Naming and Necessity by Saul Kripke

Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain by Antonio Damasio

Purchased a few more books along with this to take me well into 2022...

Damasio's Error and Descartes' Truth: An Inquiry into Consciousness, Metaphysics, and Epistemology by Andrew Gluck

The Tree of Knowledge: the Biological Roots of Human Understanding by Humberto Maturana

Eros and Civilization: A Philosophical Inquiry into Freud by Herbert Marcuse

The Future of the Mind: The Scientific Quest to Understand, Enhance, and Empower the Mind by Michio Kaku

Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison by Michel Foucault

Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason by Michel Foucault

Capitalism and Modern Social Theory: An Analysis of the Writings of Marx, Durkheim and Max Weber by Anthony Giddens

The Psychology of Intelligence by Jean Piaget

The Piaget I am most looking forward to. Reading is a privilege and a blessing.

Faust by Goethe

Monsters of the Market was interesting. Some of the analogies are a bit ham-fisted and awkwardly argued, but I really appreciated his discourse on zombies, and ultimately his insistence on emphasizing the monstrosity of capitalism.

:up: Cool and based.

Nice list!

If I don't remember incorrectly, you read Quinn Slobodian's Globalists, which was an excellent dissection of Neoliberalism. It led me to other fantastic books on the topic, particularly Jessica Whyte's Morals of the Market and then Philip Mirowski's Never Let a Serious Crisis go To Waste as well as Wassernman's The Marginal Revolutionaries, which is an intellectual history of the Austrian School.

I got a decent picture on Neoliberalism. Nevertheless, I was looking to reading something similar to Slobodian's book, that kind of quality. Do any come to mind?

Melinda Cooper's Family Values - this book more than any other made me realize the depravity of neoliberalism. It's one of my all time favourite social studies. Wendy Brown's work is usually one of the standard references (Undoing the Demos and In the Ruins of Neoliberalism), but Coopers book really shows you how it works at a 'on the ground', social level. US focused, but exemplary of its world-wide creep. Can't recommend it highly enough.

Ah, cool. The idea of the family used as excuse for implementing market discipline kind-of thing?

I'll be sure to check it Cooper out.

Many thanks!

The idea of the family used as excuse for implementing market discipline kind-of thing? — Manuel

Kind of. It's how 'the family' became the last bastion of non-market socaility, and how much this absolutely has ruined people. Also explains how neoliberalism and social conservatism basically dovetail into one another on this basis. She kind uses the family unit as a prism through which to view the neoliberalism's social effects. It's devastating.

Sounds right up my alley. :up:

:up:

The idea of the family used as excuse for implementing market discipline kind-of thing? — Manuel

Do you mean the pictures of family happiness in advertising?

No. It has to do with an economic system dating back to the late 70's in which economic policies were forced down people's throat under the guise of freedom, etc. And much more, long story.

The books I mentioned above, plus @Maw and @StreetlightX's suggestions will give you a good idea on neoliberalism, if you're interested.

No. It has to do with an economic system dating back to the late 70's in which economic policies were forced down people's throat under the guise of freedom, etc. And much more, long story. — Manuel

Ah yes. It still happens today. In an increasingly wicked and thought-through fashion. For example, there are many advertisements in which "individuality" is pushed upon. I'm not sure if you point at advertisement, or commercials (both part of an economy based on endless inflating production and consumption of the products) but I think I get your message. Advertisements claiming that that all we see is constructed by us, directing away our attention from Nature. Commerce in the service of a system that assigns us an individuality, while in fact it makes people more unified than ever. In the name of personal freedom and individuality.

Yeah. It's an important aspect of a massive change in political ideology that is still with us to this day. I haven't read the book yet, but know a little about such ideas, if a politician says he/she upholds "family values", then that's an excuse to not do anything for anybody in terms of implementing laws that could help people in need. Why? Because they have a family to support them.

But it's even deeper than that. I have to read that book to get a better understanding of what's involved.

, if a politician says he/she upholds "family values", then that's an excuse to not do anything for anybody in terms of implementing laws that could help people in need. Why? Because they have a family to support them. — Manuel

Exactly! All that talk about family values offers a neat way out of values that are non-value-like. The anti-family values are shunt from law implementation and law-making. Having consequences for the people who don't give a shit about family-values. Making society family-racist, so to speak. Same holds for the so popular free-market values. There is nowadays no escape from advertisement. The gathering of money and goods has never been so popular, and while one person wallows in billions of dollars, drinking from golden taps and letting his jet fly him automatically around the globe, others look for a place to sleep and a meal to eat. But hey, it's a free market...

Pretty much. :up:

Currently reading:

My View of the World - Erin Schrödinger

An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding - David Hume

Almost done with:

Ducks, Newsburyport - Lucy Ellmann

Yeah Quinn Slobodian's book is excellent! Was going to recommend Wendy Brown's In The Ruins of Neoliberalism, but looks like I was beat to the punch. Incidentally was looking to start Melinda Cooper's Family Values by the end of this year or early next.

Was going to recommend Wendy Brown's In The Ruins of Neoliberalism, but looks like I was beat to the punch. — Maw

I didn't look into that one because it did not look inviting for some reason. But if people here think it's good, then it probably is. Thanks.

:up:

looks like I was beat to the punch. — Maw

Yeah, by me.

Two months ago is cute, try two years ago.

I recommended it 12 years ago.

:rofl:

Nerds all of you!

:nerd:

:cool:

The Tree of Knowledge: The Biological Roots of Human Understanding
by Humberto R. Maturana, Francisco J. Varela

:cool:

"The Good Old Days": The Holocaust as Seen by its Perpetrators and Bystanders, Ernst Klee, Willi Dressen, & Volker Riess

Ordered, added to my November reading list. Fuck me but I have to read diese Scheiße! :brow:

Monsters of the Market Zombies, Vampires and Global Capitalism by David McNally — Maw

Yeah so read this book

It's fucked up, but well worth it.