/lit/ - Literature

>>12313958
Guns, Germs, and Steel. Really good eye opening book. It felt like being able to see the matrix source code, and understanding the last 10,000 years of human history.

>>12313958
The Fountainhead taught me the importance of having principles.

Victory at all costs is an incredibly stupid idea. It's entirely possible, in fact even probable, that you can lose much more than you can possibly gain with this attitude.

Let the morons struggle and fight to win a nickle, while you go in search of a dollar. Or some shit like that.

>>12313958
Adler's how to read a book taught me how to read a book

>>12314037
This +1

>>12313958
You are what you do and when, you most are when engaged.

>>12314099
how did you have the required knowledge to read the book prior to "How to Read a Book?"

>>12315373
Faggot

>>12315378
how so?

>>12313958
thoughts>feelings>actions

Wisdom begins with the fear of the Lord.

>>12313958
never text her first

>>12315373

>>12313958
That I cannot save myself. Only Christ can save me.

That everything I do is a mindless form of Entertainment and I have never done a truly human thing in my life. Thanks Infinite Jest

>>12316032
what does that say? sorry I don't know how to read a book

>>12316119
It's actually a pretty good book and was recommended in my Logic Textbook.

Think about a book as a skeleton, absorb and think deeply about every word while reading, remember the most important sentences. analytical thinking as you read and constantly ask questions in order to further your understanding.

Stuff like that.

>>12316178
what's your logic textbook?

>>12316032
>>12316119
>>12316178

http://cyberspacei.com/greatbooks/h2/how2read/h2r_contents.htm

>>12316182
Kreeft.

>>12316191
What manner of bullshit is this? You lose nothing by believing in god? How can you be a Christian and say that in good faith. Do you ignore the book of Job and all od the martyrs? For your autistic language game? No wonder churches are being boarded up worldwide, this is the best you can do?

>>12313958
this changed my life

>>12316191
since this is true for multiple religions at the same time, it doesn't actually mean much

>>12314037

>>12313958
the difference between reality and appearance

philosophical investigations taught that being unable to supply a definition or criteria for a word/category doesn't suggest I don't understand it or that the term is meaningless. I've applied this lesson in my life in discussions with my trans friends. you might know that trans people often request the people they are speaking with to define what it means to be a woman or to say something that all women have that all men don't. I informed them on how inappropriate it is of them to request such things by telling them all about wittgenstein's idea of family resemblances and so on. this has caused somewhat of a rift between me and my trans friends because they haven't figured out a way around my wittgenstienian argument that they are actually guys

>>12317179
>wittgenstienian argument

>>12317186
don't mess with me, I'm equipped with the rhetorical weapons papa witt has provided me

>>12317198
>papa witt
>rhetorical weapons

>>12317210
that's it, I'm about to unhinge your life kiddo. hope you had fun playing the game

>>12317179
that's not even close to what that means
in fact if you actually got it you'd realize that looser categorizations of masculinity and femininity are more 'true' than biological male or female in a rhetorical sense and more applicable to the situation you're trying to cram witty into

>>12317247
Wrong! Nothing in Witt suggests reshaping how we apply concepts to fit this new recognition of family resemblances rather than strict definitions. The whole point is that we already know what we mean PRIOR to coming to this realization. We don't need to change anything to be "looser". And I'm hardly trying to cram Witt into anything. I tried dissolving problems created by misunderstandings in language just like he thought philosophy was meant to be used for

>>12317259
Pseud, just like your boy, "Witt".

>>12317259
you assume that the definition we know is the biological definition, but you have no reason to believe that. You just want to.

>>12317266
hmm, I wonder what people in my society mean by "man" and "woman" given that there was no controversy or disagreement in this area until recently. obviously the meaning I'm working with! we were all brought up to play the same ~language game~ that instilled in us the meaning of those terms. if you want to play some other language game go ahead, but from the game most everyone is playing trans women are guys.

>>12317274
now, i'm sure you've heard someone accuse an effeminate biological man of not being a "real" man, right? You understand what they mean, despite the fact that if you were to take this with biological literality it'd be a stupid phrase? A man, by any real measure of the word, isn't just someone with a cock but someone masculine, and masculinity is greater than man.

>>12317298
nobody gives a biological interpretation of the phrase "real man" when used in that context. you're completely mistaken in thinking that I do. What I see you doing is thinking that since "man" is used in that phrase that the phrase must bear on what it actually means to be a "man" in the sense of someone's sex. that is completely wrong. if your understanding of that was correct then when people use that phrase they would actually think that the effeminate man they are speaking to was a GIRL and not just an effeminate man.

>>12317327
but you've looped back on yourself and said "they don't actually think they're a GIRL", as if it matters. The result is clear: Masculine and feminine are categories of a higher order than the biological male or female. The difference is that now biology is challenged by humanity, so it must confront the truth.

>>12317335
you aren't being clear about what point you're trying to make here exactly. I never denied that the concepts masculine/feminine mean something different than man/woman. I find this perfectly congruent with everything else I've said.

Stoner taught me you don't have to be successful to find meaning in life

>>12316191
Even if this is true how do you go from game theory to sincere faith?

>>12317265
lolmao seni moron. Pekala bu sana anlamsiz gelen semboller üzerinden ki bana göre anlamlar, olmaları kesiniyette bulunan selere ne diyebileceksin? Google translate ile bol sans seni mongoloid gerzek lolmao

>>12316191
>you lose nothing from believing in god and leading a life of faith
lol. so it isn't challenging? it doesn't take effort? it doesn't prevent you from doing things that you want to do? it doesn't even take up any time?
>you gain nothing from not believing
leading a hedonistic life is nothing?

yeah your chart is fucking retarded. there is no dominant strategy in pascal's wager.

>>12313958
from homer i have learned the greatest lessons here plato writes at the end of gorgias somethings that i think can be learned in homer ...

I desire only to know the truth, and to live as well as I can, and, when I die, to die as well as I can...to take part in the great combat, which is the combat of life, and greater than every other earthly conflict...even on the most important subjects we are always changing our minds; so utterly stupid are we! Let us, then, take the argument as our guide, which has revealed to us that the best way of life is to practise justice and every virtue in life and death.

>>12316178
Wow what unbelievable insight

>>12313958
My little cousin had a Minecraft book that taught me how to make some redstone thing and I impressed a bunch of little kids by building it.

>>12321261
that is a skill not a lesson

>>12313958
children can't govern themselves

>>12313958
These hoes ain't loyal

>>12313958
"Nature cares not for the weak. She gives her scepter to her favorite child and allows him to do as he pleases."

Nothing is truth, everything is permitted

>>12316178
>think deeply about every word while reading
Literally the worst advice ever

>>12313958
That love (true love) fulfills all of the goals of philosophy: tranquility, virtue, and not fearing death. It was from my reading of Montaigne's essays (specifically Apology for Raymond Sebond) and Romeo & Juliet around the same time. I had just finished reading the sections of Apology for Raymond Sebond: "Man's knowledge cannot make him happy" and "Man's knowledge cannot make him good", where it was said that the one thing all philosophers agree on is that the goal of philosophy is tranquility. I also read M's essay That to Philosophize is to Learn to Die several times (I've never had existential angst since first reading this btw). I also stumbled upon his famous quote "The most certain sign of wisdom is cheerfulness" in the text at one point. So this was all my mindset going into Romeo & Juliet: tranquility is wisdom, true tranquility is attained not in only knowledge but in behavior (virtuous behavior particularly), and the fear of death/existential angst is one of the last things holding me back from tranquility. It's quite simple, and I'm sure anyone would kind of agree, but I didn't really FEEL it until reading Romeo & Juliet with this in mind.

During Romeo & Juliet it seemed like Romeo and Juliet had more wisdom than the other characters. Romeo was virtuous, courageous and avoided pointless violence, only fighting in self defense, honorably. They were both willing to die at a moment's notice, especially for each other. Tranquility was also evident in them. Each character involved in the Capulet/Montague rivalry was a fucking idiot. And the main thing they had that other characters clearly did not was true love. So that's how I determined that true love helps one achieve all of the goals of philosophy.

It's obviously a very surface level interpretation but it was a pretty useful lesson, I think about this a lot and it has made my life better.

>>12313958
Know thyself

pic unrelated

>>12316178
I'm trying to make a habit of reading and started with this book. It feels like unless you've already read or tried to read a lot of other lit then this won't help you. I'm going to dive into other shit to use as reference before rereading adler.

>>12314037
santa maria, madre de dios...

>>12314037
Can it explain why the Dominican Republic and Haiti had such different outcomes, better than the observation of the IQ difference between their different ethnic populations?

Pic related: these bordering nations had the same base resources, but one population, with a much lower average IQ, myopically squandered them and the other didn't.

>>12322174
Pic related.

>>12316226
>>12316191
it's called pascal's wager and i didn't think anyone living took it seriously
>>12317222
unleash the beetles anon
>>12321703
i think some people have different goals in their practice of philosophy, but that's still a very interesting point. i think it's also interesting the way that their love wasn't able to perpetuate itself. i think a normal reading of romeo and juliet would consider that a tragedy but maybe something that can ultimately fulfill something other than itself is admirable.

Our descriptions of nature, psychology and philosophy are contingent. Don't believe the foundational myth and become a philosopher-poet.

>>12313958

It ends

How do you actually learn the lesson the book intends to teach? Often times I find myself lumping the book's message into some banal platitude, without ever really finding the original meaning.

>>12314098
flawed thinking enslaved faggot, victory at all cost is what any man of worth would do if victory would grant such man his ultimate good or beauty, although I think what you're alluding to is bad planning coupled with negligence to change it

>>12322295
>How do you actually learn the lesson the book intends to teach?
online, only the author truly understands his writtings at the beginning, the others must ponder in his pretentiousness for a while

siddhartha taught me that i can learn something from anybody

>>12313958
"all art is quite useless."

“If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?

During the life of any heart this line keeps changing place; sometimes it is squeezed one way by exuberant evil and some- times it shifts to allow enough space for good to flourish. One and the same human being is, at various ages, under various circumstances, a totally different human being. At times he is close to being a devil, at times to sainthood. But his name doesn't change, and to that name we ascribe the whole lot, good and evil.

Socrates taught us: Know thyself!

Confronted by the pit into which we are about to toss those who have done us harm, we halt, stricken dumb: it is after all only because of the way things worked out that they were the executioners and we weren't.”
- The Gulag Archipelago, Aleksander Solzhenitsyn

I learned that no matter what system of economics or politics we devise, if we want a world which doesn't disgust us every day, then there is only one thing we can count on: Our own conscience. There is no possible system that regulates itself; all must be kept under watch by humans, who are a part of that system in turn, ultimately. And that's where all systems break down, no matter how strong and foolproof. In the end, perhaps we should be spending more time on learning how to stand by our principles, in face of adversity and terror, and not give in to convenience and shortcuts, than the time we spend on devising systems which will be broken down by a single official accepting bribes or a single politician being irresponsible and shunning accountability.

Spinoza's Ethics taught me a lot, but perhaps the most directly useful thing was that there is no pleasure quite like learning, and that by continuously increasing my knowledge I will always have a source of pleasure. I already knew this, and I almost chose Emerson's quote from Self Reliance - "In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts: they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty" - but Spinoza strengthened my conviction to the point of certainty by elaborating why it is so. I knew this was the case because when I was depressed and suicidal in high school, I lost pleasure in everything that used to be dear to me, even fiction and music, but at the same time discovered philosophy, and this became a new source of pleasure on which all former pleasure and happiness could be rebuilt. I read Lao Tzu, Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, and Plato, and they all gave me what appeared to be indescribable pleasure. Well, Spinoza described it, and I found this useful.
It might be premature to say, because I am 30 pages from finishing it, so it is too early to speak of how it will impact my life, but Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship taught me - or rather, in the same sense, strengthened my conviction - that rather than try to subordinate myself to some particular function or cause, I will be much better off shamelessly following my heart and cultivating my character, and aspire to be, in some sense, an aristocrat, rather than bourgeois or proletarian. Furthermore, it gently taught me that the apparent contradiction between style and character is utterly false, and that dressing well, being sociable, having a clean room, getting laid, etc. are all desirable things and that any "moral" opposition to these things are utter vanity.
I owe Nietzsche the enormous thanks of introducing me to Spinoza and Goethe. Perversely, I also owe him the thanks of getting me interested in Kant and Plato, who in spite of his insults I adore. I was never sure of anything he said, but the itch to read all these was evoked by that wonderful, eccentric friend.

try MahaPrajnaParamita-Sastra by Nagarjuna

>>12322215
>regarding Romeo & Juliet/Montaigne
I think the minor mistake at the end was technically a tragedy, but their willingness to die for each other is admirable and in a certain mindset wouldn't consider the story a tragedy

>>12322950
>If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?

That quote represents a huge milestone in my own moral, philosophical and political maturation.

On the one hand, it gave me the push I needed to stop hating and fearing whole groups of people just based on what others said about them (or said about me if I refused to denounce them).

That meant I opened my ears to white nationalists, fascists and national socialists (along with people from all sorts of walks of life and schools of thought) and I had to realise I found them reasonable, well-read people with good intentions and a coherent worldview.

At the same time, that quote's helped remind me not to think too simplistically or harshly of any of the identifiable Jewish individuals and groups pushing globalism and progressivism (even though Solzhenitsyn himself didn't have any illusions about the ethnocultural group overrepresented in the destruction of his nation) even when it's plain to see how some of them use their power and influence to directly sabotage whole cultures, states and nations. It's not as simple as saying those are bad people doing bad things and everything will be fine if we somehow get rid of them all, because nothing's that simple. I can reject and defy what specific Jews are doing, without truly hating anyone or seeing anyone as a cartoon villain.

TL;DR: Solzhenitsyn helped convince me to be a Nazi but not an anti-Semite.

>>12323225
Go check MPCdot.com anon, you seem nice

My most priceful lesson ive ever took was to wash my penis by hurden Beter.

'How to fail at almost everything and still win big: kinda the story of my life' by Scott Adams (Dilbert Guy)

Systems thinking is stoicism for the 21st Century.

It's a self-help book that respects the mind and it's myriad secrets.

Nothing but existential dread

Pascal had his abyss that moved along with him.
— Alas! all is abysmal, — action, desire, dream,
Word! and over my hair which stands on end
I feel the wind of Fear pass frequently.

Above, below, on every side, the depth, the strand,
The silence, space, hideous and fascinating...
On the background of my nights God with clever hands
Sketches an unending nightmare of many forms.

I'm afraid of sleep as one is of a great hole
Full of obscure horrors, leading one knows not where;
I see only infinite through every window,

And my spirit, haunted by vertigo, is jealous
Of the insensibility of nothingness.
— Ah! Never to go out from Numbers and Beings!

Be a man and not some timid, spineless cuck.