What was the last book you read ?

[eddierose0608]

I haven't read a book in ages now. At least one that hasn't got pictures in it.

[alottaluv4axl]

Just finished Handle With Care by Jodi Picoult.

Another great story by her. Although the ending kind of just cut everything short, I think. But still a good book; one of my favorite authors.

[Milles]

You might be missing the point a bit though.  When you get to uni you realise that it's not just philosophy students who have to read philosophy, nearly everyone does.  It's impossible to do a degree in literature or history or politics or law or sociology without an understanding of certain elements of philosophy.  At the same time it's impossible to study one of those subjects and also do all of philosophy.  Someone taking a law class in jurisprudence needs to understand bits of Foucault, Plato, etc, they don't need to know who Thales was, nor do they need to know what Henri bergson thinks about comedy.  Your analogy to maths is perfect; it's not a waste of time to learn to count, is it?  And someone who requires the same level of knowledge of the main tenants of philosophy as we do of the basic principles of maths is the target audience for Russell's book.  For some people it's just nice to know what's going on when you quote Wittgenstein at them or I start mentioning Adorno in an argument.

On top of that he's a fun writer to read.  I'd recommend everyone to have a look at the areas of the book where he gives his own opinions, they're a great laugh.

I'll grant you Russell is a great writer in terms of the quality of his prose, however it is historical knowledge and the way in which he misrepresents certain philosophers is what may be of damage to the prospective student of philosophy.

If someone were to study jurisprudence then they would need a thoroughstudy in the history of ethics and most importantly, the political philosophy of the past 3-4 hundred years since if you were to go back further than that then you will either end up with some sort of Aristotelianism or some form of Divine Command Theory (and when one finds the impossibility of trying to reduce ethics to a calculus, one would hope they would give up their career aspirations as lawyers! Although some philosophers have tried to ground the foundations for laws in terms of virtue, this somewhat misses the point of the complexity of ethical life, that no such moral calculus is commensurably possible.

Which brings me back to my point that in order to have a worthwhile understanding of philosophy one essentially needs to go deep enough until their spade has nothing left to uncover.

Moreover, when you speak of the "tenants" of philosophy I'm unsure whether you mean to refer to the philosophers themselves or it was just a type for "tenets"?

The reason why Wittgenstein is the most important philosopher of the twentieth century is for realizing that the philosophical problems which arise in metaphysics are not problems at all but metaphysics itself arises from a misuse of language and it is not the job of philosophy to construct theories but to clarify what is already there and thus avoid metaphysics which causes these conceptual problems in the first place. Hence the unraveling of so called philosophical problems comes not in the form of their solution but rather in their dissolution.

Philosophy is not akin to the sciences in that it tests hypotheses and makes discoveries as Russell and metaphysicians like him had thought.

I was lucky enough to get my hands on a copy of "Insight and Illusion: Themes in The Philosophy of Wittgenstein" which is probably one of the best introductions you can get although it's sadly out of print and second hand copies can go for up to £300, hence I was making a digital copy of it for my own use and to share with anyone who's interested so I'll give you a copy when I'm done. (I'm not hand typing it though! It'll be scanned as editable text then put in MS word)

[mico.m]

The Hands by Ranko Marinkovic

[ben vercetti]

Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks

[Dark Angel]

Reading "Freddie Mercury - His life in his own words" atm. And i LOVE it!

[mico.m]

The Farewell Waltz by Milan Kundera

[©GnrPersia]

with special thanks to angela gossow who has recommended me to read this book via a reply to my email.

[PEANUTS]

crybee - Phil Rickman, not to bad, now on to Havoc juntion by Joe Donnally - odd, but good!

[sunnyp]

Just finished 'The last fighting Tommy'. It's a biography of Harry Patch, one of the oldest Englishmen ever to have lived (he died recently aged 111). He fought in both world wars and lived an amazing but sad life. 

[2NaFish]

the ascent of money - niall ferguson. i was baffled by swathes of it, but got a good enough jist of what he was trying to say. i feel a bit dirty reading economic history.

[I ARE ESS]

the lost symbol - dan brown, kinda just wanted tos ee what happens about 3/5, its not a bad book just nothign ground breaking or amazing

[dave-mustaine]

me "Metallica : Que Justice soit faite.." of Joel McSilver

[sunnyp]

Finished all 1408 pages of the incredibly small printed Sherlock Holmes catalogue by Conan Doyle (including short stories).

"The Valley of Fear" is the best story I've ever read. This is followed by "Hound of the Baskervilles" which is the second best story I've ever read.

Epic.