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/lit/ - Literature

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4807950 No.4807950[DELETED]  [Reply] [Original]

I recently finished a study of modern political theory, after starting with Locke/Hobbes/Rousseau, through the French revolution of 1789, and ending at Marx and the beginning of Nietzche.

Should I press on to post-modern theory and structuralism, or go back and read the classics (Plato, Aristotle, and so on and so fourth?

>> No.4807962

>>4807950
You should really go reflect on the classics, it'll make a lot of what people like Rousseau and Nietzsche are talking about. Reading Plato and Aristotle after going through a study similar to yours blew my mind with how interconnected all philosophy is.

>> No.4807967

>>4807962
*it'll make a lot of what people like Rousseau and Nietzsche are talking about make sense.

>> No.4807969
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4807969

>>4807950
Read some of the greatest minds of the last couple centuries (pic related)
Gives a better perspective than the leftist dribble.

>> No.4808104

>>4807950
Having started with post-structuralism and worked backwards, I would do the classics next. (But eventually cover structuralism and poststructuralism)

>> No.4808109
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4808109

Start with the Greeks. End with the Atheists.

Simple.

>> No.4808113

>>4808109
>End with the Atheists.

>>4807950
Don't even both with them

>> No.4808139

>>4807950
Ending at Marx? Where the fuck are you studying, Devry?

Yikes.

>> No.4808163

>>4807969
You forgot your trip, evolakid

>> No.4808185

>>4808163
>You forgot your trip, evolakid
I realized that

>> No.4808200
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4808200

>>4807969
I'm not saying that people shouldn't read Chesterton, but I feel like he's somewhat out of place amongst the rest of those writers.

Pic related would fit in better.

>> No.4808212

>>4807950
start with zarathustra ( the dude, not the book). end with zizek.

>> No.4808277

classics.

>> No.4808526

Read Nietzsche (if you just want politics, then beyond good and evil + genealogy) then Heidegger (being and time) then Arendt then Foucault on biopolitics.

You really should engage with the Greeks though, particularly Aristotle and The Republic. The pre-socratics if the more metaphysical implications of Nietzsche and Heidegger pique your interest.

Don't get too bogged down in Heidegger if you're mostly into political philosophy. Just understand the basic gist of his analytic so that your reading of Arendt will be that much more informed.

>> No.4808535

>>4808109
uh
Neil is agnostic

>> No.4809197
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4809197

>>4808109

fuck you, and fuck that picture.

Why the fuck should anyone, ANYONE, listen to Bill Maher. Ricky Gervais is a fucking comedian, not a goddamn proof following philosophical inquiry.
Scientists... so what? You've argued nothing. Just shat an opinion and displayed no knowledge AT ALL.

You fucking faggot.

OP, read the Greeks. Plato, Socrates(The Republic/Timaeus/etc.), Aristotle(The Politics), Xenophon(Education of Cyrus).
Read some Roman historians and histories. Learn what great men did and what they thought about what they did. Caesar's Bello Gallico, fucking Livy (and Machiavelli's Discourses on Livy), Herodotus, etc.

Moving forward, READ MACHIAVELLI. The Prince and Discourses on Livy are necessary. You need Locke, Rousseau, Hobbes, Tocqueville, whatever. I'd recommend reading some Eastern texts, too. The Tao Te Ching, Menscius, The Art of War, etc.

After all that? I liked Hayek(Road to Serfdom), Strauss, Oakeshott, and Rawls(Political Liberalism).

So, in summation, go back to the Greeks, and perhaps before. Know religious texts. Legends. The way men thought and think. Use that as context for the hard political theory.

Good luck out there.

>> No.4809213

>>4808109
This fucking picture annoys me to no end. Is this my generations legacy? Is this our Platos, our Aureliuses and our Ciceros?

>> No.4809222

>>4809213
I fucking hope not.

>> No.4809236

>>4809213

NOPE

>> No.4809379

>>4807950
>No liberal political theory

>> No.4809386

All you need is Evola, fuck the rest of those unintelligible Liberals trying to equalize the world

>> No.4809416

>>4808109
at least shop hitchens out, he belongs in that chaff like frank zappa belongs in a list next to buckethead and dragonforce

>> No.4809436

>>4809416
Whatchu tryna say about my nigga buckethead.

>> No.4809467

How utterly boring.

>> No.4809675
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4809675

>>4809467

What a useless comment. Not only did you come to the thread because of vague interest and leave without contributing, but you actually managed to make the thread worse by shitting banal drivel into it. You might consider suicide; removing yourself from the human experience would be gratifying for us, and maybe even you judging by your jaded vitriol.

>>4807950

OP, as always, read the classics. They'll give you solid context in the traditions of thought that modern political theory was built on. Comments ">>4807962 >>4807969 >>4808526 >>4809197" all make good suggestions. I'd add some other works, and some economic works. Adam Smith - The Wealth of Nations is unavoidable at some point. Karl Popper, Leo Strauss, John Stuart Mill, Milton Friedman, Cicero, Friedrich Hegel, Michael Walzer, Thucydides, etc. That's just a smattering of influential political/economic/human behavioral theorists, ordered in no way.

Enjoy the reads. They're tough to really "get", and I always recommend extensive note-taking, as It helps me with recall and sorting the info mentally.

>> No.4809918

>>4807950


i personally suggest 'popular government' by sir henry maine, 'science, politics and gnosticism' by eric voeglin, 'rise and fall of elites' by pareto, and 'antifragile' by taleb (and if youre a bad enough dude, 'cannibals all' by george fitzhugh, 'shooting niagara' by carlyle).

and yes you should certainly read the classics(they are classic for a reason), aristotles 'politics' naturally, and platos 'laws' (i consider it superior specifically in politics compared to 'republic'), aswell as 'city of god' by augustine.