What are you currently reading?

Started by facehugger, April 07, 2007, 12:36:10 AM

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Dry Brett Kavanaugh

#11600
Quote from: SonicMan46 on October 24, 2021, 08:56:08 AM
Hi Brett - I was thinking of getting Russell's A History of Western Philosophy as a Kindle edition but stated to be 930 printed pages - at my age, I rarely read books over 400 or so pages (just don't have the attention span of my younger years); so looked at the Five Best Books on Western Philosophy and Anthony Kenny's name is mentioned multiple times, but his 'best book' below is 1000 pages - YIKES!  He has less daunting other books (e.g. 'brief history').  Finally, in my consideration is the Columbia History of Western Philosophy stated to be 800+ pages, a book edited by Richard Popkin w/ 63 contributors.  I may explore Kenny's shorter books?  Dave :)

   

I have the book by Kenny, as well as the book by Russell. While the both are excellent, the former is very enjoyable. You don't have to read all the pages, just pick the sections/issues you would like. The book is a compilation of separate volumes originally issued. You could buy separate volumes of the original books as well.

P.s. Bryan Magee's Great Philosophers is a fun, small book.


Artem

Russel's is very readable. Conveniently separated into chapters it is manageable, although my paperback is pretty heavy.

Brian

I'm also considering Russell's great big book so appreciate the comments and conversation. I have Bryan Magee's book "Ultimate Questions" summing up his personal life of learning and views and it too is very fun and small. So I'm quite tempted to read more of his work as well.

SimonNZ

#11603


Half way through: "Blitzed: Drugs in Nazi Germany"

Which is a much more serious work than the cover and title might suggest.


Dry Brett Kavanaugh

Quote from: Brian on October 24, 2021, 10:11:06 AM
I'm also considering Russell's great big book so appreciate the comments and conversation. I have Bryan Magee's book "Ultimate Questions" summing up his personal life of learning and views and it too is very fun and small. So I'm quite tempted to read more of his work as well.

All of Magee's books are great (though I haven't read his novels). The book below maybe relevant to this forum.

Spotted Horses

Quote from: SonicMan46 on October 24, 2021, 08:56:08 AM
Hi Brett - I was thinking of getting Russell's A History of Western Philosophy as a Kindle edition but stated to be 930 printed pages - at my age, I rarely read books over 400 or so pages (just don't have the attention span of my younger years); so looked at the Five Best Books on Western Philosophy and Anthony Kenny's name is mentioned multiple times, but his 'best book' below is 1000 pages - YIKES!  He has less daunting other books (e.g. 'brief history').  Finally, in my consideration is the Columbia History of Western Philosophy stated to be 800+ pages, a book edited by Richard Popkin w/ 63 contributors.  I may explore Kenny's shorter books?  Dave :)

   

Russel's History of Western Philosophy is very readable and I recall it taking a bemused or irreverent attitude towards many of the philosophical movements it describes. It is a personal account, rather than a textbook.
There are simply two kinds of music, good music and the other kind. - Duke Ellington

Jo498

Read Russell if you want a smugly biased perspective from an early 20th century analytic philosopher that has not aged that well. If you want to read a good history of philosophy look elsewhere.

If you want to read a good accessible book by Russell read "The Problems of Philosophy". It's much shorter, too, and while it is of course also biased, it has some quite interesting bits, among other things a decent brief argument for universals and a rather odd but interesting theory of states of affairs (such as "Romeo loves Juliet")
Tout le malheur des hommes vient d'une seule chose, qui est de ne savoir pas demeurer en repos, dans une chambre.
- Blaise Pascal

Artem

Russels' biased perspective is always brought up when his big book is mentioned. What was his bias?

Dry Brett Kavanaugh

Quote from: Artem on October 25, 2021, 12:51:52 PM
Russels' biased perspective is always brought up when his big book is mentioned. What was his bias?

Lord Russell was a mathematician and what he did in philosophy was called analytical philosophy. He is good at logics, but he is not strong or particularly knowledgeable in some areas, including metaphysics and aesthetics. The idealism by Kant, Schopenhauer, Hume, and also existentialist philosophers are not discussed well in the book.

Mandryka



The real Miz.

I think this will keep me occupied for a few weeks.

Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

Mandryka

Quote from: Mandryka on October 25, 2021, 01:51:11 PM


The real Miz.

I think this will keep me occupied for a few weeks.

Does anyone know if there's a set of notes on this book? For example, I've just spent some time investigating via internet this

QuotePour moi, le frère de Cartouche, enfant innocent, pendu sous les aisselles en place de Grève jusqu'à ce que mort s'ensuive, pour le seul crime d'avoir été le frère de Cartouche, n'est pas moins douloureux que le petit-fils de Louis XV, enfant innocent, martyrisé dans la tour du Temple pour le seul crime d'avoir été le petit-fils de Louis XV.



And this

QuoteQue pensez-vous de Bossuet chantant le Te Deum sur les dragonnades ?



Maybe people who have been to school in France know all about Cartouche and his brother, and Bossuet and the dragonnades -- but I don't. It would be nice to have a book which explained this sort of thing.

Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

Spotted Horses

Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on October 25, 2021, 01:39:45 PM
Lord Russell was a mathematician and what he did in philosophy was called analytical philosophy. He is good at logics, but he is not strong or particularly knowledgeable in some areas, including metaphysics and aesthetics. The idealism by Kant, Schopenhauer, Hume, and also existentialist philosophers are not discussed well in the book.

A History of Western Philosophy is not an impartial overview, so you would have to look elsewhere for something along those line. I read the book many years ago and found his exposition and critique of the various schools of philosophy very interesting. Perhaps a better book for understanding Russell would be his volume "The Problems of Philosophy," which is available in a nice, free Kindle edition, for those who do ebooks.

There are simply two kinds of music, good music and the other kind. - Duke Ellington

Mandryka

#11612
Quote from: SonicMan46 on October 24, 2021, 08:56:08 AM
Hi Brett - I was thinking of getting Russell's A History of Western Philosophy as a Kindle edition but stated to be 930 printed pages - at my age, I rarely read books over 400 or so pages (just don't have the attention span of my younger years); so looked at the Five Best Books on Western Philosophy and Anthony Kenny's name is mentioned multiple times, but his 'best book' below is 1000 pages - YIKES!  He has less daunting other books (e.g. 'brief history').  Finally, in my consideration is the Columbia History of Western Philosophy stated to be 800+ pages, a book edited by Richard Popkin w/ 63 contributors.  I may explore Kenny's shorter books?  Dave :)

   

Russell's book is too old to be recommendable, it stops with John Dewy!

If you want the history, possibly start by picking a philosopher and reading Wikipedia. Descartes is a good author to kick off with, his Meditations are accessible, you can go to the source.

Anthony Kenny is likely to be quite a difficult read, and risks being a bit biased towards Catholicism. I haven't read it but I have read some other things by him.

If you want an intro to Anglo American philosophical method, then maybe think about Simon Blackburn's book called Think!

If you want an introduction to philosophy post 1968  as practised in France and Germany, so do I and hopefully someone can recommend one.

Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

Brian

I don't think the reasons that we're interested in Russell are the same reasons we might be interested in reading Wikipedia pages about all the great philosophers.

Personally I like authorial "bias" and voice, an author with strong opinions, because it creates a much more entertaining read and my mind is still strong enough to draw its own conclusions once I've figured out what the author's bias is. Same type of pleasure as reading literature, music, and film critics whose tastes aren't identical to my own.

ritter

#11614


Just read Guillaume Apollinaire's short Le Flâneur des deux rives, a delightful collection of texts on Paris and some specific characters. It was published in 1918, the year of the poet's death, and the book is regarded as a precursor of surrealism.

The above has led me to tackle André Salmon's mammoth Souvenirs sans fin. The 1100+ pages of this memoir cover the years 1903 to 1940. Salmon was a friend of Apollinaire's, an early promoter of cubism, and seems to have met everyone in the French literary and artistic milieu of the first half of the 20th century.




Spotted Horses

Quote from: Brian on October 26, 2021, 04:19:11 PM
I don't think the reasons that we're interested in Russell are the same reasons we might be interested in reading Wikipedia pages about all the great philosophers.

Personally I like authorial "bias" and voice, an author with strong opinions, because it creates a much more entertaining read and my mind is still strong enough to draw its own conclusions once I've figured out what the author's bias is. Same type of pleasure as reading literature, music, and film critics whose tastes aren't identical to my own.

+1

Another book I like is "The Making of the Modern Mind" by John H Randall. Published in 1926, final revision in 1977. I remember being very impressed with I read it many decade ago.
There are simply two kinds of music, good music and the other kind. - Duke Ellington

JBS

Got these tonight on the way home from work



FAVN was published in 2014, so its poems are not included in what might be called the collected edition, which includes her poetry up to 2012.
WRFTC is brand new (its official publication date was yesterday).

Hollywood Beach Broadwalk

Dry Brett Kavanaugh

The Tibetan Book of the Dead.

vers la flamme

Rereading Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha



A good read for a tumultuous time in my life.

Dry Brett Kavanaugh

Quote from: vers la flamme on October 28, 2021, 03:02:24 AM
Rereading Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha

A good read for a tumultuous time in my life.

Great novel!