa storia" by Alessandro Baricco,
"Cuentos mexicanos",
"Flaubert´s Parrot" by Julian Barnes.

I mentioned a while back here that I was re-reading 'Walden'. Today I was offered as many free books as I could carry by a librarian in the Uni - she was having a clearout. Lucky me! I grabbed some, including one by B.F. Skinner, called 'Walden 2' - the blurb indicates it's a bit like '1984' or 'Brave New World' - a mix of behaviourism principles taken to extremes and 'Thoreauvian' thought?

This sounds odd. How does one get from Thoreau - a sort of romantic/mystic/nature boy to fascist behaviourism/control?

Anyone read it? Is it worth a look? I'm curious but have a tendency to have to finish every book I begin, even when lousy. Somehow the premise seems on shaky ground but I might be missing a good read.

Hi Koyaa

Walden Two is certainly worth a read. The question is, did Skinner mean to be taken seriously?

Some people do take the idea seriously today:

www.waldentwo.org

I adore Sidney Morgenbesser’s characterization of Skinner's behaviourist views: “You think we shouldn’t anthropomorphize people”.