I am interested in exploring more of the existentialist and nihilist ideas but I will not restrict my reading to any particular philosopher or ideology. I am open to any suggestions at all. — Jamie
I am interested in exploring more of the existentialist and nihilist ideas but I will not restrict my reading to any particular philosopher or ideology. I am open to any suggestions at all. — Jamie
I think it's great that you can enjoy Nietzsche without agreeing with everything he writes. As I see it, reading philosophy is exposing one's self to vivid, eloquent personalities. They are sometimes a little "crazy" or "obsessive," but their beauty lies in this excess. As we keep reading, we learn to take from them what we can fit into our own, unique lives. We are ourselves become philosophers by trying to fit all the incompatible pieces together.
The Argentine poet Jorge Luis Borges is not typically classified as a philosopher, but in his short stories he has given philosophy some of its most valuable thought experiments, most of them gathered in the stunning collection Labyrinths. Among the best is the fantasy -- actually, it is more a philosophical reflection than a narrative -- that describes the Library of Babel. — Daniel Dennett, Darwin's Dangerous Idea
He (Borges) has a superb conceptual grasp of what Wilbur M. Urban called "the natural metaphysic of the human mind" -- the abstracting, god making, fluid, kaleidoscopic world view possessed by primitive men for want of a body of sure and useful knowledge, and the view to which sophisticated men inevitably return when they despair of truth. The philosophy perennis formulates a circular, predestined universe, capricious and chaotic, capable of an infinite number of equally valid configurations; a world in which everything conceivable is true and where "false" can only mean "unthought." Borges looks upon modern men, with their fixed hiearchy of knowledge and an idea of being that differs radically from the loose cosmologies of their ancient forebears, as if they were a choral group that sings only one dogmatized song. — Carter Wheelock
What I enjoy about philosophy thus far, as a newcomer, is that the ideas expressed in philisophical texts provoke thought. Even if I do not necessarily agree with certain points, I can at least understand the reasoning behind them. It is an enriching experience to have your ideas and perceptions challenged in such an eloquent fashion. — Jamie
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