/lit/ - Literature

>Dedicated to his royal excellency Baron von Fleckenstein-Dagstuhl
>Gracious Lord, I hope i am not presumptuous to avail myself this dedication to your Excellency's person. In the many years this land has be graced by your exalted countenance, the arts and sciences have taken great strides where before they could barely take a step. From the lips of the most base beggar to the highest officer, nary even the smallest grievance has voiced of your contributions to this great tradition. I know you to be a lover and enlightened connoisseur of all intellectual endeavors, so there can be no greater honor to mine person that to dedicate this small work to you. For any laborer in my field, your Excellency's protection and gracious judgement is a powerful encouragement. Thus, i hope you receive this writing with my deepest reverence,
>Your Excellency's humble and most obedient servant, Anon

I think you imagine that people have more self-determination than they actually do. Especially politicians, who are subject to so many selective pressures and interests that i doubt any decision they make would that which they ideally would have chosen. And actions that may seem on the surface irrational, may in fact be directed towards serving one of these many adjacent interests. They are systemically incompetent, not necessarily personally incompetent.

There is an anime girl in every great man

>>13838815
a lesson from my man William James:
>A practical observation may end this chapter. If belief consists in an emotional reaction of the entire man on an object, how can we believe at will? We cannot control our emotions. Truly enough, a man cannot believe at will abruptly. Nature sometimes, and indeed not very infrequently, produces instantaneous conversions for us. She suddenly puts us in an active connection with objects of which she had till then left us cold. I realize for the first time,”we then say, ‘what that means!” This happens often with moral propositions. We have often heard them; but now they shoot into our lives; they move us; we feel their living force. Such instantaneous beliefs are truly enough not to be achieved by will. But gradually our will can lead us to the same results by a very simple method: we need only in cold blood act as if the thing in question were real, and keep acting as if it were real, and it will infallibly end by growing into such a connection with our life that it will become real. It will become so knit with habit and emotion that our interests in it will be those which characterize belief. Those to whom “God” and “Duty” are now mere names can make them much more than that, if they make a little sacrifice to them every day.

>>13575023
I'm not saying your shouldn't read books that advocate a certain ideological view, or to better understand an ideology. I'm saying that you shouldn't read to become an ideologue. There's a difference between holding a position to be true and being dogmatic about it, likewise there is a difference between discussing it and advocating for it. You should precisely be interested in the various assumptions which different ideologies build their normative framework on, the veracity of these assumptions, how they manifest, whether you think they are correct or not, whether they pertain to the position you advocate or not; that's what a general interest in politics means. One doesn't go into a study of metaphysics and only reads plato and neoplatonic writers simply because you think the theory of forms is the sickest idea there is. It is as ridiculous to do the same with politics (again, if you're interested in the topic itself, and not merely a single position). I'm loathe to use such a cliche quote, but as Aristotle says: you should be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.

>>13574957
Yes, we all know about the theory dependence of observation. But that doesn't mean you can't make conscious efforts to minimize your bias or to entertain, to the best of your ability, the position as accurately as its proponents do. You may think it ridiculous, but i do think that the truth(s) is out there and we can find it, despite our human limitations.

This has always been an anime board, anon.

The problem is that you read Evola, who is a literal who in Political Philosophy. Read someone like Hobbes or Aristotle and see if you find it valuable. What do you want out of Political Philosophy? It is primarily about understanding concepts such as sovereignty, the foundation of the state, the limits of state power (or if there are any?), the role of law, considerations of ethics in political action, the role of economics in government, ect. both how things are and how things ought to be. Every ideology has its foundation in a political philosophy of some sort, but the everyday running of the state rarely is so involved in such a philosophy (though it always serves as a backdrop on what ideals the state and the politicians have, even though they may be disciples of Machiavelli rather than Erasmus in their conduct). If you're looking for a guide on how to gain power and keep it, you aren't going to find that in Political Philosophy (outside of Machiavelli).

>>11275197
How do you know you just aren't missing relevant stories because they aren't widely known?

>>11237693
There's no doubt that the majority of human emotions do, however, which I pointed out clearly.

The few people who replied to me seemed to have had some strong desires for validation. The public display of disgust and that competitive state of mind played a crucial part in the evolutionary process as they can serve as a danger alarm for the tribe and showing reproductive advantage.

The violent reaction to the menace of different ideas helped to maintain culture and the tribe's identity and unity. That's the very reason why people don't seem to be polite.

Trying to establish a common enemy, an anime-watching boogeyman, gives hope for unity and the comfort thereof. Despite them not really knowing anything about anime.

Again, I can't expect rationality from these people. Dialectics is mostly just a pseud scientific model which has little reason to exist in today's world. If it actually worked in anyway we wouldn't have had the mess in China and the USSR.

Well, people have to worship something nonetheless. From these little experiences on /lit/ I'm sort of convinced that those who can actually draw pleasure from reading in today's world are actually not very intelligent.

An experiment in identity formation, perhaps?

Greeks Hebrews or go fuck yourself

Apology, Crito, Republic, Laws - Plato
Nicomanchean Ethics, Politics - Aristotle
History of the Pelloponnesean war - Thucydides
On Obligations, The Laws, The Republic - Cicero
City of God - St Augustine
Summa Theologica (part II) - Aquinas
The Prince, Discourses on Livy - Machiavelli
Leviathan - Hobbes
Theologico-Political Treatise - Spinoza
Discourses on the Origin of Inequality, Discourses on Political Economy, The Social Contract - Rousseau
Reflections on the Revolution in France - Burke
Considerations on France - Maistre
The Spirit of the Laws - Montesquieu
On Liberty - Mill
Two Treatise on Government - Locke
Democracy in America - Tocqueville
Elements of the Philosophy of Right - Hegel
The Concept of the Political - Schmitt

>>10697666
>Sowell
read some actual philosophy

>>10658482
>>10658498
I am better than you

IRfag here. If you want a single book that will do a good job at explaining all the main theories of International Relations, then pick up "International Relations Theories: Discipline and Diversity" by Dunne et al. "Man, the state, and war" by Waltz may also be useful (The text which introduced the three levels of analysis, summerises quite a bit of IR/political philosophy) If you're interested in the core books pertaining to each theory then:
Realism:
The Twenty Years Crisis - Carr
Moral Man and Immoral Society - Niebuhr
Peace & War - Aron
Politics Among Nations - Morgenthau (The metaphorical bible for Realism)

Neorealism:
A Theory of International Politics - Waltz (The Metaphorical bible of Neorealism)
The Tragedy of Great Power Politics - Mearsheimer
Theory of Unipolar Politics - Monteiro

Liberalism/Neoliberalism:
Perpetual Peace - Kant
Power & Interdependence - Keohane & Nye
Soft Power - Nye
After Hegemony - Keohane

Also some important Political Philosophy
History of the Peloponnesian War - Thucydides
Leviathan - Hobbes (The most important)
The Social Contract - Rousseau
The Wealth of Nations - Smith
The Prince - Machiavelli

History of the Peloponnesian war - Thucydides
Leviathan - Hobbes
Reflections on the revolution in France - Burke

read those three, then come back for more recommendations if you like them.

Aristotle - Politics
Cicero - On The Republic, On The Laws, On Duties
Augustine - City of God against the Pagans
Machiavelli - The Prince, Discourses on Livy
Hobbes - Leviathan
Rousseau - The Social Contract
Locke - Two Essays on Government
Burke - Reflections on the revolution in France
Clausewitz - On War
Schmitt - The Concept of the Political
Agamben - Homo Sacer
Aron - Peace & War
Kissinger - Diplomacy
Morgenthau - Politics Among Nations
Waltz - Man, The State, And War
Keohane & Nye - Power and Interdependence

Read those Fukuyama books too, but do know that Fukuyama embarrassed himself with his work "The end of history and the last man" so people will meme about him being bad.

political philosophy

Thucydides - History of the Peloponnesian war
Plato - Republic, Laws
Aristotle - Politics, Rhetoric
Cicero - Republic, laws, on duties, on the ideal orator, political speeches
Quintilian - The Orators education
St Augustine - City of God
Machiavelli - Discourses on Livy, The Prince
Hobbes - Leviathan
Rousseau - On the Social Contract
Locke - two treatise on government
Hume - On the balance of power
Kant - on perpetual peace
Burke - Reflections on the Revolution in France
Clausewitz - On War
Bernays - Propaganda, Crystallizing Public Opinion
Carr - The Twenty Years' Crisis
Schmitt - The concept of the political
Morgenthau - Politics among nations
Niebuhr - Moral man and Immoral society
Waltz - A theory of international politics, The man The state And war
Mearsheimer - The Tragedy of Great Power Politics

You'll want to supplement the above with a general understanding of history, study in detail events of high political crisis (Fall of the roman republic, french revolution, 18th-20th century Europe), look into some figures like:
Cicero
Julius Caesar
Augustus Caesar
Napoleon
Robespierre
Talleyrand
Fouche
Metternich
Bismarck

You'll also want to know at least the basics about macro and micro economics, and some books on marketing and group psychology.