What do you need to have read to understand the great/ influential modern thinkers?

[Anonymous No.17757294]

Just picking up Nietzsche or Joyce or Hegel and reading him out of the blue seems like a waste of time. Same with basically every other great of the last few centuries.

For one these guys all had great classical educations, so without reading the classics you simply won't understand their references or be on the same wavelength.

They read all the great European works up through the medieval and Renaissance ages into the present.

They writing was heavily grounded in the historical context of their culture, so you need to know history.

They were writing in response to or building off the works of thinkers who came immediately before or were contemporary to them.

And they were often commenting on social or political issues that were taking place currently, so not being aware of those things also is necessary.

So it seems to me to really understand the greats one would have to spend years before building the necessary foundations of knowledge.

Do you agree? If you were to build such a curriculum, a groundwork to accomplish this, what would it look like?

[Anonymous No.17757345]

The Greeks. Start with them

[Anonymous No.17757361]

>>17757294
The OT, Homer, Pindar, Socrates Plato, Aristotle, Plotinus, Herodotus, Thucydides, Virgil, The NT, Augustine, Aquinas, The Works of Shakespeare.
Will probably just about do it.

[Anonymous No.17757369]

>>17757345
Fpbp

[Anonymous No.17757374]

>>17757361
or just dive in and reverse engineer everything using secondary literature.
it's not like you're going to become less knowledgeable, just do it brah

[Anonymous No.17757376]

That's literally what schools are for.

[Anonymous No.17757377]

>>17757294
Seek help.

[Anonymous No.17757386]

>>17757361
>The OT
What's that?

[Anonymous No.17757418]

>>17757376
Yes it's pretty sad how far they have fallen. Now we have to do this basic stuff for ourselves. Even most boomers have a pretty good grasp of a lot of this stuff but everyone since them has been completely failed by the school system.

[Anonymous No.17757428]

>>17757377
It's not an irrelevant time wasting question and I just picked an image I had on hand. Master your desires.

[Anonymous No.17757438]

>>17757386
The Old Testament

[Anonymous No.17757471]

>>17757438
Thank you.

[Anonymous No.17757544]

There really are two kinds of people on this board. Why would you need to read a book to understand someone's viewpoint or beliefs? Are people really this retarded?

[Anonymous No.17757594]

>>17757294
This is not a book but I've found Ryan Reeve's lectures on the entire history of the Christian Church (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzStS_NSs-s&list=PLRgREWf4NFWZEd86aVEpQ7B3YxXPhUEf-)) EXTREMELY useful in filling in the gaps US public education left in my history of Europe/"the West" generally. There are like 50 videos so it's a doozy but they're all very informative. Another protip: quality stage productions of most of the classics of ancient greek theater are available on youtube. Ideally you'd read them all but if your goal is to build up the context for more modern writers as quick as possible watching them there is an efficient way to do it. Reading all the Greeks and Romans and medieval writers etc. is infeasible if that's not your primary interest or you're not NEET. Do it efficiently then get to the good stuff.

[Anonymous No.17757634]

>>17757294
g-give me the sauce OP

[Anonymous No.17757750]

>>17757634

That's Dora the explorer.
She grew up well.

[Anonymous No.17759241]

>>17757594
Thanks anon

[Anonymous No.17759660]

Are Latinas proof God loves us and wants us to be happy?

[Anonymous No.17759669]

>>17759660
no, that would be asians

[Anonymous No.17759700]

>>17759669
They are sexy but the kids are Elliot Rodgers

A light skin Latina gives you white kids

[Anonymous No.17759724]

>>17757294
Honestly with that kind of cuck attitude you won't understand Nietzsche anyway

[Anonymous No.17759741]

>>17757376
Not in North America

[Anonymous No.17759742]

>>17759724
Wanting to understand things isn't cuck. On the other hand you probably just dive in and project yourself onto whatever he's saying and glaze over the half of the content that are references to things you don't know about.

[Anonymous No.17759783]

>>17759660

No, but Moner is.

[Anonymous No.17759793]

>>17757294
Start with
>>17757361
and
>>17757345

[Anonymous No.17759801]

>>17759724
No that's the perfect attitude, we don't need more brainlets reading Nietzsche

[Anonymous No.17759809]

>>17757294
You need to be intelligent.

[Anonymous No.17759876]

>>17759742
Complaining about being uneducated due to an decline in education is very much a cuck attitude. You have unlimited information at your fingertips, do something about it

[Anonymous No.17759898]

>>17759876
> Education and having the internet is the same
Shut your gay mouth.

[Anonymous No.17759943]

>>17759876
You mean like making a post asking for advice on which books to read to educate oneself?

[Anonymous No.17760218]

>>17759876
I feel like it's fair to complain that we spent 12-20 years incarcerated in government indoctrination centers and didn't learn a third as much as people who spent half that long there.

[Anonymous No.17760293]

>>17757377

[Anonymous No.17760471]

>>17757377
Imagine being so insecure that you get angry at the site of attractive women

[Anonymous No.17760521]

>her favourite author is Gabriel Márquez
based

[Anonymous No.17760574]

>>17757345
fpbp.

I've spent the better part of 15 years pretty heavily reading history and philosophy and I can only somewhat understand modern greats.

[Anonymous No.17761437]

>>17757594
Great response, thanks

[Anonymous No.17762288]

>>17757376
Oh sweet summer child