What books and other written works have had major impact on this world?

[Velociryx]

Thanks man....now, if I can just get BlackWidow to read it and swoon....

-=Vel=-

[Az]

The Ramayana epic.

It didn't change the world, since it wasn't published at a single time, but it's a very important book.

has anyone read it? I wrestled through it, and don't remember a single shread of info.

[Drogue]

Originally posted by DuncanK
Isn't the Declaration of Independence a copy of the Magna Carta?

No, The Magna Carta was written well before there was a USA, 1215 IIRC. It is the nearest to a British Constitution that we have, and basically removes some of the absolute powers of the monarch. It was almost a list on consessions from the King (King John?) to the Nobles, who weren't happy with his rule.

[mactbone]

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Plato's Republic
Meditations on First Philosophy by Descartes
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding by Locke

[DuncanK]

Damn, I was just about to say Descartes

[DuncanK]

Originally posted by Drogue

No, The Magna Carta was written well before there was a USA, 1215 IIRC. It is the nearest to a British Constitution that we have, and basically removes some of the absolute powers of the monarch. It was almost a list on consessions from the King (King John?) to the Nobles, who weren't happy with his rule.

Were you thinking that I said the Magna Carta was a copy of the Dec. of Ind.?

[DuncanK]

DP

[Drogue]

Originally posted by DuncanK
Were you thinking that I said the Magna Carta was a copy of the Dec. of Ind.?

No. I see where you're coming from, but I don't think they have that much to do with each other. The Magna Carta wasn't declaring independence, it laid down a few guidelines and rules for the King. I think they're pretty different, in almost all respects.

[Grrr]

I'm going to get killed for this:
The story about the Turtle and the Hare.

Referances to that story are EVERYWHERE. For instance on our tractor there are pictures of turtles and hares.

[Boris Godunov]

Grrr, you could just say Aesop's Fables in general, which do seem pretty ubiquitous.

[Alex Woehr]

How about The Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant (plus works metioned earlier)?

[Agathon]

Parmenides' Poem esp. "The Way of Truth"

The inaugural work of Western philosophy (everything before that was just bad science).

"Never shall this prevail
That what-is-not should be
But, thinking, restrain your thought
from that path of inquiry."

The most pregnant words ever uttered....

[DuncanK]

Originally posted by Drogue

No. I see where you're coming from, but I don't think they have that much to do with each other. The Magna Carta wasn't declaring independence, it laid down a few guidelines and rules for the King. I think they're pretty different, in almost all respects.

I think they are duplicated idea for idea in sequence.

[DuncanK]

On second thought I think I could be wrong. It's the Bill of Rights that is based on the Magna Carta. The Declaration of Independence comes from John Lockes idea of social contract.

[Ironikinit]

I may be a philistine (hey, a Bible reference), but very few of the books mentioned have made my reading list. I couldn't find a good article to support Robert A. Heinlein as an influential author, but a google search for the words "heinlein influential" got 2840 hits. "Stranger in a Strange Land" definitely, IMO, had an effect on 60s counter-culture. Not to mention his huge influence over the field of science fiction. I feel that reading RAH led me to become an atheist, an optimist (particularly in regards to the effects of technology and the basic goodness of mankind), and a pragmatist. I couldn't begin to guess how many young people decided to major in engineering or astronomy due to RAH's writings.

Some works that influenced me directly (as in, I read them and not just authors who were influenced by them):

The Painted Bird, by Jerzy Kozinski
All Quiet on the Western Front, Remarque
An Incomplete Education, Archer and Jones
Huckleberry Finn, Twain
Lord of the Flies, Fielding (a bit of an antidote for too much Heinlein)
1984, Orwell (the antidote for too much optimism in general. Damn book is the cure for happiness.)

I read all these during my formative years, with the exception of An Incomplete Education which I first read in college. IMO the books read in the teen years are the most influential.

A couple of authors I who I think went unmentioned in this thread but who had great influence: Freud, Kipling, and that Marx fellow mentioned in the previous poster's sig.