Dialectic of Enlightenment: Philosophical Fragments
Theodor W. Adorno & Max Horkheimer

Gray Lensman (Lensman #4)
by E.E. "Doc" Smith

Life Is Elsewhere, Milan Kundera. — javi2541997

10/10. A very good and well written novel.
I am happy about the discovery of Milan Kundera. A great Czech writer. My parents have three or four books by him, so I already know what I will do the next time I visit them.

Currently reading:

Melancholia, Jon Fosse.

The haw lantern, Seamus Heaney. This collection of poems is very Irish. It reminds me of the green plains, cloudy sky, the waves beneath me, and you, my Irish friend. @Baden :flower:

he haw lantern, Seamus Heaney. This collection of poems is very Irish. It reminds me of the green plains, cloudy sky, the waves beneath me, and you, my Irish friend. — javi2541997

“Postscript” by Seamus Heaney

And some time make the time to drive out west
Into County Clare, along the Flaggy Shore,
In September or October, when the wind
And the light are working off each other
So that the ocean on one side is wild
With foam and glitter, and inland among stones
The surface of a slate-grey lake is lit
By the earthed lightning of a flock of swans,
Their feathers roughed and ruffling, white on white,
Their fully grown headstrong-looking heads
Tucked or cresting or busy underwater.
Useless to think you’ll park and capture it
More thoroughly. You are neither here nor there,
A hurry through which known and strange things pass
As big soft buffetings come at the car sideways
And catch the heart off guard and blow it open.

Extremely beautiful.

I have another in the collection:

The disappearing island.

Once we presumed to found ourselves for good
Between its blue hills and those sandless shores. Where we spent our desperate night in prayer and vigil,

Once we had gathered driftwood, made a hearth and hung our cauldron like a firmament,
The island broke beneath us like a wave.

The land sustaining us seemed to hold firm
Only when we embraced it in extremis
All I believe that happened there was a vision.

:flower:

:up:

To me it's like a parable of climate change, but maybe more likely connects with social conflict in Ireland. Great imagery anyway.

but maybe more likely connects with social conflict in Ireland — Jamal

Exactly. It is considered correct this way of see it, because Seamus Heaney explained in an interview that 'The haw lantern' is a symbol of the dignity of the Northern Irish in the face of violence and trouble, and offering a small piece of light and hope in the darkness. :flower:

So, yes he was referring to The Troubles...

:up:

And some time make the time to drive out west
Into County Clare, along the Flaggy Shore, — Jamal

Nice, javi. And I know the drive he means. I did it last year. It's the burren coast where you're between the ocean and the rocky landscape he describes.

So, yes he was referring to The Troubles... — javi2541997

:up:

And some time make the time to drive out west
Into County Clare, along the Flaggy Shore — Jamal

Nice, javi — Baden

:cry:

My mistake. However, I do think javi's point about climate change is perspicacious and should not be overlooked. :nerd:

:grin:

I do think javi's point about climate change is perspicacious and should not be overlooked. — Baden

¡Recórcholis!

rocess and Reality - Alfred North-Whitehead. — AmadeusD

Still working through this. A Doozy if ever there was one.

Still working through this. A Doozy if ever there was one. — AmadeusD

Are you enjoying?

Very much so. Its quite novel, and seems like a bit of a dead-end in the development of philosophical ideas insofar as no one picked up his threads, from what I know. He essentially tries to reverse Hume and Kant in that they go from Subjective to Objective, he goes hte other way.

His use of 'novelty' as a force for creativity in 'concrescence' is pretty fascinating to me, if a little shaky.

I really admire his process philosophy, I think it meshes perfectly with systems philosophy. But PR has been in my library for over a decade, I got really intimidated when I first tried it and haven't touched it since. I think I'll put it on the list for later this year though. Tough read!

Very tough. I'll probably be another couple of months yet, and that's just the first pass lol.

It was a bad idea to get into this immediately after CPR, though. It upends much of the CPR in terms of conclusions, so difficult for someone fairly new to this stuff. On the other hand, glad to get the toughest stuff out hte way first.

I think i might go to Cicero or Seneca next :lol:

Cool. I like to read contrasting theories, promotes a healthy mental dialectical balance. :cool:

Second Stage Lensmen (Lensman #5)
by E.E. "Doc" Smith

Moral Education
by Émile Durkheim

The High Road to Pyrrhonism by Richard H. Popkin

I just reread Boethius' "The Consolation of Philosophy."

Such an amazing book. If ethics was going to be taught in schools (and it really should be), I would put this up there with Aristotle.

It's very similar to Saint Augustine, who does an excellent job fusing Plato and Aristotle in his ethics, but manages to be far more concise while also being far less ostentatiously religious (a pro for modern audiences). That and the back and forth of poetry and dialogue is really great.

The only weak part is his framing of the absence theory of evil, which is not particularly convincing.

Also been reading the Analects. There is some interesting similarities to Aristotle in Confucius. MacIntyre's After Virtue sold me on the idea that modern ethics is fundementally flawed, but he largely looks back at the Western, particularly the Aristotlean tradition. I wanted to explore the Platonist/Patristic tradition more (Boethius) and that of China, since they also seem to avoid the fall into emotivism and excessive individualism MacIntyre describes re the moderns.

New Arabian Nights
by Robert Louis Stevenson

There are a lot of Consolations of Philosophy lol.

Currently reading parts of Parfit's Reasons & Persons for school.

Melancholia, Jon Fosse. — javi2541997

9.5/10.

Excellent. Fosse never disappoints. A novel charged with a big, deep sense of loss and understanding of a great (but mental sick) artist such as Lars Hetervig.

Currently reading: All the Names, José Saramago.

My first time reading Saramago. He seems to be both interesting and original. I wish I knew more about Portuguese literature and writers.

@Lionino. Thoughts on Saramago?

José Saramago — javi2541997

Yesterday I got a copy of Saramago's The Cave. I don't know when I'll get around to reading it.

All the Names — javi2541997

I'm intrigued by the premise.

I'm intrigued by the premise. — Jamal

José, the main character, has an interesting hobby: he collects news from famous people in Portugal. But to give them reliability, he decides to complete them with the data of the Central Registry of Births, Marriages and Deaths, where he currently works. He decides to steal the records cards with the aim of 'collecting' them with news from famous people. One day, José steals the card of an 'unknown' woman and becomes obsessed with finding her around the city.

My dad gave me this book as a present because he knows I have a similar hobby of collecting data from public registries.
I am now an apprentice of land registry... so it is time to read the book. :smile:

:cool:

Let us know what it's like.

Thoughts on Saramago? — javi2541997

Maybe I read some of him a long time ago, I can't remember anything nowadays however. But he was a laureate of the Camões prize, which is really big.

I read Saramago's Blindness many years ago. Scared the crap out of me.