/lit/ - Literature

>>7846302
1. Ray Monk's The Duty of Genius
2. Ray Monk's How to Read Wittgenstein
3. Blue and Brown Books
4. Philosophical Investigations

>>7189014
Found it.

No sciences impresses the masses more than astronomy. The almost idolatrous veneration in which Newton is held, especially in England, passes belief. Only a little while ago The Times called him 'the greatest of human beings', and in 1815 (according to a report in the Examiner) one of Newton's teeth was sold for 740 pounds sterling to a Lord who had it mounted on a ring. Now this ludicrous degree of veneration accorded the great master of arithmetic comes from the fact that people take as the measure of his deserts the magnitude of the masses the laws of whose motions he determined and traced back to the natural force causing them (which last was in any case not his discovery but that of Robert Hooke: he merely confirmed it by arithmetic). For otherwise it is impossible to see why more honour should be due to him than anyone else who traces a given effect back to the expression of a certain natural force, or why Lavoisier, for example, should not be rated just as highly. To explain given phenomena as the combined action of various different natural forces, and even to discover these forces only as a result of the explanation, is on the contrary a far harder task than that which has to consider only two, and two such simply and uniformly acting forces as gravitation and inertia in unresisting space. It is on precisely this unexampled simplicity, or poverty, of its material that the mathematical certainty and exactitude of astronomy rests by virtue of which it astonishes the world by being able even to announce the existence of planets no one has ever seen. This last achievement, though it be never so greatly admired, is, regarded in the cold light of day, no more than the identical act of reasoning which is undertaken when any such invisible cause is determined from the effects it manifests, and which was performed to an even more wonderful degree by that connoisseur who knew with certainty from a single glass of wine that there must be leather in the barrel, which was denied until, when the barrel was at length empty, a key with a little strap attached to it was found at the bottom. The act of reasoning here is the same as that involved in the discovery of Neptune, and the difference lies merely in its application, that is to say in the object to which it is addressed; it differs in its material, not at all in its form.

>>7189062
I acknowledge your existence.

>>6991391
Excellent.

>>6879697
>It is difficult to take seriously the claim that his philosophy is meant simply for isolated geniuses living in decadent, nihilistic societies.
This is a good point, me. By providing an underpinning for the transformation of society, Nietzsche helps makes the actual world look beautiful. A stratified, aristocratic society is a form of art itself.

Walden is superior to any book of The Bible.

>However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names. It is not so bad as you are. It looks poorest when you are richest. The fault-finder will find faults even in paradise. Love your life, poor as it is. You may perhaps have some pleasant, thrilling, glorious hours, even in a poorhouse. The setting sun is reflected from the windows of the almshouse as brightly as from the rich man's abode; the snow melts before its door as early in the spring. I do not see but a quiet mind may live as contentedly there, and have as cheering thoughts, as in a palace. The town's poor seem to me often to live the most independent lives of any. Maybe they are simply great enough to receive without misgiving. Most think that they are above being supported by the town; but it oftener happens that they are not above supporting themselves by dishonest means, which should be more disreputable. Cultivate poverty like a garden herb, like sage. Do not trouble yourself much to get new things, whether clothes or friends. Turn the old; return to them. Things do not change; we change. Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts. God will see that you do not want society. If I were confined to a corner of a garret all my days, like a spider, the world would be just as large to me while I had my thoughts about me. The philosopher said: "From an army of three divisions one can take away its general, and put it in disorder; from the man the most abject and vulgar one cannot take away his thought." Do not seek so anxiously to be developed, to subject yourself to many influences to be played on; it is all dissipation. Humility like darkness reveals the heavenly lights.

AFTER A STILL winter night I awoke with the impression that some question had been put to me, which I had been endeavoring in vain to answer in my sleep, as what — how — when — where? But there was dawning Nature, in whom all creatures live, looking in at my broad windows with serene and satisfied face, and no question on her lips. I awoke to an answered question, to Nature and daylight. The snow lying deep on the earth dotted with young pines, and the very slope of the hill on which my house is placed, seemed to say, Forward! Nature puts no question and answers none which we mortals ask. She has long ago taken her resolution.

>>6160493
A collection of extract called The Wisdom of Life by Schopenhauer comes pretty close.

From Nietzsche: When trying to "find yourself," don't look within. Don't take the Myers Briggs personality test to determine your true self. Figure out what you want to be and strive towards becoming that. Within is nothing but weeds that need to be pulled up by the root. Your true self is at a distance above you. Strive towards that self. Will thyself.

>>5587444
A favorite between the ages of 8 and 14. Essentially a writer for very young people. Romantic in the large sense.

>>5567742
Schopenhauer talks about how it would be useful to have an anthology of the most important extracts from the most important philosophical works. If you are serious about it, you should avoid secondary literature as much as possible and start at the beginning. Since time is limited, you should only read the most essential first.