Nominate books to be a philosophy book of the month

A forum for old votes and nomination threads
Locked
User avatar
Lagayscienza
Posts: 1792
Joined: February 8th, 2015, 3:27 am
Favorite Philosopher: Hume Nietzsche
Location: Antipodes

Re: Nominate books to be a philosophy book of the month

Post by Lagayscienza »

In light of the interesting and currently very active thread on whether consciousness could be produced in machines I nominate Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies by Nick Bostrom who is a professor in the Faculty of Philosophy at Oxford University and the founding Director of the Future of Humanity Institute

This book well written and easy for the layperson to follow.

There's a good blurb about it on Amazon.
La Gaya Scienza
User avatar
Deborah
New Trial Member
Posts: 1
Joined: August 8th, 2015, 10:39 am

Re: Nominate books to be a philosophy book of the month

Post by Deborah »

I nominate The Fall, by Albert Camus. My sense is that this book is about witnessing, and interrogates and elucidates the challenges of witnessing, as well as the moral responsibility to grapple with these issues, and the consequences of the lack of witnessing. A very relevant book for our times.
Wilson
Posts: 1500
Joined: December 22nd, 2013, 4:57 pm
Favorite Philosopher: Eric Hoffer
Location: California, US

Re: Nominate books to be a philosophy book of the month

Post by Wilson »

Has anyone suggested The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements ? That's a fascinating old one by Eric Hoffer, the "longshoreman philosopher". Huge insights into "what drives the mind of the fanatic and the dynamics of a mass movement”.
User avatar
Kingbtd
New Trial Member
Posts: 1
Joined: November 9th, 2015, 2:09 pm

Re: Nominate books to be a philosophy book of the month

Post by Kingbtd »

I nominate the Mereology: The Origins of Garlic Cures and the Art of Telling a Tale of Ragout, by Keith Lyons. From the Bird Dog Books web page:

"Mereology: The Origins of Garlic Cures and the Art of Telling a Tale of Ragout" is scientific journalism of philosophical proportions that entertains and informs layman while providing a method for scientists to use in understanding the "proto-concepts" underscoring their own theories; thus opening an awareness to "where", "when", "how" and "why" scientists have arrived at the questionable time and space in which they (and we) are all now living. As a delivery device, humorous life experiences as well as tragic, tasty metaphors and toothsome examples, as are befitting a Tale of Ragout are used to bring forth meaning in the difficult to understand "proto-concepts"

The life stories narrating the "Tale of Ragout" push, with speeds reaching well beyond that of light particles, the reader along with tales of amputation, murder, poisonings, mafia dealings, nuthouse internment, skateboarding, cross country bicycle tours, conspiracy-theories-come-true, indiscriminate sexual encounters and punk rock.

Proto-concepts in mereology: In the easy definition, mereology is sometimes referred to, by "garlic-free" theoreticians, as the "parts and whole relation", but such a definition is only partly true. A better way to describe it would be the "difference relation": Because any and every object of and in the relation belongs to the "dialogue". Thus, the easy definition stems from default logic: From out of a "historical dialogue" which has come to embody only otherness, and, consequently, can only recognize "self" as a "negotiator" of said difference and, here's the clincher, not as another difference in the whole mix. But in a "garlicky" mereology, the default logic is revealed in its faults and difference itself becomes the focal point or origin in the relation between Existence and Life...and it is whereby just such a relation of dialogue, regardless of whether one is talking about the faulty or garlicky mereology, that existence and life are always experienced and have never been, until now, "completely" revealed, and, in as far as the results of a mereological endeavor generate formal logic, mathematical and geometrical concepts can be found "in deliverance" in their purest "form-ing".

The theoretic discourse is based on the phenomenological works of Edmund Husser, Ernst Cassirer, Mikhail Bahktin and Max Scheler, and argues that George Berkeley, Gottfried Leibniz and Baruch Spinoza separately deconstructed the mereological experience found in Ancient Philosopy (in general). Mostly, the Garlic Cures uses as its main go-to Ancient source, as the argument is simplified for the sake of making the book less than five hundred pages, the works of Aristotle.
User avatar
Alan Jones
Posts: 72
Joined: May 7th, 2013, 2:33 pm
Favorite Philosopher: J. Dewey W.T. Rockwell
Location: Emyn Mar, the Otter Lake Moraine, Michigan

Re: Nominate books to be a philosophy book of the month

Post by Alan Jones »

Hello Scott,
I would like to nominate Louis Menand's "The Metaphysical Club". I recently read it, and would like to discuss the ideas covered, the reasons for setting traditional philosophical notions aside. Menand shows how American Pragmatism grew from the intellectual and social environments that followed Darwin and the American Civil War. It's a pleasure to read. Here is a one review: nytimes.com/2001/06/04/arts/04MASL.html
Alan
"Beliefs are what divide people. Doubt unites them." - Peter Ustinov "Every great advance in natural knowledge has involved the absolute rejection of authority." - Thomas Huxley
User avatar
Steveroonie
New Trial Member
Posts: 2
Joined: November 8th, 2015, 11:18 am

Re: Nominate books to be a philosophy book of the month

Post by Steveroonie »

regenesis by church---- because the technology discussed will radically change our world
User avatar
Desertwisdom
New Trial Member
Posts: 18
Joined: January 30th, 2016, 3:27 pm

Re: Nominate books to be a philosophy book of the month

Post by Desertwisdom »

I would suggest a very short work entitled: "Wittgenstein's Poker". I cannot recall the author. It is based on an incident in Wittgenstein's life, but has many philosophical references. I enjoyed it immensely.

Leander Aulisio
User avatar
David Ross
New Trial Member
Posts: 1
Joined: June 29th, 2016, 11:20 am

Re: Nominate books to be a philosophy book of the month

Post by David Ross »

I nominate my own book, Spheres of Change: A guide to you singing your song.

Excerpt:

What is love? Jesus was a warrior for love, and who came with a sword. A sword is a weapon of war. Can there be war on behalf of love?1 What is its truth? To respond, it is necessary to distinguish between being a warrior and a solider. A warrior is named by war, a soldier is named by soulde ‘(soldier's) pay,’ from Latin solidus. A warrior fights in the name of his/her cause while a solider does so for pay. A true warrior, moreover, fights for truth, and this cannot be bought or sold.
Why? Truth is of betrothal, of engagement, and the object of betrothal is marriage, union with the Beloved, and true love is given freely, not bought or sold, commercialized love, love degraded and debased. What of the warrior? Does this mean that the warrior fights because he or she loves war? Yes, if 'war' means a 'good fight.' A true warrior fights for what is good, and this is not necessarily what is conventional, accepted, or understood. However, how does one know what is true? What is true love? However the topic is considered, the problem of love has never been simply one problem among others. But never as much as at present has it invaded, as much, the global horizon of the most diverse researches and the most heterogeneous discourses, diverse and heterogeneous in their intention, method, and ideology...The Wolfman feels his chin itching with new growth, and he scratches it.

VOILÀ, THE WOLFMAN GROWS A BARD!
In Shakespeare's work, the Wolfman imagines the talk of heterogeneous discourses, diverse and heterogeneous in their intention, method, and ideology beginning with a bit from As You Like It.
ROSALIND
Yes, one, and in this manner. He was to imagine me his love, his mistress, and I set him every day to woo me; at which time would I, being but a moonish youth, grieve, be effeminate, changeable, longing and liking, proud, fantastical, apish, shallow, inconstant, full of tears, full of smiles; for every passion something, and for no passion truly anything, as boys and women are, for the most part, cattle of this colour; would now like him, now loathe him; then entertain him, then forswear him; now weep for him, then spit at him, that I drave my suitor from his mad
humour of love to a living humour of madness, which was to forswear the full stream of the world and to live in a nook merely monastic. And thus I cured him, and this way will I take upon me to wash your liver as clean as a sound sheep’s heart, that there shall not be one spot of love in ’t. (As You Like It, Act 3, Scene 2)2
Love is neither infatuation (moonishness) nor lust (pornography, venality). How so? Consider desire, wolf-man pondered. He wanted to recall the place before he became a failure and thought of, when thinking of love, the harmonic series. That is the Place, the fundamental tone, and things became dark. The dark earth; he could smell the scent of the Earth, and it was death. Lucifer could smell ashes. Towering infernos, blazing in the hellish night. A rich, powerful nature. Shouting voices. He wanted to run – to where? He wanted to embrace his destruction, run into the pit. Then he saw prisoners, uniforms and barracks, a work camp. It did and it didn't exist.
Shar
Posts: 14
Joined: December 20th, 2012, 10:47 pm

Re: Nominate books to be a philosophy book of the month

Post by Shar »

I would recommend this book: The Shape of Ancient Thought: Comparative Studies in Greek and Indian Philosophies Kindle Edition
by Thomas McEvilley.
User avatar
Curious kuku
New Trial Member
Posts: 6
Joined: November 17th, 2016, 7:14 am

Re: Nominate books to be a philosophy book of the month

Post by Curious kuku »

'On what is' by Stephen Halston. Available from the site Lulu

The book is free to download. It's central theme is pretty straightforward: There is a flaw that lies at the heart of the western analytic tradition.
Gil1961
New Trial Member
Posts: 1
Joined: January 7th, 2016, 12:21 am

Re: Nominate books to be a philosophy book of the month

Post by Gil1961 »

I nominate Existentialism 2d ed. b David Cooper
User avatar
TigerNinja
Posts: 92
Joined: July 23rd, 2016, 3:59 am

Re: Nominate books to be a philosophy book of the month

Post by TigerNinja »

I'm raising the flag for Man, Beast and Zombie. It's not purposely philosophical and it doesn't directly go into philosophy, although it brings up a large amount of philosophy and heavily philosophically debated topics. Even though I read almost the entire book, but didn't finish it, vote for it all the way.
"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident." ~ Arthur Schopenhauer
Dissimulation
Posts: 37
Joined: March 23rd, 2017, 12:38 pm

Re: Nominate books to be a philosophy book of the month

Post by Dissimulation »

The Trial - Franz Kafka (1925).

A rich narrative accessible to most readers expressed in a truly terrifying and relevant story. Kafka Challenges the reader to ask difficult questions both as an individual and the relation between the individual and the external world. Issues of Liberty, justice, law, guilt, individualism, tyranny and the dangerous of internalized guilt. Interestingly the story warns of the dangers of expectancy and the frailty of social convention and dogma. The dialogue
between Joseph K. (protagonist) and other various characters it truly remarkable and equally frustrating. An Interesting Parable titled "before The law' is offered to Joseph and is likely to raise many interesting discussions. Like many characters in Kafka's works, Joseph K. is a character that I suspect people will interpret in very decisive ways - Human, in all its beauty and ugliness. After reading The Trial several years ago I was left with a feeling of uneasiness and discontent that stayed with me for some time, compelling me to workout the ideas and form my own opinions. I am excited at the prospect of the passionate discussions and arguments that it may produce.

In reflection the story influenced me (normative) to develop a more critical methodology in approaching texts (personal statement, not to be interpreted as an argument for nomination). If anyone has read the book (if not, argument is restricted) I contend that it is presently equally relevant due to the current state of the world and the lack of transparency between the individual and institutions that command authority.
User avatar
Oxus_Scythian
New Trial Member
Posts: 7
Joined: May 4th, 2017, 8:01 am

Re: Nominate books to be a philosophy book of the month

Post by Oxus_Scythian »

Holy wow this thread is old. If possible I'd like to nominate: The Geography of Thought by Richard E. Nisbett
User avatar
Alan Jones
Posts: 72
Joined: May 7th, 2013, 2:33 pm
Favorite Philosopher: J. Dewey W.T. Rockwell
Location: Emyn Mar, the Otter Lake Moraine, Michigan

Re: Nominate books to be a philosophy book of the month

Post by Alan Jones »

I remember reading about this book. Will find a copy. Any other suggestions of books that address the effect of human ecology on thinking styles?
"Beliefs are what divide people. Doubt unites them." - Peter Ustinov "Every great advance in natural knowledge has involved the absolute rejection of authority." - Thomas Huxley
Locked

Return to “Old Book of the Month Votes”

2023/2024 Philosophy Books of the Month

Entanglement - Quantum and Otherwise

Entanglement - Quantum and Otherwise
by John K Danenbarger
January 2023

Mark Victor Hansen, Relentless: Wisdom Behind the Incomparable Chicken Soup for the Soul

Mark Victor Hansen, Relentless: Wisdom Behind the Incomparable Chicken Soup for the Soul
by Mitzi Perdue
February 2023

Rediscovering the Wisdom of Human Nature: How Civilization Destroys Happiness

Rediscovering the Wisdom of Human Nature: How Civilization Destroys Happiness
by Chet Shupe
March 2023

The Unfakeable Code®

The Unfakeable Code®
by Tony Jeton Selimi
April 2023

The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are

The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are
by Alan Watts
May 2023

Killing Abel

Killing Abel
by Michael Tieman
June 2023

Reconfigurement: Reconfiguring Your Life at Any Stage and Planning Ahead

Reconfigurement: Reconfiguring Your Life at Any Stage and Planning Ahead
by E. Alan Fleischauer
July 2023

First Survivor: The Impossible Childhood Cancer Breakthrough

First Survivor: The Impossible Childhood Cancer Breakthrough
by Mark Unger
August 2023

Predictably Irrational

Predictably Irrational
by Dan Ariely
September 2023

Artwords

Artwords
by Beatriz M. Robles
November 2023

Fireproof Happiness: Extinguishing Anxiety & Igniting Hope

Fireproof Happiness: Extinguishing Anxiety & Igniting Hope
by Dr. Randy Ross
December 2023

Beyond the Golden Door: Seeing the American Dream Through an Immigrant's Eyes

Beyond the Golden Door: Seeing the American Dream Through an Immigrant's Eyes
by Ali Master
February 2024

2022 Philosophy Books of the Month

Emotional Intelligence At Work

Emotional Intelligence At Work
by Richard M Contino & Penelope J Holt
January 2022

Free Will, Do You Have It?

Free Will, Do You Have It?
by Albertus Kral
February 2022

My Enemy in Vietnam

My Enemy in Vietnam
by Billy Springer
March 2022

2X2 on the Ark

2X2 on the Ark
by Mary J Giuffra, PhD
April 2022

The Maestro Monologue

The Maestro Monologue
by Rob White
May 2022

What Makes America Great

What Makes America Great
by Bob Dowell
June 2022

The Truth Is Beyond Belief!

The Truth Is Beyond Belief!
by Jerry Durr
July 2022

Living in Color

Living in Color
by Mike Murphy
August 2022 (tentative)

The Not So Great American Novel

The Not So Great American Novel
by James E Doucette
September 2022

Mary Jane Whiteley Coggeshall, Hicksite Quaker, Iowa/National Suffragette And Her Speeches

Mary Jane Whiteley Coggeshall, Hicksite Quaker, Iowa/National Suffragette And Her Speeches
by John N. (Jake) Ferris
October 2022

In It Together: The Beautiful Struggle Uniting Us All

In It Together: The Beautiful Struggle Uniting Us All
by Eckhart Aurelius Hughes
November 2022

The Smartest Person in the Room: The Root Cause and New Solution for Cybersecurity

The Smartest Person in the Room
by Christian Espinosa
December 2022

2021 Philosophy Books of the Month

The Biblical Clock: The Untold Secrets Linking the Universe and Humanity with God's Plan

The Biblical Clock
by Daniel Friedmann
March 2021

Wilderness Cry: A Scientific and Philosophical Approach to Understanding God and the Universe

Wilderness Cry
by Dr. Hilary L Hunt M.D.
April 2021

Fear Not, Dream Big, & Execute: Tools To Spark Your Dream And Ignite Your Follow-Through

Fear Not, Dream Big, & Execute
by Jeff Meyer
May 2021

Surviving the Business of Healthcare: Knowledge is Power

Surviving the Business of Healthcare
by Barbara Galutia Regis M.S. PA-C
June 2021

Winning the War on Cancer: The Epic Journey Towards a Natural Cure

Winning the War on Cancer
by Sylvie Beljanski
July 2021

Defining Moments of a Free Man from a Black Stream

Defining Moments of a Free Man from a Black Stream
by Dr Frank L Douglas
August 2021

If Life Stinks, Get Your Head Outta Your Buts

If Life Stinks, Get Your Head Outta Your Buts
by Mark L. Wdowiak
September 2021

The Preppers Medical Handbook

The Preppers Medical Handbook
by Dr. William W Forgey M.D.
October 2021

Natural Relief for Anxiety and Stress: A Practical Guide

Natural Relief for Anxiety and Stress
by Dr. Gustavo Kinrys, MD
November 2021

Dream For Peace: An Ambassador Memoir

Dream For Peace
by Dr. Ghoulem Berrah
December 2021