What are you currently reading?

[NikF]

There are two volumes of this and I finally managed to get both combined in the one (used) edition. And this is the sort of book I can enjoy casually dipping into over an extended period of time.

[Henk]

Ayone here who has read Emerson? What are your thoughts?

[Karl Henning]

I've read Emerson, but I do not recall his philosophy being oriented towards prosperity.

[Ken B]

I've read Emerson, but I do not recall his philosophy being oriented towards prosperity.

Like reading Anita Bryant's Guide to Gay Sex.

[SimonNZ]

...specifically the section of essays on Samuel Johnson, Boswell and their circle, and a selection of the others

[Henk]

I've read Emerson, but I do not recall his philosophy being oriented towards prosperity.

How do you recall it then?

[Karl Henning]

A rich life, but not in the narrow material sense.

[Henk]

A rich life, but not in the narrow material sense.

But also a philosophy you can apply on your own life imo.

[Henk]

Finished this book a few weeks ago. Going back in times, for his time alluminating without doubt, still valuable insights. Related to Heidegger and existentialism. Accessible.

Ortega mentions he introduced the term "existence" in philosophy, ancitipating on existentialism as a genre in philosophy.

[North Star]

A rich life, but not in the narrow material sense.

But also a philosophy you can apply on your own life imo.

That's rather obvious - after all, philosophy is what one does and reads when one's material prosperity is narrow. 
But, in all seriousness, yes, it's definitely good philosophy.

[Henk]

But also a philosophy you can apply on your own life imo.

That's rather obvious - after all, philosophy is what one does and reads when one's material prosperity is narrow. 
But, in all seriousness, yes, it's definitely good philosophy.

Books aren't cheap though. You better philosophy yourself, without having to read any book.

NR:

[Jo498]

actually, "existence" has been a technical term in philosophy already in the middle ages. But of course not mainly in the sense of the 20th century "existentialists", rather for subtle distinctions in metaphysics and theology.
Commonly, Kierkegaard is referred to as the first "existentialist" in the later sense, so I am not sure what Ortega y Gasset wants to claim here...

[Karl Henning]

A public marketplace for hackers—what could possibly go wrong?

[North Star]

Books aren't cheap though. You better philosophy yourself, without having to read any book.

Books aren't cheap? Sure, some books that are directed to a limited portion of the academia can be very expensive indeed, but you can get a whole lot of philosophy on paper at the price of a decent meal.

[Karl Henning]

And there may be free e-book editions of the classics.

[Henk]

Books aren't cheap? Sure, some books that are directed to a limited portion of the academia can be very expensive indeed, but you can get a whole lot of philosophy on paper at the price of a decent meal.

Could be, but are those the books you want to read. To select the books you want to read, you are bound to the prices of them.

Moreover, I don't always want to print stuff, the published book is a far nicer thing to have.

[North Star]

And there may be free e-book editions of the classics.

And just plain old PDFs of pretty much every canonized classic.

Could be, but are those the books you want to read. To select the books you want to read, you are bound to the prices of them.

Oxford World's Classics (OUP), Penguin & al. have very reasonably priced editions of pretty much everything I want to read in English. Plenty of RW Emerson on Penguin, Dover, Everyman's Library, for example.

[Karl Henning]

Oxford World's Classics (OUP), Penguin & al. have very reasonably priced editions of pretty much everything I want to read in English. Plenty of RW Emerson on Penguin, Dover, Everyman's Library, for example.

Yes, indeed.  And Emerson himself is IMO much more interesting and engaging than . . . commentary about Emerson.

[Henk]

Yes, indeed.  And Emerson himself is IMO much more interesting and engaging than . . . commentary about Emerson.

That book by Emerson I read also contain the orginal essays.

[Karl Henning]

That book by Emerson I read also contain the orginal essays.

Seems, then, that the book is expensive, because one pays for the copyrighted chit-chat.