Life time project - science/non-fiction

C Elegans · Post by **C Elegans** » Tue Apr 23, 2002 3:15 pm

As a companion thread to the "life time art" thread, I'd like you to post works of science/non-fiction that you think should be included in a "must learn/know" list. You may suggest books or articles to read as well as topics, questions and areas.

MM suggested Plato & Aristoteles, The republic, Dialogues and Ethics, and I agree with this.

Popular science books that I think everyone should read:

Darwin - The origin of species
Einstein - Relativity - the special and general theory (this is the little popular explanation that Einstein wrote himself, it's very educational and easy for the non-mathhead to read)
Watson - The double helix
Dawkins - The selfish gene
Hawking - A brief history of time

Other non-fiction important for society and how we think:

Aquino: Find a good compilation of Summa Theologia
Machiavelli - The prince
Descartes - any principal work
Kant - Critique of pure reason
Kirkegaard - Either or
Marx - Das Kapital
Nietzsche: Ecce homo
Freud - Interpretation of dreams
Sartre: Being and nothingness

More to come...

Gwalchmai · Post by **Gwalchmai** » Tue Apr 23, 2002 4:20 pm

Yay! I've read one of the books on CE's list!

C Elegans · Post by **C Elegans** » Tue Apr 23, 2002 4:28 pm

Originally posted by Gwalchmai
Yay! I've read one of the books on CE's list!

ROFL

I saw your reply in the life thread first

Which one?

Also, I'd like to add another really good popular science book:

Gould - Wonderful life

Gwalchmai · Post by **Gwalchmai** » Tue Apr 23, 2002 4:52 pm

Originally posted by C Elegans
ROFL I saw your reply in the life thread first

Which one?

Also, I'd like to add another really good popular science book:

Gould - Wonderful life

The first. Plus parts of your addition.

I like seeing how my life stacks up to yours. One out of X ain't bad!

C Elegans · Post by **C Elegans** » Tue Apr 23, 2002 5:04 pm

One one the great questions: consciousness

Damasio - Descartes error¨

This book is highly readable, as opposed to his non-popular scientific articles...

Tom · Post by **Tom** » Wed Apr 24, 2002 7:20 am

Originally posted by C Elegans

Other non-fiction important for society and how we think:

Aquino: Find a good compilation of Summa Theologia
Machiavelli - The prince
Descartes - any principal work
Kant - Critique of pure reason
Kirkegaard - Either or
Marx - Das Kapital
Nietzsche: Ecce homo
Freud - Interpretation of dreams
Sartre: Being and nothingness

More to come...

wow - impresive

But i have to say i cant agree with a couple of them.

I think that Kant's Critique of pure is to difficult to attack with out a teacher or alot of prior knowledge. furthermore i think that just understanding Kant on metaphysics and epistemology is of less value if you dont use that understanding to also understand his ethics.
So i think that carefully looking at the secondary literature will lead to a better understanding - although it won't sound as impresive as having read the main works.

I think the same goes for Satres Being and nothingness - a very difficult work to understand with out understanding alot of earliere european philosophy.

If i was to add a work that i think everybody should read then it is; Rawls (1972) A Theory of Justice.
It is the seminal work in modern political theory and its philosophical value is huge and futhermore it has had a large influence on liberal thinking ever since it was published.

so go on read it - ohh go on - you know you want to - you will - you will you will....

And after that you could read Kymlicka's (1990) Contemporary Political Philosophy. It is an exelent book that all undergraduets that look at political philosophy would be foolish not to read. It will help to understand the whole political spectrum so much better - discusing Nozick, Rawls, comunism and more.

enjoy.

EMINEM · Post by **EMINEM** » Wed Apr 24, 2002 10:17 am

The US Constitution, with historical annotations.

Catechisms of the Catholic Church, if only to understand where/why the Church stands on the issues.

C Elegans · Post by **C Elegans** » Wed Apr 24, 2002 4:35 pm

Originally posted by Tom

I think that Kant's Critique of pure is to difficult to attack with out a teacher or alot of prior knowledge. furthermore i think that just understanding Kant on metaphysics and epistemology is of less value if you dont use that understanding to also understand his ethics.
So i think that carefully looking at the secondary literature will lead to a better understanding - although it won't sound as impresive as having read the main works.

I think the same goes for Satres Being and nothingness - a very difficult work to understand with out understanding alot of earliere european philosophy.

Could you recommend any good secondary literature? I always find it immensly difficult to find good secondary litt unless I'm very well read into an area - which makes it unnecessary for me to read secondary literature

Well, I can at least recommend stuff to other people.

C Elegans · Post by **C Elegans** » Wed Apr 24, 2002 5:05 pm

Apart from books to read, here are some areas I'd like to learn more about if I could only find time. I hope I will live to retirement, the list of what I'd like to do them is growing longer every day

- paleontology
- antropology, esp. early cultures in Africa, Asia and South America
- philosophy, esp contemporary philosophy which I know nada about
- astrophysics
- abiogenesis, how life began on earth
- history, I'm sooo bad at all history but esp. non-European
- literature - a deeper look into African and Asian literature
- immunology, my friendship with one of the worlds best virologists has made me interested in this area
- consciousness, one of the big questions and a highly complex field even with my background knowledge
- linguistics, esp the development of different languages
- genetics, I'm already working on this but still need to learn a lot more - I'm going on a congress next month in order to increase my knowledge

*sigh* why is everything so interesting...

nael · Post by **nael** » Wed Apr 24, 2002 9:34 pm

Originally posted by C Elegans
As a companion thread to the "life time art" thread, I'd like you to post works of science/non-fiction that you think should be included in a "must learn/know" list. You may suggest books or articles to read as well as topics, questions and areas.

MM suggested Plato & Aristoteles, The republic, Dialogues and Ethics, and I agree with this.

Popular science books that I think everyone should read:

Darwin - The origin of species
Einstein - Relativity - the special and general theory (this is the little popular explanation that Einstein wrote himself, it's very educational and easy for the non-mathhead to read)
Watson - The double helix
Dawkins - The selfish gene
Hawking - A brief history of time

Other non-fiction important for society and how we think:

Aquino: Find a good compilation of Summa Theologia
Machiavelli - The prince
Descartes - any principal work
Kant - Critique of pure reason
Kirkegaard - Either or
Marx - Das Kapital
Nietzsche: Ecce homo
Freud - Interpretation of dreams
Sartre: Being and nothingness

More to come...

a very good list. i'd like to see the average person make it through "being and nothingness"...not light reading. i would suggest nausea instead, but the meanings in the book could/would be missed without the foundation of Being and Nothingness.
I prefer The Gay Science as a better representation of Nietzsche,
and i would add thomas kuhn's Structure of Scientific Revolution and Hume's essay on human understanding ( title is a bit off)

Tom · Post by **Tom** » Thu Apr 25, 2002 3:55 am

Originally posted by C Elegans

Could you recommend any good secondary literature? I always find it immensly difficult to find good secondary litt unless I'm very well read into an area - which makes it unnecessary for me to read secondary literature Well, I can at least recommend stuff to other people.

ohh dear i always get myself into trouble.

Well i never did too much Kant but I remeber doing abit of selective reading in Kemp, J. 1968. The philosophy of Kant. Oxford: OUP.
That of course doesnt mean I remeber what it says (I think its quite heavy but i belive it is still recomended to undergraduets)
The Oxford companion to philosophy mentions Cassirer, E. 1981. Kant's Life and Thought. New Haven: YUP.
And apperently Scruton, R. 1982 Kant. Oxford:OUP (reprinted in German philosophers:Kant, Hegel, Schopenhaur, Nietzsche. Oxford: OUP 1997) is exelent as an introduction. (but Scruton is an arsehole)

But be warned - reading any of this stuff, even if it is introduction will require real hard work and be sure to have plenty of paracetamols handy.

So enjoy

I should add that you can read for free the oxford companion to philosophy's own article on Kant and related subjects at www.xrefer.com which is an exelent alround reference work. Just chose philosophy and search on Kant.

Also free is http://plato.stanford.edu/contents.html
which is much longer and more in depth.