Apolyton Reading List

[Dracon II]

someone else recommended Kierkegaard. I have yet to take a leap into his philosophy, however.

[Odin]

What Evolution Is: Ernst Mayr

[Agathon]

Originally posted by Admiral


Hobbes is overrated (which doesn't mean people shouldn't read the Leviathan).

I'll go with

Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt

The difference between those two books is that one is a classic text on the need for a state with a simple and well-reasoned line of argument and the other is a mire of pretentious and irrational gobbledigook.

[vomitus]

Isaac Asimov. I don't understand why this guy is so popular. I read one of his short stories recently. "Nightfall". He writes the most nonsensical science fiction. Well, he's got the "fiction" part correct, but not the "science" part. Sure, most science fiction stretches reality a bit, but Asimov stretches science into the realm of the utterly ridiculous. Example: Nightfall is about a planet which has light all the time. For that to happen, it must have a star facing the planet on opposite sides of the planet. However, the book states that only one star is shining on the planet before it goes into eclipse, beginning a time of a few years when no light shines on the planet. Also, the people of the planet require light, but that notion is forgivable, because nowhere does the book say that the people are humans. The planet isn't Earth either.

[vomitus]

Originally posted by Agathon


The difference between those two books is that one is a classic text on the need for a state with a simple and well-reasoned line of argument and the other is a mire of pretentious and irrational gobbledigook.

I haven't read either book. Which is which?

[CrONoS]

Strange since Asimov is considered as a scientific who write many scientific book.
I dont know very well Asimov, but from what I've read from him: All the books from the Foundation and some news. Was really good, but i'm not an astrophysicist.
If you love Science Fiction, do you ever read any Stanislas Lem book?

see ya

Originally posted by vomitus
Isaac Asimov. I don't understand why this guy is so popular. I read one of his short stories recently. "Nightfall". He writes the most nonsensical science fiction. Well, he's got the "fiction" part correct, but not the "science" part. Sure, most science fiction stretches reality a bit, but Asimov stretches science into the realm of the utterly ridiculous. Example: Nightfall is about a planet which has light all the time. For that to happen, it must have a star facing the planet on opposite sides of the planet. However, the book states that only one star is shining on the planet before it goes into eclipse, beginning a time of a few years when no light shines on the planet. Also, the people of the planet require light, but that notion is forgivable, because nowhere does the book say that the people are humans. The planet isn't Earth either.

[CrONoS]

I supposed Hobbes is the classics, the book(The Leviathan) was write in 17th century. It was one of first to introduce the theory of the Social Contract.

Hannah Arrendt: Was write in XXth century, considered as a great thinker, nerver read any of his book. Some of my friend told me to read some of his work. So I'll do after my exams.

see ya

Originally posted by vomitus

I haven't read either book. Which is which?

[OzzyKP]

Escape from Childhood by John Holt
How Children Learn by John Holt
How Children Fail by John Holt
A Different Kind of Teacher by John Taylor Gatto
Birthrights by Richard Farson

[CrONoS]

So when, and how we will debate about our cannon of book. It can be interesting if we make a list about specific subjects...

Another idea: Maybe we can propose book and make a thread about debating the book???
See ya
Edit: English exams this afternoon, this exams is to determine what is my level in English, to see what course do I have to do! So for next semester, I'll kick all your ass in any debate we'll have.(In Economics at my University, we have to succeed Advanced English I)

I propose we should make nominations for the most essential reading for OTers - those books which we see as most conducive towards building wisdom/virtue/intellect etc etc. The most popular nominations will form a canon... which ideally all of us will get around to reading... eventually.

[Peter Triggs]

Essential reading for this time of year:

A Christmas Carol Dickens

[CrONoS]

It make me rembering a simpsons episode....

Originally posted by Peter Triggs
Essential reading for this time of year:

A Christmas Carol Dickens

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by cronos_qc


Hannah Arendt: Was write in XXth century, considered as a great thinker, nerver read any of his book. Some of my friend told me to read some of his work. So I'll do after my exams.

He is a she, and her work isn't:

a mire of pretentious and irrational gobbledigook.

pace Aggie, which leads me to believe he hasn't read her work that closely.

I'd definitely recommend Hobbes, but also Locke, and there's an excellent book on the changing European mindset from the 17th to 18th Centuries, by Paul Hazard:

'The European Mind, 1680-1715' which references people who are remarkably before their time, such as Samuel Pufendorf, who wrote

'De jure naturae et gentium libri octo'

in 1672, and

'De officio hominis et civis juxta legem naturalem libri duo'

in the following year.

The 'duty of the man and citizen'- a hundred years before the American and French Revolutions.

Pufendorf was born in Saxony in 1632, the son of a Lutheran clergyman. He studied at Leipzig and Jena and held the first modern professorship in natural law, at the University of Heidelberg. Pufendorf was successively professor of natural law at Lund in Sweden and Swedish historiographer royal. He ended his career as Prussian court historian and died in Berlin in 1694. In addition to fundamental works in Protestant natural law, much admired by Locke, Pufendorf contributed importantly to German constitutional theory and wrote major historical works.

http://oll.libertyfund.org/Intros/Pufendorf.php

[Lawrence of Arabia]

Catch-22 is the most confusin ironic funny story filled with characters who are all more psycho than sane that will often lead you to say "huh?" after reading through a section. At the end, we realize that the sanest people are the characters of the book whom we considered psycho at the beginning, and that in fact it is us, the peopole we consider sane, who are insane.

it is set in world war 2. Yossarian is a navigator on a US bomber plane, for a squadron based in the mediterranean.

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by Peter Triggs
Essential reading for this time of year:

A Christmas Carol Dickens

Currently being performed in London by Patrick Stewart, at the Albery Theatre :

Charles Spencer reviews A Christmas Carol at the Albery Theatre

It's turning into the Dickens of a Christmas. Yesterday I welcomed the RSC's gripping and deeply moving adaptation of Great Expectations in Stratford. Now Patrick Stewart has beamed himself into London's West End with his mesmerising solo version of A Christmas Carol.

'There aren't many actors left like Stewart these days, actors who can speak with such exemplary power and clarity'

Stewart won an Olivier award when he last performed it here back in 1993, and one readily understands why.

The show offers a chance to see a great actor at the very top of his game, completely in command of his material (he adapted the piece himself) and spinning potent theatrical magic out of thin air. He clearly loves Dickens, and he beautifully conveys that love. More importantly, he takes a story that is often regarded as twee and sentimental and finds its darkness as well as its radiant light. A Christmas Carol may be a short book: Stewart leaves no doubt that it is also a great one.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2005/12/09/btcarol09.xml&sSheet=/arts/2005/12/09/ixartright.html

Engage and make it so...