Tag: #philosophy

Walden — Henry David Thoreau

By 5t4n5

Walden -- Henry David ThoreauAfter reading Into the Wild, where this book gets a fair bit of mentioning, one just had to see what all the fuss was about.

It certainly starts off incredibly well with the first 25% of the book — being mostly one chapter titled, “Economy” — explaining the ins and outs of what leads Thoreau to Walden Pond and away from a normal life and the cost of doing so.   And it is very clear in this first quarter that Thoreau is a very capable writer who can get straight to the heart of the matter and keep the reader’s attention.

But then we begin the second chapter, “Where I Lived and What I Lived For”, and thus the tedium begins: word after word of pointless, boring tedium.   Was it so utterly dull for him sitting by the pond, day after day after day with no one to talk to, that he just sat and wrote words for hour upon hour and simply spewed them forth upon pages enough to make up a reasonable amount to call it a book in order to sell it so he didn’t have to get a real job?

I just found myself reading paragraph after paragraph with a totally numbed out mind, noticing only a few words of interest here and there but mostly it’s just babble: babble, babble, babble, babble, blah, blah, blah.   I tried, i really did, but i just cannot see why people so rave about this book.

Maybe chapter 3 onwards is back to the standard of chapter 1, but i simply could not get through chapter 2.

So, inevitably, it got …

… Deleted.

Henry’s Page

#philosophy #henrydavidthoreau #whataloadofcrap

The Doors of Perception: And Heaven and Hell — Aldous Huxley

By 5t4n5

The Doors of Perception: And Heaven and Hell -- Aldous HuxleyOne day i’ll get around to reading this again, it’s been nearly 30 years and it just popped up in Kindle Daily Deals for 99p so i couldn’t turn it down.

I’m hoping to digitally rebuild my Aldous Huxley collection that i used to have years ago in real books – maybe when i’ve got a load i’ll have a good Huxley binge, but until then they can sit and gather some digital dust.

Aldous’ Page

#philosophy #aldoushuxley

A Child at Heart — Christopher Phillips

By 5t4n5

A Child at Heart -- Christopher PhillipsThose of us interested in longevity and remaining young, fit and healthy as long as possible, realise early on that it all begins in the mind.   If the mind is not on board for an extended lifespan then the brain and body simply isn’t going to go there.

While this book doesn’t look specifically into the longevity benefits of a youthful mind it still has plenty to teach us.   This book is a wonderfully detailed look at the minds of all stages and ages of life and how we interact with each other — and Christopher isn’t shy of giving plenty of thoughts on what is wrong with our current view and treatment of young people and how that is impacting on adults and society as a whole.   As Christopher is a parent himself this book does give a few thoughts on parenting without being preachy about anything and i would definitely recommend it for parents or aspiring parents.

But Christopher is also very clearly a Socratic philosopher, and this book, i feel, continues the ideas of Socrates in how society, not just parents, should relate to and listen to young people.   I do find it incredibly disheartening that after more than 2000 years since Socrates execution for simply doing what Christopher prescribes in this book that adults still aren’t engaging with young people and giving them their rightful place within society.   And then adult society has the audacity to blame young people for causing the problems.

Whether you’re a parent, a philosopher, a youth worker, or someone simply interested in creating a better world, this book is a very good read and well worth getting a copy.

Christopher’s Page

#philosophy #christopherphillips

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values — Robert M. Pirsig

By 5t4n5

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance -- Robert M. PirsigIt’s one of those ubiquitous books that’s kept turning up on library shelves, charity shop shelves and bookshop shelves throughout my life and yet i’ve always walked away from it, until now.

I’ve always had quite a deep interest in Zen and it always seemed to me that putting it with motorcycle maintenance just wasn’t something i wanted to know about.   But now i have a motorbike that needs some maintenance, and this book turned up in a “Kindle Deal” for 99p, i thought the time was right.

But oh, how wrong i’ve been all these years.   It’s not a book about Zen, or how to fix a motorbike while practising Zen, it’s a wholly different thing altogether.

In fact, it’s a road trip book where our narrator takes his son on a road trip on an old motorbike across the USA.   But it’s a road trip with a difference.

At it’s heart it’s a book about insanity, the condition of society and its relationship to technology, and a fair bit of Greek philosophy as well; and it’s all broken up with the story of the road trip.   And it’s simply, awesome.

With hindsight, i’m happy that i’ve never read it until now as i’m much older and it really blended nicely with my own life experiences: having dropped out of a Philosophy degree course for much the same reasons and now many years later i can look back and see things more clearly.

This is the 40th Anniversary Edition and the ending in the “Afterword” is what truly completes this book.   It really is a masterpiece of writing, so make sure you buy this edition.

Robert’s Page

#philosophy #robertmpirsig

Other Minds — Peter Godfrey-Smith

By 5t4n5

Other Minds -- Peter Godfrey-SmithOne incredibly interesting book for anyone who enjoys learning about evolution — and cephalopods, of course.

Written by a philosopher, the writing is really accessible and really engages the reader: unlike a lot of scientists’ approach to this subject.   It dives deep into the world of the evolution of large brains and intelligence and how they have evolved along completely different evolutionary paths.

It also explores the world and habits of cephalopods, particularly octopuses, but a fair bit about cuttlefish as well.   These really are the most incredible creatures.

Well worth a read.

And here’s something that’s worth a watch:

YouTube

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Peter’s Page

#philosophy #petergodfreysmith

Night Train to Lisbon — Pascal Mercier

By 5t4n5

Night Train to Lisbon -- Pascal MercierAs someone who totally enjoys philosophy Huxley style, i found this book absolutely wonderful and incredibly thought provoking.

I really do love good philosophers who are able to place deep philosophical discourse into novels that can either be read just as stories and/or as works of philosophy.   Aldous Huxley was a master at this after becoming annoyed that only academia would ever read his philosophy papers and went in search of a much broader demographic — which Huxley certainly achieved.   Peter Bieri, AKA Pascal Mercier, while not having written as much as Huxley, certainly matches him, IMHO, for depth of thinking and skill of writing.

What i really enjoy about the philosophical novel is that, to my mind, it frees up the thinking of the philosopher to say much, much more than if they were simply writing an academic paper.   In a novel the philosopher can ascribe thoughts and ideas to fictional characters and not then have to carry any burden for holding such a view point themselves, whether they do or not, they can simply blame it upon the character and distance themselves from it entirely; while in academic philosophy what is written is pretty much always blamed on the philosopher.   History is littered with examples of people punished, tortured and/or killed simply for writing or saying the wrong thing, and has shown that philosophers are more than willing to whore themselves to whatever views the ruling classes, peers and/or academia hold at the time.   You only have to go to universities where future philosophers are trained to write what their professors want else they don’t get their degrees.

The philosophical novel, therefore, can be far more honest and express a much broader scope of ideas than any academic paper.

Anyways, get your thinking cap on if you want to read this one.   It’ll certainly get the neurons fired up.

Pascal’s Page

#philosophy #pascalmercier