/lit/ - Literature

>>13816567
Keep this around, just for that purpose.

>>13541993
being interested in phil/lit I agree, but actually going to school to study it is retarded and a waste of time. Non-retards just read in their spare time.

Who are the Greeks of fantasy and sci-fi respectively? Who should I read first?

>>12983521
It's pretty sad how detrimental specialization has been. It used to be praiseworthy for a scientist to go into his studies of the world with a level-headed attitude from being informed of philosophy and other fields of study from a solid liberal education. Now when more than ever our assumptions need to be questioned, and new insights into how we engage with the world should be listened to it gets unjustly put down. Maybe it's because everyday we're reminded of our success of getting material to do what we demand of it. Satisfied by the unquestioned answers the culture gives or ready made McDonald's burger and fries ideologies that require no looking into nor demand it. But this isn't found to be alarming, we're comfortable in our ignorance, and when the scientists find something we should rightly be alarmed by and they conflict with the standing ideologies, who's going to rein them in and put them to question under the microscope? Better an understanding of abstract ideas and concepts be attempted than none at all or worse, a mismanagement by those without care.

> not autoposting the reference image

So much for the ethical conclusion drawn by Indian philosophy from the (unprovable) thesis that we living beings are all simply sides or aspects of one single Being; a conclusion with which, as I have said, I, with Albert Schweitzer, am very willing to agree.

The other conclusion, the eschatological one, meets us at every turn, but it can be adequately gathered from this quatrain from the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 4, 4, 19, translated by Paul Deussens as:

Im Geiste sollen merken sie:

Nicht ist hier Vielheit irgendwie;

Von Tod zu Tode wird verstrickt

Wer eine Vielheit hier erblickt.

(In Mind, this is to be noted: there is no plurality here whatever; he who sees any plurality here is ensnared from death to death.)

Some explanation is needed here. Underlying it, in the first place, is the belief, deeply rooted in Brahmanism, in the transmigration of souls, which is in general much more widespread than might be thought by those born into an environment in which it is firmly rejected. Equally, in contrast to the whole tradition in which we have grown up, to the Brahmin the prospect of ‘survival after death’ is not a consolation, but rather a source of distress.2 One’s role and destiny in one’s next birth are thought to be determined by the sum total of all one’s deeds and omissions in all the preceding ones (karma). While this kind of ‘justice’ bears a certain resemblance to that believed in in other religions, it leads, in comparison with, say, Christianity, to a certain tranquillity, not to say indifference, in face of the inequality with which the goods of this life are apportioned. It is explicitly aristocratic, knowing nothing of the ‘equality of all men before God’. If you are born a Brahmin (which does not by any means imply that you are very rich) this honourable rank (even if you are poor, and the servant of another Brahmin) is your due on account of your merits acquired in earlier births; if you are a Sudra (untouchable) or, for the matter of that, a hare or an ugly toad, you have brought it on yourself as a reward for the evil you committed in an earlier existence. It is a belief which allows the world to appear just despite its obvious injustice. It bears a certain resemblance to the feudal nobility, in which past generations take the place of previous births. You are an earl or a duke because one of your ancestors deserved well of king and country and was ennobled, and because his heirs, down as far as you, have at least not compromised themselves to the point of being deprived of their nobility by the king; indeed, it is probable that in the pre-eminent position which they occupied they have actually served their country in ways for which an ordinary citizen seldom has the opportunity.

Reminder

I understand they missed something while stealing all our memes.

Please ignore all the fedora lords in this thread. Modern physics since Planck, confirmed by Einstein, and recently alloyed with Simulation theories, proves that this reality is merely a motley of sensory data that can be likened to an advanced programming code.
https://youtu.be/t_RwcGzGurc

To add onto my previous statement, >>10723268, this anon is correct >>10722988

>>10723052
If you think you can do science without a little philosophy you're badly mistaken. If you're a teen, it's understandable. If you're an adult, I can only hope you're an experimentalist and rely on data to solve what some theoretician proposed a long time ago.

What books on philosophy should a physicist read?

fuck off shill

>>10520780
Bloody post modernists.

You should look up Peterson's reading list. Nietzsche in particular. Here, watch his latest video, it deals directly with what you mention and is directly linked with famous authors, ideas, and stories.
https://youtu.be/kteHW6t4G0g

LM@Oing at you

>>10157478
The fact that we have different ideologies proves there is no objective truth. You and I interpret the importance of a bridge when talking as something as complex as truth in a different way. If for you the existence of a bridge is more relevant than the complexity of human perspective towards material and non-material problems you should probably go back to watching Bill Nye. You belong in the right side of this pic. What we are discussing is not even relativism, which is a more complex problem, beyond your positivist autism.

found it, lads.

>>9739772

Why were all the popular authors of the 20th century either a veteran or mentally ill?

pic not related

>modern "scientists"

>>9551105
>>dude pay hundreds of thousands of dollars
Not everyone is American
>>when you could have just gone to the library and learned it for free
In reality 99% of people don't have the will or determination to become humanities autodidacts (and Internet-age information overload only makes the problem worse). Humanities students benefit being mentored in the intellectually stimulating environment universities provide.