I posted this on another board, and considered removing a couple of the books that I doubt Barbelith would find very interesting, but I decided to leave them all in.
I know this has been attempted before (with Kapital, yes?), but I don't recall it's success. Over the summer, I will be reading a number of books, and I would like to invite those here to enter into a discussion about one or more of them. I'm not starting until about May, so there's plenty of time to plan if you are interested.
Granted, I’ve scheduled about 2495 pages to read over the summer. If a summer is three months, that’s not too bad. It’s about 30 pages a day. Of course, I’m not counting the pages of the Meme theory book (which I haven’t chosen) or the Peirce book (the selections of which are as yet unknown), but this is all something I could do, I think. I will warn you that you won’t find any of these on the best-seller list; they’re all philosophical or theological. If I find no one at all interested, my feelings won’t be hurt, but I thought it would be worth a try.
Here is what I am planning to read:
1. De Trinitate by St Augustine, Translated by Edmund Hill. This is probably the most difficult book on the list, but I've read enough of it to know it's worthwhile. You can see this great genius of the Christian faith in his mature years still trying to work out the mysteries of the faith, searching for just the right word. I'll never be able to sell my copy. I've got all these notes in it where my heart leapt for this man, and it would be too embarassing for others see my crush. But I've not read it all the way through, so this summer I will.
472 pp
ISBN: 0911782966
2. Aristotle's Poetics, revised Oxford translation (~ 50 pages)
This will be from my copy of The Complete Works of Aristotle: Volume II, The Revised Oxford Translation. The Poetics itself is but a small portion of it, but I think it's neglected a bit in studying his philosophy.
My copy is ISBN: 0691016518, but that's at about $35, so, if anyone's interested in reading this with me, but not interested in Aristotle's other works, I'm sure you can find a cheaper copy. And there's always the library.
3. My selected readings from The Essential Peirce as in Charles Sanders Peirce. I don’t expect anyone to be sharing this one with me. If you are, we’ll work out which readings to use.
4. Heidegger (Heidegger was a boozy beggar), The Principle of Reason, translated by Reginald Lilly. BarnesandNoble.com has this from the Publisher:
This is the text of a lecture course that Martin Heidegger gave in 1955-56, it takes as its focal point Leibniz's principle: nothing is without reason. Heidegger shows here that the principle of reason is in fact a principle of being.
176 pp
ISBN: 0253210666
5. Bound for Freedom: The Book of Exodus in Jewish and Christian Traditions, a commentary on Exodus by Goran Larsson. A friend of mine loaned this to me. Looks pretty good.
334 pp
ISBN: 1565639758
6. Some book either on Meme Theory or the transfer of information. Haven't decided what yet. I've already read Susan Blackmore's The Meme Machine, and I am looking for something that will study an aspect in a bit more detail. (Recommendations welcomed)
7. Adam Smith's On the Theory of Moral Sentiments. This is a genius of a little book, pretty easy to read, and it is just now gaining some new recognition. It's a nicely optimistic view about human nature, but not naive in the least. The essence of the moral theory is the fellow-feeling we have for each other.
528 pp
ISBN: 0760758689
8. Emmanuel Levinas' Outside the Subject. This little book collection contains fourteen essays all dealing with the way in which human beings relate to each other. Levinas has been called "The Philosopher of Selfless Love." Here's what he says about it in the introduction:
"In this collection the reader will find certain texts of mine — previously scattered in various publications — devoted to the works of a few contemporary philosophers who bring out and champion the thought that informs … the proximity of person to person, the proximity of one's neighbor or the welcome we prepare for one another. It is a mode of thought that cannot be reduced to an act of knowing in which truths are constituted — in which this or that thing, showing itself within the consciousness of an I, presents or maintains its being in the objectivity or exteriority of appearance …"
201 pages
ISBN: 0804721998
9. John Paul II's The Theology of the Body: Human Love in the Divine Plan. This is apparently not an easy read (but I wouldn’t know). It has relevance for today's discussion about human sexuality; I may not agree with what the Great Pope has to say, but if I read this without any new insight into the subject, I will be quite surprised.
606 pp
ISBN: 0819873942
10. Abraham Heschel's The Sabbath (118 pages). As a matter of fact, this book is not part of my shedule but you could sure as hell talk me into it. The Sabbath, in my opinion, is one of the most important subjects in all of theology, because it hits the very essence of human nature. We were made for that day of rest. |
