NeSCio

I have found that many of us have very sound philosophical backgroud. Partly your own, but certainly some part of that knowledge must have come from books, internet sites and other sources.


Do share your favourite books/works/sites that are worth a read. It may be original works or commentaries, classical or modern, historical or utopian....
do add a few words on your own thoughts as well.


I'd be very interested to know what others read and I'm sure others will profit much from it as well.

NeSCio

Just as a starter, of late I've been reading Labyrinths by J. Borges. In the beginning it's quite difficult to digest, but as you go on, you get a feeling for what he is trying to say: he's describing from various angles a world with no notion of time in it.

armughal

huston smith's "the forgotten truth"....
and his work on ibn al-arabi "self disclosure of God"....

NeSCio

^the title of the second sounds interesting. Could you add a few words on the content pls? :-)

armughal

ibn al-arabi is one of the most famous sufi philosophers....
the book "self disclosure of god" is a translation of ibn alarabi's work and a bit of commentary done by the author chittick himself....
i read the book over a year back and had in mind that its written by huston, but checked again now and william chittick is the author....
its a thick book and requires good dedication to read it....
when i bought the book, i thought it wud be something like how God reveals Himself to us through nature and all, but once i started reading, it turned out that i had neglected the second half of the title which said "principles of ibn alarabi's cosmology"....
anyway, the book is all about sufism and has some really good philosophy in it....
even if u dont agree with sufism, the way ibn alarabi presents his thoughts to u, he'll keep u thinking....
he refers to verses from the Quran and he brings out those sufi stories like the ones u'd find in maulana rumi's works....
the book continously shuffles the poetry and the prose which makes it, i think, a bit difficult to follow at times....
and given around 400 pages, u'll need plenty of relaxed time to read it all....

ShiNoO

"The Da Vinci Code" By Dan Brown was definitely an eye-opener to me!

dutch_paki

my favourite book is and probably will stay: Holes and Other Superficialities by Roberto Casati and Achille Varzi

At this moment I m reading another book written by him : The Shadow Club and strange enough its translated into dutch: De Ontdekking van de Schaduw
This one s pretty boring actually But I have to be honest, I only read 30 pages

But I really would like to recommend Holes and Other Superficialities

NeSCio

^shinz and dp, cud u two add a few words on the contents so ppl get to know a little bit what they can expect (scientific? philosophical? humanistic? mythical?)

dutch_paki

ofcourse we can bhai, tomorrow morning ofocurse

I'm Kool

i dont think the da vinci code is a philosophical book.

PyariCgudia

The Limits of Morality - by Shelly Kagan.

Contemporary defense of utilitiarian moral theory. I think its probably the most systematic defense you'll find out there.

Its creepy as can be. Usually, you read a philosophical work, and you can make some argument against it. This book - very well argued. But enough to shatter your belief system if you're not careful.

PyariCgudia

Ayer's Language, Truth, and Logic. English work of logical positivism. The beginnings of naturalism.

If you ever want to read a really polite degradation of metaphysicians - try this book.

"Among thsoe who recognise that if philosophy is to be accounted a genuine branch of knowledge it must be defined in such a way as to distinguish it from metaphysics...it is fashionabe to speak of the metaphysician as a kind of misplaced poet (oh wow) As his statements have no literal meaning...they may still serve to express or arouse emotion and thus be subject to ethical or aesthetic standards...may have considerable value ... even as works of art."

Woah. I would not want to be on the receiving end of that statement.

Muslim_Queen

Hannah Arendt's Eichmann in Jerusalem .Absolutely fantastic. "the banality of evil" - new and intriguing theme.As far as Arendt could discern, Eichmann came to his willing involvement with the program of genocide through a failure or absence of the faculties of sound thinking and judgement.Basically he wasnt evil - he just wasnt thinking.

Iv got some other stuff, but will post it later.

dutch_paki

ok as promised a brief introduction to Holes and Other Superf.
The whole book evolves mainly on two questions: do holes exist, and if so, what are they.
Unfortunatly, Holes are among entities that most philosophers would like to see removed from their ontological inventory. And this book favors their existence and explore the consequences of this approach
Its an interesting book which examines the ontology of holes, their geometry, their part whole relations, their identity,etc. and the ways people perceive them.

NeSCio

^ur meaning black holes? warp holes??

NeSCio

Other very well and thought-provoking articles are written by David Berlinski. They are on various topics, but mainly focus on biology from a mathematico-physical point of view

Ma Mooli

Well the few i'd recommend are; 'Our Philosophy' by Ayatullah Baqir Sadr, 'Knowing God' and 'God and His Attributes' by Syed Musawi Lari.

You can access them online from here if you want;

Our Philosophy

This is a basic introduction to Islamic philosophy. A higly recommended book.

Knowing God

A condensed version of "God and His Attributes".

God And His Attributes

A great book; aimed at the average person explaining tawhid and the existance of God.

dutch_paki

various holes are discussed. If you want to /have the time for it
I can lend you the book.

humhaipakistani

Short History of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson.

and yeah the title pretty much sums up what its all about.

AvgAmericanGirl

The tao of Pooh.

maena

I agree, a truly superb read.
Some of my favorites are Milan Kundera's works. He writes about the most trivial components of life, but so eloquently.

NeSCio

Recently I read a very good book on time-travel by Richard Gott III: Time Travel in Einstein's Universe.

A very comprehensible book, easily readible and going quite deep into the matter. Also for beginners

Atlantis

Any of the Upanishads; The Gita; Experiments with Truth; Pinocchio

AvgAmericanGirl

Dear Muslim Queen,

I have read a couple of Hannala Arendt's works...

Perhaps evil is banal.

And I suppose the idea has some merit.

The banality of evil.

How could the evils she referred to.... be banal?

That is what is most disturbing to me....

Thought I suppose those who take part in banal endeavors could never be disturbed by them... and that is twice as disturbing.

What is even more disturbing is the word commonplace in the following definition.

What disturbs me most is that evil is so commonplace in the world.


Websters

Banality. Banal.

Main Entry: ba·nal

Pronunciation: b&-'nal, ba-, -'n[a']l; bA-'nal; 'bA-n&l

Function: adjective

Etymology: French, from Middle French, of compulsory feudal service, possessed in common, commonplace, from ban

: lacking originality, freshness, or novelty : TRITE

synonym see INSIPID (devoid of qualities that make for spirit and character)

banality

Function: noun

Text: Synonyms COMMONPLACE, bromide, cliché, platitude, prosaicism, prosaism, rubber stamp, shibboleth, tag, truism

banal

Function: adjective

Text: Synonyms INSIPID 3, bland, flat, milk-and-water, namby-pamby, sapless, vapid, waterish, watery, wishy-washy

Related Word hackneyed, pedestrian, trite, warmed-over; bromidic, commonplace, corny, platitudinous, stock; bewhiskered, hoary, old; asinine, fatuous, silly, simple..

lazy_daisy

Sophie's world by jostein gaarder
is a book which give a basic account of western philosophers from Plato, aristotle etc up to the modern day. its written as part of a story ....the narrater educating the reader as the plot unfolds.

It is simply written and easy to understand, not a chore to read.

masterofall240

Doors of Perception by Aldoux Huxley.

PyariCgudia

For Fictional reads - existentialism kind of stuff -

Books by Camus:

Erm, I thought Stranger, and The Plague were really good ones. He writes really simple - and it always leaves you with a hybrid of these smilies --> and

NeSCio

I haven't much of Freud, but of late I read this article of his on 'the forgetting of proper names', in which he argues that along with normal forgetting, there is a special kind of repressive forgetting associated with proper names.

An interesting article which in the end is a bit too speculative

dutch_paki

yep excellent book