The Human Condition by Hannah Arendt
The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir
Skimming Nietzsche as I always do through the insights of post Nietzsche philosophers I'm currently reading.
The Pursuit of Truth by Quine
Nietzsche and Philosophy by Deleuze

El gaucho Martín Fierro; La vuelta de Martín Fierro by José Hernández.

A Day In The Life of Ivan Denisovich; — AmadeusD

Wonderful little book. Have you also read Cancer Ward? It's equally poignant.

Dormir al sol, Adolfo Bioy Casares.

The Trial
by Franz Kafka

Holding Fast to an Image of the Past: Explorations in the Marxist Tradition by Neil Davidson

Unfortunately not. While reading Ivan i had a rather intense, and close call with cancer. I think I'll give it a while.

Ignorance by Milan Kundera.

Coplas por la muerte de su padre by Jorge Manrique.

I've been reading three related books:

Dorotheus of Gaza and Ascetic Education (a comparison of monastic Christian education and the pagan education of late antiquity, framed largely in the terms of contemporary secular philosophy).

Philosophy as a Way of Life: Spiritual Exercises from Socrates to Foucault (Foucault was himself a big fan of Hadot. This is a look at the role of spiritual exercises in ancient philosophy, with a focus on pagan thought and particularly Stoicism and Socrates.)

Sites of the Ascetic Self : John Cassian and Christian Ethical Formation (A study of St. John the Ascetic in largely post-modern terms, building off Foucault's late interest in asceticism, and using some elements of feminist theory and queer theory).

They are all related in that they are studies of ascetic education and philosophy as a practice. I have a lot of ideas about this and maybe I will start a thread on it some day.

The first is definitely the best, at least for my uses, since it is a quite detailed look at actual pedagogy from a period where philosophy was a "way of life" (and were all great philosophers were expected to be saints). But all three do a good job showcasing the much larger role for emotion in epistemic pursuits and the much broader notion of the intellect in ancient thought (whereas Charles Taylor's A Secular Age does a good job showcasing how the intellect and epistemology because distanced from the rest of the human person and their environment).

The last book does show some of the more serious pernicious effects of siloing in philosophy, with claims like "people were generally uninterested in asceticism due to Nietzsche and Weber's critiques until Foucault revived interest by showing how it could be transgressive." I am sure this "lull in interest," would come to a shock to the thousands of Christian and Buddhist monks and nuns living in contemplative orders over this time period, or even to the laity in traditional churches (a large majority outside the Anglophone world), for whom monasticism has continued to be a major influence (particularly in Eastern Christianity).

But it's also a great example of what Charles Taylor points to using Hume and Gibbon, the way the "disinterested scholarly frame" ends up choosing what to "bracket" out of consideration (Latour's late work makes a similar charge). So here, any consideration of the truth of the religious claims of Cassian, or of the metaphysical underpinnings of his practices, gets bracketed out, but the ethical and aesthetic values of the modern secular Western academy (particularly its post-modern side) are definitely very much assumed and "left in."

That said, it's still an interesting book because it makes some solid connections between early Christian thought and contemporary "Continental" thought. One example is the way Cassian's psychology is generally in line with embodied cognition and a sort of enactivism (which is not unusual for his period).

But I've long thought there was actually a strong overlap here that gets ignored. In many cases, "radical new ideas" such as non-overlapping hermetically sealed magisterium or disciplines as discrete language games are actually present in ancient or scholastic thought (in this case in Averroes double truth doctrine and Latin Averroism).

The last book also reminded me of some interesting parallels between the Desert Fathers and Mothers and the early friars and existentialist thought, the Beatniks, and the Hippie movement, with elevations of similar virtues, although there would be obvious differences.

Notably, some of the heretical sects in some of these movements did adopt a sort of "free love" attitude but these tended to be relatively short lived outbursts (especially when compared with intentional communities/communes spanning millennia).

Philosophical Introductions: Five Approaches to Communicative Reason
by Jürgen Habermas

philosophy as a practice. I have a lot of ideas about this and maybe I will start a thread on it some day. — Count Timothy von Icarus

:up:

Yes please. Authenticity.

I read Hunchback this morning. Cosy. Simple prose. Rare to find plain descriptions of disabled people's sexualities.

It makes me wonder, does any institution teach "philosophy as a way of life," as in, fully embracing the "ascetical education" that defined much of philosophy for many centuries?

Obviously, there are still monasteries, but that is:
A. A religious vocation (although it does involve a deep, "lived" study of many thinkers);
B. A lifetime commitment, as opposed to a time-limited education.

I know that, for Catholic priests, there are the Oratories, which are very similar to religious orders, but are only temporary, for parish priest formation. And I know of "secular" projects in terms of communes and intentional communities, but again, that is more of a long-term, "lifestyle" commitment than a program of education.

I wonder what the appetite for it would be, if you could even get students. There are outdoor education programs that are quite strenuous, NOLS being the big one, so I don't think the hardships would necessarily be the limiting factor. I am not sure if secular interest would be enough to keep a program open, but it certainly seems like there is enough interest in retreats and monasticism in the lay religious community that something like that could flourish.

From a purely business lens, the good thing about an ascetical school is that I imagine it is very cheap to run. All you need is some shacks and daily ration of lentils! Since labor was always a big part of "meditative focus" and the cultivation of humility (often farming, but crafts like basketweaving and ropemaking too), you could maybe even make things self-sustaining to some degree (although in my experience having novices help with organic farming and construction is normally a pretty fraught affair unless you have a long time to train them).

All I know is that, if I opened one, we'd definitely bring back the old "philosopher's cloak" as a uniform. Dress for success!



Of course, to this day universities still have modern students dress in the garb of medieval ascetics for graduation, a sort of funny holdover.

I'm reading:

Antiquities of the Jews - Josephus
Book of Jubilees - Jewish Annotated Apocrypha

Antiquities of the Jews is a must read for anyone interested in this subject. You simply won't find this depth and this coverage of history elsewhere; relating to the Jews, that is. I'm coming to the end of it, but afterwards I will absolutely be going on to The Jewish War. This book contains one of the earliest Jesus references as well.

From a purely business lens, the good thing about an ascetical school is that I imagine it is very cheap to run. All you need is some shacks and daily ration of lentils! Since labor was always a big part of "meditative focus" and the cultivation of humility (often farming, but crafts like basketweaving and ropemaking too), you could maybe even make things self-sustaining to some degree — Count Timothy von Icarus

Well, life has to be ultimately "self-sustaining" - so if your philosophy is truly to be a way of life, then it would have to work in that sense too. On the other hand, communities of thought can have "complex identities," as they come to be shaped by visions and personalities that may not always be completely well-intentioned shall we say. Shared practices can be powerful tools but also dangerous weapons.

Ah look, I found the perfect location in Egypt to set up shop. It looks vacant. Maybe in rough shape, but nothing some fresh paint and some elbow grease can't cure (although I can't vouch for how centuries of desertification might have impacted the availability of drinking water...)



Who wants to join me? :rofl:

The Holy Desert Raraku! I'm with you!

Ah look, I found the perfect location in Egypt to set up shop. It looks vacant. Maybe in rough shape, but nothing some fresh paint and some elbow grease can't cure (although I can't vouch for how centuries of desertification might have impacted the availability of drinking water...) — Count Timothy von Icarus

This is from “The Black Cottage” by Robert Frost, one of my favorite poems.

For, dear me, why abandon a belief
Merely because it ceases to be true.
Cling to it long enough, and not a doubt
It will turn true again, for so it goes.
Most of the change we think we see in life
Is due to truths being in and out of favour.
As I sit here, and oftentimes, I wish
I could be monarch of a desert land
I could devote and dedicate forever
To the truths we keep coming back and back to.
So desert it would have to be, so walled
By mountain ranges half in summer snow,
No one would covet it or think it worth
The pains of conquering to force change on.
Scattered oases where men dwelt, but mostly
Sand dunes held loosely in tamarisk
Blown over and over themselves in idleness.
Sand grains should sugar in the natal dew
The babe born to the desert, the sand storm
Retard mid-waste my cowering caravans — Robert Frost

El Aleph by Jorge Luis Borges.

Blinding, Book One: The Left Wing by Mircea Cartarescu.

Los tres gauchos orientales by Antonio D. Lussich.

Love this one.

I loved reading Borges too. Apart from his inclination to infinite worlds and labyrinths, I burst into tears after reading the description of the Aleph. It was very beautiful and marvellous. I wish we could experience something like that, contemplating our world through the sparkles of a sphere.

Possible inspiration for the next literary activity? Hmm... :wink:

John Dewey and American Democracy: Public Opinion and the Making of American and British Health Policy
by Robert B. Westbrook

Critique of Dialectical Reason, Vol 2
by Jean-Paul Sartre
,

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. So far: great. — Jamal

That was a hasty judgement, made before Mr Rochester's appearance. From then on, it's bad.

Recently:

Pnin by Vladimir Nabokov (re-read) 5/5
Russian Stories from Everyman's Library 4/5
The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories edited by Jeff and Ann VanderMeer (ongoing) 5/5
Under the Skin by Michel Faber 3.7/5

Currently:

Minima Moralia by Theodor Adorno 5/5

Minima Moralia by Theodor Adorno — Jamal

Coincidentally, also been reading this. A lot of good stuff in there.

And:
Propaganda by Jacques Ellul
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
States of Shock by Bernard Stiegler
Faust Part 2 by Goethe

Recently finished:
The Sociological Imagination by C. Wright Mills 4/5
The Language Game by Morten H. Christiansen and Nick Chater 4/5
Letters on the Aesthetical Education of Man by Friedrich Schiller 5/5
Scorched Earth by Jonathan Crary 4/5
Faust Part I by Goethe 5/5
Infocracy by Byung-Chul Han 4/5

I'm likely not going to finish anything I would give less than a 4 to. The one I love most of the above is the Schiller book.