11-21-2017, 09:18 PM | #16 |
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https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/...f_the_Universe is a fun, light introduction to philosophy using science fiction films to illustrate some basic schools of thought. It's not a deep explanation of philosophy, but it's interesting to see how the movies committed to the various philosophies.
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11-21-2017, 10:58 PM | #17 |
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Not to drag the conversation off topic or to the point of having to be moved to Politics/ Religion but to understand a given philosopher's viewpoint isn't it also necessary to understand something of their religious views (if any) as well? I mean both Plato and Aristotle for example lived with the Greek pantheon of Gods and Goddesses while more modern philosopher's have been either of the Islamic, Christian or Jewish faiths. Or in some cases Atheistic in beliefs. I mean what a person believes in has to color how they view the world and therefore how their philosophy develops. And the politics of a given writer have to have had some input as well I would think.
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11-21-2017, 11:26 PM | #18 | ||
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Of course, I'm not a mod and they might say otherwise. |
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11-22-2017, 02:08 AM | #19 | |
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11-22-2017, 08:51 AM | #20 |
cacoethes scribendi
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crich, it is definitely a good idea to keep in mind that all authors will have a bias, whether that bias was instilled due to religious influence or - as per your example with Dickens - events in their own upbringing. It's one of the things that keeps philosophy interesting
Take, for example, the John Ruskin book I cited earlier. While I found his alternative view of economics fascinating, I'm not about to buy into it verbatim. Ruskin was a man who believed in hierarchical structures ... and I guess I do too, to an extent, but Ruskin - being a man of his time - shows a definite skew toward a class system that accepts the rich as inherently smarter/better than the poor. Certainly he was compassionate enough to believe these richer/smarter/better/higher-class people have a responsibility to those less able, but there remained that implicit assumption that a person was rich/higher-class because they were more able - as if one led to the other (in either direction?). Or that's the way much of it read to me. In more modern works of a philosophical nature it can be more difficult to identify the author's bias because we are more likely to share them. This is one of the things that makes reading philosophy both more interesting and more difficult: constantly reminding yourself to be critical (in the sense of thoughtful analysis) rather than merely accepting of what you read. |
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11-22-2017, 09:56 AM | #21 | |
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An example would be Aristotle's book "The Nicomachean Ethics". One of the foundation works on ethics, but the modern reader is likely to be horrified by Aristotle's views on slavery that are expressed in the book. You'd be doing yourself a disservice, though, if you avoided reading it because of that. |
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11-22-2017, 10:01 AM | #22 |
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I can't help but think that trying to maintain that critical balance while reading about philosophy could lead to learning more about the life/times of the philosopher and therefore broadening one's scope though. I mean it has to prompt the reader to ask questions like: Why did author x say this or that? or What would be the larger ramifications of x, y or z being like the author thinks it should be? As you said gmw we shouldn't just accept what we read as gospel (so to speak) but should ask the questions that come to mind. I'm thinking there is a big difference between just reading about a theory of philosophy and really understanding it and why the author held their particular belief. Mark Twain once said 'that the difference between the right word and the almost right word was akin to the difference between the lightning and the lightning bug.' I'm thinking that something of the like is also apparent between merely reading a theory of philosophy and understanding how the author came to that belief and what its deeper meaning is. And learning more about a topic is always good.
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11-22-2017, 10:10 AM | #23 | |
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11-22-2017, 10:25 AM | #24 |
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I understand what you're saying, but I'd suggest that an author who espouses a view without making an argument in support of it is not actually writing philosophy at all. Argumentation is essentially what philosophy is.
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11-22-2017, 06:44 PM | #25 | |
cacoethes scribendi
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As with that Ruskin work, there was a lot in here I could not accept at face value, even taking into consideration the time at which it was written. But (like me ) Ruskin is quite long-winded, and a lot of things do get explained in ways that had them make sense once you kept going. Of course, if you're actually studying philosophy (rather than taking a more casual interest as I do), then you'll probably be reading through the work more than once - in which case you get the luxury of reading with acceptance first and then reading with a more critical eye later. |
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12-02-2017, 05:51 PM | #26 |
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Jean-Paul Sartre and François La Rochefoucaul are my favorite. Sartre's plays are also good and contains elements of his philosophy.
Last edited by Nothingness; 12-02-2017 at 05:59 PM. |
12-03-2017, 03:06 AM | #27 | |
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The three main characters are interesting but what I found most interesting was the philosophical thought I drew from the books: There is no freedom without responsibility. Essentially, the characters are an unmarried professor, his mistress, and their best friend, a gay man. When the mistress becomes pregnant by the professor, he offers to pay for an abortion but will not marry her because he believes that to do so would mean giving up his most cherished possession, his freedom. She wants to keep the baby and the best friend steps forward and offers to marry her. Ultimately, the professor learns that to be free one must accept the responsibilities that being free imposes. I think this is what ails American society today. Too many Americans think that being free equates with no responsibilities when just the opposite is true. Although the books are not literary classics, they are well worth reading. |
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12-03-2017, 03:41 AM | #28 |
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