Recommended Reading

I'll add that one to the list, Bill. After Beyond Good and Evil I'm planning on reading Radical Honesty again, just to engrain the concepts into my mind some more. After that the list is open, perhaps I'll read that one. It definitely seems interesting. From what I understand about human history, the argument that the cyclical nature of the rise and fall of civilizations is due to repeatedly poor choices seems much more likely than some kind of deterministic explanation.

Ryan: If you want to read something that I found quite pertinant in understanding the broader structural elements of the Syrian Civil War, I would really recommend Hannah Arendt's On Violence. It is an excellent piece on state violence.

Another book that was a pretty major influence on my political beliefs is Nicholas Lemann's The Promised Land: The Great Black Migration and How It Changed America. The title is fairly misleading as it really devotes more detail to discussing the social factors that lead to the "War on Poverty", the infighting and chaos that was many of the social welfare projects of the 1960s, and their eventual breakdown, as well as the consequences for Black America. A really well done book.

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Sweet, I'll check them out, Bill.

I wanted to pose a question to everyone regarding something that Nietzsche said early on in Beyond Good and Evil :

"Gradually it has become clear to me what every great philosophy so far has bee: namely, the personal confession of its author and a kind of involuntary and unconscious memoir...

In the philosopher, conversely, [conversely to the scientist he was writing about just previously] there is nothing whatever that is impersonal; and above all, his morality bears decided and decisive witness to who he is -- that is, in what order of rank the innermost drives of his nature stand in relation to each other. "


I guess I'm just curious if anyone had had the same or at least a very similar view on the older philosophers. I had simply assumed the above because I couldn't see how else it could be.

I'm no arts major, but here's my take. I think Nietzsche is being a bit bland there, acknowledging in those words that there is no consciousness and philsophy in a sociocultural vacuum. I think most or all people who think about thinking enough to go out of their way to read philosphy figure this out for themselves. Keep condensing it further and it gets even more uninteresting: personal thoughts have personal context, products of our environment, etc.

Ironically I'm taking his words out of context though, he would be driving home a point I'm not privvy to, but I wouldnt know: I find philosphy taken neat a bit dry for my liking.

I'll take a second to reccomend some Kurt Vonnegut: "Slaughterhouse 5" is one of the books that has influenced me most. Books dont need to be non-fiction for you to learn from them; Kurt was awarded his masters in Anthropolgy for "Cats Cradle". Not a bad read if you're in the mood for something a bit allegorical.

Ryan,
Have you seen Dr. Jordan Peterson's video on a small chapter from Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil? It came up on my YouTube suggestions, but I haven't watched it.

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Jason, Jordan's talk of Nietzsche was what prompted me to read his book.

SecondCrack, I have a really high amount of interest in ideas. As in just thinking about ideas takes up a large amount of my free time. So even when they're presented in very abstract and detached forms I still get a lot out of it. That being said, if a person writes a fictional story that has enough depth and meaning to the characters and story itself, it's definitely something that can communicate ideas just as effectively as straight philosophical writing. The issue for me is that if I'm left to interpret the meaning of a story, I have no clue if I actually got it right.

I almost never read entries in things like the Stanford Philosophy Encyclopedia because I prefer to either think for myself or read the original writings of other thinkers. I find it too constraining, it seems to frame my thoughts in an almost involuntary way. Whereas if I just think about a topic on my own, I have nothing keeping my mind boxed in and am instead completely free. Then when I write my own stuff I can claim that most of my ideas and views are really my own, not simply copied or slightly modified forms of other people's.

When you say you're not sure you got it right, do you mean you're not sure if you get the whole meaning, or are you not sure you get the correct meaning?

The former I take care of by reading other people's notes and analysis, author interviews etc after I've finished, and the latter I don't worry about, because in my view the quality of an idea is not dependant on where it came from or in what work it's present.

But my enjoyment of reading and ideas is going to be different to other people's, so that's why I read what I do, sounds like you have figured out what you like too.

I read a while ago a comment along the lines of how much really good writing there is out there; classic stories, philosophy, history etc, that nobody has enough time to read it all. For every piece of crap you read, that's something great you no longer have time to read. One of my co-workers reads nothing but pulp romance; and at first I felt bad for them, everything they were missing out on, but then I thought time enjoyed is not really time wasted is it?

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SecondCrack
When you say you're not sure you got it right, do you mean you're not sure if you get the whole meaning, or are you not sure you get the correct meaning?

Both really. In some sense it doesn't matter from a subjective perspective but problems arise when you go from saying, "I think the story conveys these messages" to saying, "The messages conveyed by the story are "x y and z" ", if all you're going on is your own interpretation.

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SecondCrack
...in my view the quality of an idea is not dependant on where it came from or in what work it's present.

I would certainly agree with that, ideas are what they are regardless of the source that provides them.

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SecondCrack
...time enjoyed is not really time wasted is it?

Definitely not.

Although I find Joe Rogan somewhat irritating, introducing Jordan Peterson to the wider world is a good thing. Brilliant thinker.

"Clean your room"

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Bill22252 on YouTube. "See you space cowboy"

Resident Emerson Fanboi

Folding knives are fun, fixed blades are important.

I have had a more difficult time reading Beyond Good and Evil than I have with any other book. It's very complex. It's been slow going. But I gotta say, I don't think I've ever read something this interesting. Basically what happens is that I read a block of text, anywhere from a sentence to a paragraph, and then think about it for a few seconds to see if I understand it. If I don't think I do, I repeat the reading and analysis until I feel like I've got it. As I said, it's been slow going, but it's been enjoyable because it's a challenge to read and the ideas are interesting.

One amazing thing he figured out, something that I think people would do well to understand and expand upon, is that a thought comes when "it" wants, and not when "I" want it to. I'm not sure how he figured this out, I learned it from Buddhist teachers who showed me how to be aware of what's happening in the present moment, but he may have simply figured it out himself by observing his experience for long enough to be aware enough to realize that thoughts just appear in consciousness, they're not willfully brought there. At least from a subjective point of view.

I figured it came about from his deep sexual frustration.

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Old Spice
I figured it came about from his deep sexual frustration.

Haha, lots of things can be realized through that kind of frustration. Some constructive, some destructive, some are neutral and just are what they are.

It’s probably not helpful to recommend that a person live their life based on the contents of only one book, the idea being that said book contains all you need to know in order to live the good life, but I think I’ve found a book that I would actually be comfortable recommending in that way. Before anyone jumps the gun, just read the book or try the free sample on your Kindle or phone:

“How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World” by Harry Browne

Link to the cheapest way to get the book: [www.amazon.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/20/2018 12:00AM by Ryan Nafe.

I highly recommend this short read:

Sir John Glubb - The Fate of Empires

It’s also available freely in PDF in the public domain.

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