Erudition - realfuture.org

Meditationes de Prima Philosophia / Meditations on First Philosophy

(1641) RenÃ© Descartes

Content.

Discours de la Methode … / Discourse on Method …

(1637) RenÃ© Descartes

Content. The classic case for rationalism.

Hegel: A Reinterpretation

(1966) Walter Kaufmann

An erudite balance of biography and philosophy.

Content. Draws heavily on the thought of Karl Paul Reinhold Niebuhr. America faces impediments on (i) cultural (profligacy leads to deficits and resource dependence); (ii) political; and (iii) military fronts. Much-needed focus is brought to bear on the notion that military commitment can bring about economic growth, Ã la Nitze’sÂ (1950) NSC-68. The major novel hypothesis is that the quality of senior U.S. military leadership has sharply declined since WWII, and that this is responsible for failures in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee

(1970) Dee Brown

Sins of our fathers. It has been many moons since I felt so ashamed of the white blood in my veins. I will write more of this soon – now, my heart is too sad. Those that come here and have not read this book, do so if you would call yourself my friend.

Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai

(1716) Yamamoto Tsunemoto

(Translated from Japanese into English by William Scott Wilson (1979))

Poetic, robust, humbling. Maybe even useful. I’ve been trying to make decisions ‘within seven breaths’, for example.

The Principles of Psychology

(1890) William James

I really wonder how much Philosophy of Mind (which is what, as far as I can tell, this mostly is) has subsequently progressed. Particularly notable is James’ attack on Associationism – the notion that ideas are compounded out of elemental constituents. Reductionism has not just been vehemently applied to the question of the relationship between the Mental and Physical realms – but also within the realm of the Mental itself. Associationism is, par excellence, an application of the reductionist thinking that seems to tempt many a human mind wherever it turns its attention.