Laurens van der Post
Laurens’ deeply moving account of his time in a Japanese concentration camp. A valuable alternate perspective on events culminating in the August 6th, 1945 dropping of ‘Little Boy’ on Hiroshima.
Category: Erudition
Influential reading
The Nature of Technology
(2010) W. Brian Arthur
Ambitiously, this book promises to offer a cohesive model for technological progression. Instead, we find a repetitive miss-mash of ill-defined concepts, knotted together through liberal usage of clichéd analogies – “technology is like language”, “technology is like Darwinian evolution”, etc., etc. Highly disappointing.
The Great Transformation
Karl Paul Polanyi (1944)
What work! There are three possible societal responses to liberalism’s ‘free market’, Polanyi coolly reasons: (1) self-protection through regulation; (2) environmental collapse and dehumanization of society; or (3) the embrace of fascism.
The Unnatural History of the Sea
Callum Roberts (2007)
A spectacular piece of writing. In well-structured, erudite fashion, Callum Roberts walks us through collapse after historical collapse.
How the Rich are Destroying the Planet
Herv Kempf
A forceful work tying economic inequality to environmental devastation.
The Passion of the Western Mind
Richard Tarnas
Smoothly written history of Western philosophy, with Jungian overtones.
The Sacred Prostitute
Nancy Qualls-Corbett
Above all, a warning of the consequences of over-masculinization of society today.
The Abolition of Man
C.S. Lewis
Lewis’ case for his ‘Tao’. Unclear, incomplete. Worthwhile if you wish to learn about Lewis, I suppose.
Philosophical Essays
A.J. Ayer
Individuals and Properties. Indicators and Predicates. Situations and Occasions. Indicators individuate bundles of predicates?
A System of Logic
John Stuart MillWonderful, wonderful! Mill writes clearly.