What are you reading?

[phrex]

i read heidegger between good&evil in german...

i don't rate his writing much in the philosophical aspect - as i have the opinion that philosophical texts got to be very, very exact - and he def. has a bewutiful way to describe things and he knows how to use words... but the quintessence and especially the logics are missing...

[gettingcolder]

i read heidegger between good&evil in german...

i don't rate his writing much in the philosophical aspect - as i have the opinion that philosophical texts got to be very, very exact - and he def. has a bewutiful way to describe things and he knows how to use words... but the quintessence and especially the logics are missing...

yeah? would be interested in a quote

[Terminate]

Re-reading The Dreaming Void by Peter F. Hamilton. And then The Temporal Void as well in getting reading for the third book The Evolutionary Void

I had to re-read because I read the two books prequel to the trilogy and need to sort out the events in my head again.

[AllNightDayDream]

[cosmic_surgeon]

i read heidegger between good&evil in german...

i don't rate his writing much in the philosophical aspect - as i have the opinion that philosophical texts got to be very, very exact - and he def. has a bewutiful way to describe things and he knows how to use words... but the quintessence and especially the logics are missing...

That's largely the point in Heidegger. Logical propositions are only possible on the basis of a background already opened up. What I mean by this is that it's not possible to reason yourself into an evaluative background, as all reasoning depends upon already being in an evaluative background - knowing what logical connectives mean is something which must be elucidated from a pre-theoretical understanding alone. To make this point crystal clear, try to imagine arguing about "ands" and "ors" and "ifs" from a set of logically inferred premises. It's immediately obvious that one can only describe what these things are.

Following from this, Heidegger's work (and all work like it) must be descriptive and largely devoid of logic because it takes part in a project of elucidating the preconditions for rationality/knowing propositions in general (more generally, Heidegger's overall project is to elucidate the possibility of any mode of being, but let's stick with knowing as logic has entered the discussion). Consider the difficulty the epistemological tradition has had in writing off sceptical hypotheses. Mooreanism, Nozickean sensitivity, relevant alternatives, contextualism, and subject-sensitive invariantism all ultimately fail because as long as there is this so-called (artificial) "veil of perception" conceptually inserted between a "subject" perceiving an "object" there will always be the chance for a sceptical hypothesis to exploit that gap.

However, it should not be surprising that a science of knowledge based upon a derivative mode being (knowing) should not in itself be able to elucidate its own grounds and overcome sceptical propositions. The way to overcome scepticism is to encounter the grounds upon which knowing ontologically depends (what Heidegger calls coping). As this most primary mode of being (simply being in the world) is the precondition of knowledge, it is not possible to argue for it or evaluate it in terms of some epistemic background. Simply put, it is the background, and therefore it is only possible to describe it.

Heidegger's undergraduate interests strongly included logic and mathematics, and he was certainly no stranger to such formalisms. But his philosophical investigations led him well beyond the realm of logic, and into the grounds of being.

[decatetron]

http://www.amazon.com/Sound-Synthesis-S ... b_image_bk

[Motorway to Roswell]

Finished this a few days ago.



Finished this today.



Just started this.

[Motorway to Roswell]

[cosmic_surgeon]

Aaaah Hermann Hesse, quality. The Glass Bead Game is one of the most timely books I've ever read.

[Motorway to Roswell]

Aaaah Hermann Hesse, quality. The Glass Bead Game is one of the most timely books I've ever read.

I've got that, but haven't got round to reading it yet. Been on the shelf for a few years.

[phrex]

nice one.

i read a lot of herman hesse...

right now i'm reding this great piece. thanks to my bird for handin this to me...

[AntlionUK]

Written by Yardman Irie, pretty good so far. Gonna cop some of his other books once I'm done with this.

Synopsis

Set in Brixton, 20 years after the race riots, "The Dirty South" follows the adventures of Bricky teenager Dennis Huggins as he drifts into the easy, dangerous life of the shotta - or drug dealer - and discovers that, hard as the struggle for respect on the streets is, the struggle for love is harder still. At least Dennis has involved parents looking out for him; too many of his friends have no guidance other than that offered by their fellow shottaz, or the dubiously motivated black Muslims. Wheatle brilliantly evokes the temptations of the thug life for young black men growing up in London's 'Dirty South' - a fast, compelling novel that offers no easy answers, but refuses to shy away from asking the difficult questions.

[Motorway to Roswell]

Finished Mother Night the other day.



Currently reading The Soft Machine

[wub]

[AntlionUK]

YES.

[melodium747]

"Running Blind" by Lee Child. I love Lee Child's books.

[slothrop]

Finished Mother Night the other day.



Currently reading The Soft Machine

Christ, you're reading some excellent books!

I've just finished

and am reading

and

The first two are both awesome. The third is, erm, very good at what it does, but not exactly a laugh a minute.

[dreamizm]

Just started...

[LACE]

Herman Hesse is boss..loved Siddhartha.

[leebass]

Cathedral - Raymond Carver

I feel like i'm missing something when i read most of his stories. I've only read about 5-6 from this collection so far, but most of them seem to have little point.
I realise they are supposed to be minimal and give a 'slice of life'. But the characters don't seem to learn anything by the end of the story. For example, a man is separating from his wife, he gets drunk every day but is trying to stop. He wakes up deaf in one ear: ear wax build-up. His wife is supposed to come over to talk that day. She comes over, they fix his ear, she goes because she is late for something, and he goes back to watching tv and getting drunk. I just don't see the point.
The ones that do though are really good: 'Cathedral' and 'feathers' so far.
Maybe this just isn't his best collection though, can anyone recommend more?