What book are you reading right now?

[wrathzombie]

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

Got through a few pages and then did not want to continue. A little dense. Will revisit later. 
 
- Completed The Circle - Dave Eggers and now starting
 

 

[magiccabbage]

infinite jest is on my list - supposedly brilliant. 

 

[Quinto]

 
Finally I've come to read Darwin's briliant 'The Origin of Species'
 
 
I wanted to read it before my copy of Dawkin's 'The Ancestor's Tale' arrives
 

 

[magiccabbage]

 
 
Finally I've come to read Darwin's briliant 'The Origin of Species'
 
 
I wanted to read it before my copy of Dawkin's 'The Ancestor's Tale' arrives
 

now that is some good reading! did you get to read the blind watchmaker yet? 

 

[Quinto]

  now that is some good reading! did you get to read the blind watchmaker yet? 

Haha no, but I will..I'm also reading in part 3 of De La Grange's Mahler biography, two books about Beethoven and just bought 'Richness of Life', by Jay Gould and the 7 book's set of Nietzsche's notes translated in Dutch, so..

 

 

 

[magiccabbage]

 
Haha no, but I will..I'm also reading in part 3 of De La Grange's Mahler biography, two books about Beethoven and just bought 'Richness of Life', by Jay Gould and the 7 book's set of Nietzsche's notes translated in Dutch, so..

 

 

Heavy going! I loved the "Birth of tragedy" and "Beyond good and evil"  I have not read any philosophy since just after college. Let me know how the Mahler Biography goes i would be interested in that. Can you send a link? I tend to stay away from biographies because finding the right author can become a bit of a task at times. 

 

[Quinto]

 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry-Louis_de_La_Grange
 
This man spend his life researching and writing about Gustav Mahler and knew Alma and his daughter Anna personally..
His work is a bit dry since it's a huge chronology of facts and sources, but I like it!
 
Of course their are other great books of lesser volume like Natalie Lechner-Bauer's account of their friendship, Bruno Walter's book on Mahler or the book by Donald Mitchell
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Mitchell_%28writer%29
 
If you ever feel the need to read a great philosopher who has a very interesting view on music and art, read Schopenhauer's opus Magnum, Will and Representation.
I found it to be a great work of beauty (and don't believe the negative crap people write about his work

) 
 
Rudiger Safranki wrote a great book about Schopenhauer (and Nietzsche)

 

[magiccabbage]

 
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry-Louis_de_La_Grange
 
This man spend his life researching and writing about Gustav Mahler and knew Alma and his daughter Anna personally..
His work is a bit dry since it's a huge chronology of facts and sources, but I like it!
 
Of course their are other great books of lesser volume like Natalie Lechner-Bauer's account of their friendship, Bruno Walter's book on Mahler or the book by Donald Mitchell
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Mitchell_%28writer%29
 
If you ever feel the need to read a great philosopher who has a very interesting view on music and art, read Schopenhauer's opus Magnum, Will and Representation.
I found it to be a great work of beauty (and don't believe the negative crap people write about his work

) 
 
Rudiger Safranki wrote a great book about Schopenhauer (and Nietzsche)

Thanks for posting, i will take your advice on Schopenhauer but i wont get to it till next year by the looks of things. 

 

[mutabor]

  Thanks for posting, i will take your advice on Schopenhauer but i wont get to it till next year by the looks of things. 

 
Keep in mind that Schopenhauer was anti-materialist and he was one who laughed at evolution theories. I'm absolutely fine with that world view.
 

 Schopenhauer compared materialists to Baron von Munchhausen, who thought he could lift himself by his hair. The materialist thinks that he can use matter to explain representation, when matter itself is a representation.

 
Another important point: it is a must to read Schopenhauer prior to Nietzsche. Because the latter is just a mirror opposite of the former. When I read Nietzsche I immediately noticed that all his "philosophy" was based on argumentation against his former idol Schopenhauer. Schop taught that our nature ( Will) was a negative blind force - a Buddhist wheel of endless suffering - Samsara. Nietzsche revolted against that view ( by the way at the time of his physical collapse when he could no longer work). He started to affirm life in his writings ( but in real life he was pathetic - very ill and miserable). He took every point in Schop's ethics and argued against it.
 
Schopenhauer: life is a suffering, to save yourself from suffering you should stop affirming life, religions - Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism - are examples of life rejection/renunciation; compassion and self-sacrifice are one of the most important expressions of a person who renounces life; Jews are optimists and life affirming - they are against a tragic figure of Jesus; Jesus is one the brightest examples of compassion and self-sacrifice. 
 
Nietzsche: life is what we have to affirm ( pagan pre-christian worldview) ---> will to power ( the apotheosis of affirmation of life), will to power is also an antidote to compassion - you don't feel pity to other people, you trump and outmatch other people, you feel superior; religions are evil because they teach how to reject life, those who criticize Jews on the basis of religion should be prosecuted ( Jews were against Jesus hence they are good); Jesus sucks. Very predictable, isn't it?
 
What is interesting is that Schopenhauer despite his ascetic philosophy was a person who enjoyed pleasures of life, while Nietzsche who in his writings affirmed life was in reality a very ill ( both mentally and physically) person who couldn't enjoy even basic pleasures like food, sex etc. 

 

[Quinto]

It would be a massive shame if anyone with the interest would be taken aback reading the works of these great German thinkers, just because of all the overly simplistic, stunningly judgemental and incomprehensibly confident opinions on the internet .
 
We all know what the saying is about opinions and the other thing ´everybody has´

 

 

[mark2410]

read books??????
 
i dont understand, books are just for buying and looking decorative on a shelf arent they?
 
 
 
 (i buy books but never actually seem to get around to reading them)

 

[Hutnicks]

  It would be a massive shame if anyone with the interest would be taken aback reading the works of these great German thinkers, just because of all the overly simplistic, stunningly judgemental and incomprehensibly confident opinions on the internet .
 
We all know what the saying is about opinions and the other thing ´everybody has´

 

Well said. I always believe that a good step one is to read a biography or several of the persons in question to ground oneself on the source of their wisdom. Philosophers, like every other living being are molded and motivated by the elements of their own lives.

 

[Quinto]

  read books??????
 
i dont understand, books are just for buying and looking decorative on a shelf arent they?
 
 
 
 (i buy books but never actually seem to get around to reading them)

Books look so much better being read

 

[Makiah S]

 
Enjoying it thus far

 

[Andolink]