mercedo's Journal: List of Books I Read

There are some very good books we ought to read, there are some other books we'd better read, but believe me there are thousands of books that we'd better not read.

Actually we can tell whether we ought to keep on reading after we finished reading one paragraph, if not one sentence.

Steer clear of bad books.

Here's the list of books I read in the past.

All works of Sigmund Freud

All works of Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

Execpt for Das Kapital, all major works of Karl Marx

J.J. Rousseau; Social Contract

All major works of Descartes

Spinoza; Ethica

Plato; The Republic

Aristotle; Politics

Francis Bacon; Novum Organum

not bad

[eglamkowski]

But you also need some "human interest" books to teach people life is more than just philosophy.

For example, "Les Miserables" by Victor Hugo.
It's a big book, but well worth it.

Not to be on the list, but just out of idle curiosity - have you read Kokoro by Natsume Soseki?

Re:not bad

[mercedo]

Of course I read some literary works, I don't know the exact reason but the number of literary books I read was conspicuously less.

Probably I myself preferred to come up with literary works on my own.

Les Miserables - I read it in abridged edition at age 10 or 11, but it was really abridged.

I read Botchan at age 15, but no -Kokoro.

Recommended reading

[sam_handelman]

A nice list, good coverage for the classics.

However, no liberal education is complete without:
Democracy and Education by John Dewey
The misemeasure of man by Stephen J Gould

Re:Recommended reading

[mercedo]

Oh, are they your recommendation?

I know Dewey is an good educator, probably I read his book in part.

I don't know Stephen J Gould, I will search for his name and try reading his book soon.

Re:Recommended reading

[sam_handelman]

Stephen Jay Gould, sorry. Stephen J. Gould generally gives you someone else.

The book is on the rascist history of the IQ test.

Philosphical Education

[Shadow Wrought]

I tried reading a lot of the classic philosophers but I got bogged down in the minutae. I think one of the biggest problems with philosophy is that life is that people, despite all of our innate similarities, are all different. Since we are all different, and since we all see the world through different eyes, there simply cannot be an overarching philosophy which will satisfy all the different facets of life.

For me, all religions and philosophies are different paths leading towards the same goal.

Re:Philosphical Education

[mercedo]

Latin, English are not cut out for philosophy, but Greek and German are, besides almost all what I mentioned above are not books of philosophy -Freud - psychology, Nietszche - civilisation critics, Marx - social science. Rousseau - thought on society, Descartes, Plato, Aristotle - common sense, probably Spinoza & Bacon are philosophers, but I didn't understand their philosophy either as you didn't.

I don't like to pretend to be a man who understands their philosophy, philosophy is difficult to understan