I read Shadow Puppets and am in the beginning of Shadow of the Giant.
What Book Are You Reading? Issue.8
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Julian Delphiki
Anton's key
Good choices 
. A War of Gifts: An Ender Story & Ender in Exile are still not available on my libraries. 
. A War of Gifts: An Ender Story & Ender in Exile are still not available on my libraries. 
Even if you think it is inconsequential rubbish, which most people do, reading Hegel as an important figure in German Idealism is helpful, especially with regards to how he takes up and transforms Kant.
The thing is, people who say "Hegel doesn't make any sense" just didn't understand it, or simply didn't read more than a few pages (most often the case). That's not fair to Hegel. He wasn't one of if not the most reknowned philosopher in his time and place for no reason; he was a major heavyweight. He makes perfect sense, in fact the whole point of his project is to clear away abstractions and formalities and construct an internally consistent, logical behemoth of a worldview. It's really quite impressive even if it is literary and "untestable" or whatever else people say about it. (In fact that's kinda not the point.)
Now, the fact that he makes sense is not to his credit necessarily, since he writes with the sole intention of making sense. He makes so much "sense," in fact, that it becomes almost meaningless, and you can spin all kinds of super-relativist or postmodern interpretations off of it. Hegel himself, however, was a conservative Christian. And there is something to be said about how he resolves a lot of problems in classical philosophy, ingeniously if not conclusively.
All in all though, tackling the Phenomenology of the Spirit (many big thinkers of the 20th century failed, judging by their obvious misaccusations towards Hegel resulting from clearly not having read past the introduction) or Science of Logic is a fruitful task for any philosopher, I think. Reading someone else's interpretation of him does NOT count, since he is notoriously misread, blamed for things he didn't say, and sometimes there are "accounts" of Hegel that are not really his work, but notes of his students. There are entire books about Hegel by big authors that get basic pillars of his philosophy flat wrong. It's really appalling how much he is abused in this manner, and he ends up getting tossed out as garbage based on all of these secondhand accounts.
/rant about pet philosopher
Eran of Arcadia said:
Julian Delphiki said:
Orson Scott Card and the Ender's series (both branches of it) are awesome. I want to check out Alvin Maker when I have the time, any opinions?
Bigfoot3814
Deity
Committed: A Rabble-Rouser's Memoir by Dan Mathews. I'm reading this book to help me write my research paper on PETA. It's the story of a gay guy who became an animal rights activist and did things like dress up like a carrot and surprise kids at schools, as well as storm the stage at fashion shows dressed like a priest. It's only the first chapter and he's already been pelted with bologna by a gang of kids so it should only get better.
Ansar
Détente avec l'été
Bigfoot, that sounds like a great book.
Fifty
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My view is based mainly on cost/benefit analysis. First of all, if you're interested in philosophy (as opposed to the history of philosophy), you're almost always better off reading contemporary stuff. Contemporary philosophy is problem-driven, not figure-driven. So nobody cares much whether some view is (say) Millian or Russellian, they care about what view is correct. That isn't to say that reading historical figures is a worthless enterprise. However, if one is going to read historical figures, it seems like that time would be better spent with historical figures that are a) of greater contemporary relevance, and/or b) easier to read. To that end, I'd recommend reading Plato, Aristotle, Leibniz, Kant, Hume, and Frege before I'd recommend reading Hegel. So my point about Hegel is just that you'd be better off reading contemporary stuff, and if you really have the itch to read a historical figure, there are historical figures that you could get more out of with less effort than Hegel.
I guess if someone just really really wants to read Hegel for some reason, then fine, but I can't think of any area of contemporary analytic philosophy that reading Hegel would strongly illuminate more than just reading contemporary work would.
Currently reading Dan Dennett's Breaking the Spell... pretty good, fun read on a possible natural history of religion.
Julian Delphiki
Anton's key
I think I've read first 3 Alvin books long time ago, i liked those but don't remember much about them.
Now reading Cosa Nostra: A History of the Sicilian Mafia by John Dickie.
I'm still on Collapse by Jared Diamond, but I'm really enjoying it (I don't get much time for pleasure reading). Last night I picked up Ending Aging:The Rejuvenation Breakthroughs That Could Reverse Human Aging in Our Lifetime
by Aubrey de Grey & Michael Rae
It's by the guy who did this TED talk.
Aubrey de Grey: Why we age and how we can avoid it
as well as starting the Methuselah Mouse Prize.
by Aubrey de Grey & Michael Rae
It's by the guy who did this TED talk.
Aubrey de Grey: Why we age and how we can avoid it
as well as starting the Methuselah Mouse Prize.
Julian Delphiki
Anton's key
The Autumn of the Middle Ages by Johan Huizinga & The Railway Journey by Wolfgang Schivelbusch.
Nylan
Characters Welcome
Joseph Smith's New Translation of the Bible: Original Manuscripts edited by Scott H. Faulring, Kent P. Jackson, and Robert J. Matthews
Christmas present
Christmas present
The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer. I forgot my mom has entire bookshelves full of books I haven't read...so I'll have stuff to do while we're hopelessly snowed in. I wonder how many of these I can hamburgle back to Ohio....
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