Movements Books - Page 4

Philosophy In The Flesh: The Embodied Mind And Its Challenge To Western Thought

George Lakoff

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 37 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

What are human beings like? How is knowledge possible? What is truth? Where do moral values come from? Questions like these have stood at the center of Western philosophy for centuries. In addressing them, philosophers have made certain fundamental assumptions—that we can know our own minds by introspection, that most of our thinking about the world is literal, and that reason is disembodied and universal—that are now called into question by well-established results of cognitive science. It has been shown empirically that:Most thought is unconscious. We have no direct conscious access to the mechanisms of thought and language. Our ideas go by too quickly and at too deep a level for us to observe them in any simple way.Abstract concepts are mostly metaphorical. Much of the subject matter of philosopy, such as the nature of time, morality, causation, the mind, and the self, relies heavily on basic metaphors derived from bodily experience. What is literal in our reasoning about such concepts is minimal and conceptually impoverished. All the richness comes from metaphor. For instance, we have two mutually incompatible metaphors for time, both of which represent it as movement through space: in one it is a flow past us and in the other a spatial dimension we move along.Mind is embodied. Thought requires a body—not in the trivial sense that you need a physical brain to think with, but in the profound sense that the very structure of our thoughts comes from the nature of the body. Nearly all of our unconscious metaphors are based on common bodily experiences.Most of the central themes of the Western philosophical tradition are called into question by these findings. The Cartesian person, with a mind wholly separate from the body, does not exist. The Kantian person, capable of moral action according to the dictates of a universal reason, does not exist. The phenomenological person, capable of knowing his or her mind entirely through introspection alone, does not exist. The utilitarian person, the Chomskian person, the poststructuralist person, the computational person, and the person defined by analytic philosopy all do not exist.Then what does?Lakoff and Johnson show that a philosopy responsible to the science of mind offers radically new and detailed understandings of what a person is. After first describing the philosophical stance that must follow from taking cognitive science seriously, they re-examine the basic concepts of the mind, time, causation, morality, and the self: then they rethink a host of philosophical traditions, from the classical Greeks through Kantian morality through modern analytic philosopy. They reveal the metaphorical structure underlying each mode of thought and show how the metaphysics of each theory flows from its metaphors. Finally, they take on two major issues of twentieth-century philosopy: how we conceive rationality, and how we conceive language.Philosopy in the Flesh reveals a radically new understanding of what it means to be human and calls for a thorough rethinking of the Western philosophical tradition. This is philosopy as it has never been seen before.

Heroes: From Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar to Churchill and de Gaulle (P.S.)

Paul Johnson

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Anyone is a hero who has been widely regarded as heroic by a reasonable person, or even an unreasonable one. 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

This is the first book I read of Paul Johnson and I really enjoyed it. In this book, we are introduced to well-known figures in history who are regarded as heroes. But a hero to one might be a villain to another. Genghis Khan was a hero to many, but a murderer to many others as well. Paul Johnson uses the example of Samson. Samson is a heroic figure in old Judaic scriptures. He was a Nazirite, and God had blessed him with extraordinary strength. However, in order to keep his superhuman strength, he had to make sure he never cut his hair. One day, however, he admits to Delilah that the secret to his strength is his hair. She then lulled him to sleep on her knees and called a barber to shave off his hair. The Philistines then seized him, gouged out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza. There they bound him with bronze fetters. Eventually his hair grows again, unnoticed by his enemies, and his strength returns. When the Philistines take him to their great feast in the Temple of Dagon to taunt him, he gets a little boy to guide him to the central pillars. Calling on God to give him the power, he pushes aside the pillars from their bases and brings the entire temple down, killing all the people who were in it. According to the author, this ruthlessness in heroism makes Samson the first suicide-martyr-mass killer, adumbrating the suicide bombers of today's Middle East. Samson's act was a brutal unconcern for human life, whether guilty or innocent. Samson kills all the Philistines, including the innocent child who had befriended him and many of those in the crowd who had nothing to do with his capture or blinding. Nonetheless, Samson was honored, and became a hero in the teeming biblical pantheon. The Jews loved Samson, and still do. (p. 18-20). The author says, "Anyone is a hero who has been widely, persistently over long periods, and enthusiastically regarded as heroic by a reasonable person, or even an unreasonable one."

A hero is also created by our own perception of him, and might not be at all the way we perceive him to be. The author gives as an example President Ronald Reagan. Reagan gave back to the United States the self-confidence it had lost, and at the same time tested Soviet power to destruction. He is credited with ending the cold war. He cut taxes, freed Americans from unnecessary burdens, and enlarged freedom whenever consistent with safety and justice. He had a great sense of humor, his smiles were genuine, and he was a charismatic leader. He was viewed as a hero by the American people and the rest of the world. However, according to the author, Reagan was superficially, and also profoundly, ignorant. He did not seem to know how bills were put together or passed through Congress, or how the entire budget process took place. He had little education, and no desire to acquire much more in a general sense, at any rate through books. He was intellectually lazy, and he did not read one word of the carefully prepared briefing book on the eve of the world economic summit in 1983. During his presidency he spent more time watching movies than doing anything else. Sometimes he believed in fantasies, such as that the United States really had much larger hidden oil reserves than the whole of the Middle East. At other times he appeared incapable of speaking coherently about the simplest matters without reference to the cue cards in his left pocket. In some ways he was ill-equipped to run anything, let alone the mightiest nation on earth. He was deaf and sometimes could not hear what his staff was telling him, even with the volume of his hearing aid switched right up. He confused names and faces. He thought his own secretary of commerce was a visiting mayor. He believed Denis Healey was the British ambassador. He addressed the Liberian president Samuel K. Doe as "Chairman Moe." (p. 256-258). Yet despite these deficiencies, he is viewed as an American hero.

This is a really fascinating book that will show you a different side to well-known heroes. The author discusses the human flaws of such heroes as Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Henry V, Joan of Arc, Thomas Moore, Lady Jane Grey, Mary Queen of Scots, Elizabeth I, Walter Raleigh, George Washington, The Duke of Wellington, Lord Nelson, Emily Dickinson, Abraham Lincoln, Robert E. Lee, Winston Churchill, Charles de Gaulle, Mae West, Marilyn Monroe, Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, and Pope John Paul II.

I really liked the chapter on Mae West, and feel encouraged to read more of her books. Mae is really a fascinating character study. I was surprised though that the author included Marilyn Monroe as a hero. I learnt things I never knew about her, like the fact that she suffered from Syphilis and severe depression.

One beautiful quote from this book will be stuck in my head for the rest of my life. Henry Ford once said, "It is a disgrace for anyone to die rich." I truly believe in giving, and being a philanthropist. For this reason, I view Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, among many others, as true heroes. Here's the irony: Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Napoleon Bonaparte, among just a few, are viewed today as heroes, despite the fact that they killed millions of people. Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, among a few, are also viewed as heroes, but for different reasons: they save the lives of millions!

I recommend this book to all readers who are fascinated by the lives of great people (and some not that great but still viewed as heroes).

Editorial Review:

A galaxy of legendary figures from the annals of Western history

In this enlightening and entertaining work, Paul Johnson, the bestselling author of Intellectuals and Creators, approaches the subject of heroism with stirring examples of men and women from every age, walk of life, and corner of the planet who have inspired and transformed not only their own cultures but the entire world as well.

Heroes includes:

Samson, Judith, and Deborah • Henry V and Joan of Arc • Elizabeth I and Walter Raleigh • George Washington, the Duke of Wellington, and Lord Nelson • Emily Dickinson • Abraham Lincoln and Robert E. Lee • Mae West and Marilyn Monroe • Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, and Pope John Paul II

The Origins of Totalitarianism: Introduction by Samantha Power

Hannah Arendt

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 20 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Unreadable 1 out of 5 stars.
2 of 4 people found this review helpful.

I am sure that there are some important points made in this book, but its turgid prose is so difficult to understand, it is not worth the effort. It takes its place on my bookshelf next to Being and Nothingness. Next time you see it on someone's bookshelf, ask them to summarize it, or discuss what they thought of it. You will probably get a few uncomfortable looks.

Arendt's Opus Magnum 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Origins, an incredibly detailed analysis of Stalinist Russia and Nazi Germany, shows Arendt's versatility in political thought. I have yet to see a political philosopher/thinker publish a work with this much depth to it, and I think it will be a long time before we see anything like it.

Many of the reviews here have done better justice to her legacy, so I will just say that if you are thinking twice about pursuing this work because of it's length, think three times.

Editorial Review:

Generally regarded as the definitive work on totalitarianism, this book is an essential component of any study of twentieth-century political movements. Arendt was one of the first to recognize that Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union were two sides of the same coin rather than opposing philosophies of Right and Left. “With the Origins of Totalitarianism Hannah Arendt emerges as the most original and profound-therefore the most valuable-political theoretician of our times” (New Leader). Index.

Utilitarianism

John Stuart Mill

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Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Utilitarian philosophy explained 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I read this book for a graduate Mill seminar in Philosophy. Recommended reading for anyone interested in philosophy, political science, and history.

John Stuart Mill, 1806-73, worked for the East India Co. helped run Colonial India from England. Minister of Parliament 1865-68 he served one term.

Mill develops a theory of morality in Utilitarianism. He argues against the group of people who think that morality is intuitive. Intuitionists think that God put morality in us, thus, morality is a priori. Moral rules or principles were programmed in us, we can see these rules, they are binding, however they do acknowledge that on a case by case basis we still need to use them to reason out the ultimate answer for a particular case.

Mill also believes that there are a set of moral principles that we ought to be thinking about. Intuitionists today think that case by case we can reason out what is right or wrong. However, they would be suspicious that of believing there were general moral principles. Intuitionists say it is not up to us to investigate what is right or wrong. Mill would disagree. Mill doesn't like Intuitionists theory because they can't prove their view; and they can't explain why "lying is wrong" as an example. In addition, they do not provide a list of these innate morals we are suppose to have, and they do not have a hierarchy for them to resolve the conflict between two morals when they arise.

Background on essay, written in 1861 came out in 3 magazine articles, pretty scanty which sometimes drives one crazy trying to deduce what Mill is saying. A lot of interpretation is necessary.

Chapter 2: The second paragraph is official statement of the theory.

"The creed which accepts as the foundation of morals, Utility, or the Greatest Happiness Principle, holds that actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness."

Happiness=pleasure and freedom from pain. This makes him a Hedonist philosophically.


Higher Pleasures Doctrine- Jeremy Bentham says how valuable pleasure was based on 2 dimensions that we evaluate our experience of pleasure by, intensity and duration. Bentham says this determines quantity in pleasure. Bentham said this determined how much a given experience adds to a person's happiness.

Mill adds a third value to evaluate pleasure by and that's its quality, how good it is. Many don't understand Mill's idea that pleasure has value and quality. Most people think that Mill is really talking about quantity, or they don't believe one can be a hedonist, that pleasure is the only thing that has value, and yet think that there is something more to judging how valuable an experience is than the intensity and the duration of the pleasure it contains. So, they say that one of two things must be going on here. Of course, some people are sure it is one thing, and some are sure it is another. Either what Mill is talking about when you get right down to it is quantity in pleasure and different experiences, or all the different things he says about quality can be somehow resolved into quantity. So that really what is going on is that when Mill talks about a pleasure being of a higher quality that just means that there is a lot more pleasure there that the quantity is much greater. Or, Mill is giving up on hedonism at this point and he is admitting that some things are valuable aside from pleasure. So, when he says an experience like reading a good book or something like that is more valuable than an experience of some kind of animalistic pleasure, that really what he is saying is this experience is more valuable for reasons that go beyond the amount of pleasure involved. In addition to how much pleasure is involved there is also that maybe the experience is more beautiful or more noble or something like that and this gives it additional value. So something other than the amount of pleasure involved gives it additional value. Mill can be a consistent hedonist and he can consistently say that pleasure is the only thing that can have value and yet it is still the case that some pleasures are just more valuable than other pleasures.

Editorial Review:

This expanded edition of John Stuart Mill's Utilitarianism includes the text of his 1868 speech to the British House of Commons defending the use of capital punishment in cases of aggravated murder. The speech is significant both because its topic remains timely and because its arguments illustrate the applicability of the principle of utility to questions of large-scale social policy.

Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

Ludwig Wittgenstein

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Total reviews: 39 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

'The world is all that is the case' 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 7 people found this review helpful.

The Tractatus was Wittgenstein's attempt to solve all philosophical problems. Believing he was successful, he retired from Philosophy after publishing this text to become a schoolteacher for several years in Austria, before returning to philosophy.

The Tractatus is one of the most important intellectual works of the 20th century, arguably as important as Bertrand Russell's and Whitehead's 'Principa Mathematica', Heidigger's 'Being and Time', and Husserl's 'Logical Investigations.' This little work, beautiful in its logical simplicity and purity, can be regarded as the manifesto of analytical philosophy in the 20th century.

The Tractus is essentially a work dealing with epistemology, what we can and cannot know about the world. However, rather than looking at the mind or conciousness or sensations, Wittgenstein instead looks at how we use language and logic to describe the world. If we can solve the inherent logical ambiguity of language, we can then solve philosophical problems which are in fact simply faults which come from lack of logical coherence or clarity when we use language to make certain statements about things and the relationship between things.

Wittgenstein's approach is somewhat reductionistic. The propositional format of the work mirrors the Ethics of Spinoza, though for Wittgenstein the world is made of certain basic atomistic components which have fairly simple relations to each other. These arrangements may change in space and time but the world remains the same.

A number of propositions deal with logical problems explored by Russell, Frege and others. Some of these are very abstract and subtle and require careful study to properly understand.

Towards the end of the treatise Wittgenstein's concerns seem to border on the mystical. 'It is not what the world is, but that it is, which is mystical' and 'What we cannot speak of, we have to pass over in silence.' These Zenlike statements seem to hint at a deep mystery about things which crops up when we reach questions beyond the scope of language and logic, which can only be approached with silent contemplation, somewhat like Nicholas of Cusa's approach to the mystery of God. While Wittgenstein was not a religious man, his statements in this sense have often been quoted by philosophers and scientists whenever a metaphysical question which seems unanswerable arises in their discourse.

Wittgenstein later abandoned many of the statements he made in the Tractatus when he returned to philosophy, instead focusing more on problems with language rather than logic. This is somewhat unfortunate, given the elegance and beauty of this work from the philosophical viewpoint.

While the ambitions of Wittgenstein to solve all problems by clearing up our usage of language may seem excessive looking back, the clarity and precision of this work is admirable and the project worthwhile. For this and for many other reasons, it remains a work worth studying carefully and with sympathy, even after a century or so after its publication.

Editorial Review:

In this 1921 opus, Wittgenstein defined the object of philosophy as the logical clarification of thoughts and proposed the solution to most philosophic problems by means of a critical method of linguistic analysis. Beginning with the principles of symbolism, the author applies his theories to traditional philosophy, and more. Introduction by Bertrand Russell.

Existentialism And Human Emotions (A Philosophical Library Book)

Jean-Paul Sartre

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Total reviews: 13 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

The most readable philosophy work of Sartre 5 out of 5 stars.
11 of 14 people found this review helpful.

This work is readable and clear. In this it is possible to learn more from reading a few pages of it than from reading all of Sartre's major philosophical work 'Being and Nothingness'. The basic idea of Sartre's Existensialism is that we are born into the world without having any prior purpose or meaning. Our life is the story of the meaning we make for ourselves. And we do this through our decisions and choices. We make the meaning by our action. And should we decide not to take action then this too is a meaning and action. For Sartre the rejection of all a priori systems most especially those of the great religions leads to the idea of human dignity as based primarily on human freedom and decision. This is an appealing doctrine in some ways because it would seem to free Mankind of all shackles, liberate it to be itself completely. The problem is that the meaning we make is mortal as we are, and the path of freedom would then seem to lead no matter who we are to an ultimate annihilation and nothingness.
We need God if we are to have a meaning that will endure. But this of course would not be acceptable to Sartre.

Cosmos and Psyche: Intimations of a New World View

Richard Tarnas

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Total reviews: 42 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Compilation of Coincidences 1 out of 5 stars.
3 of 12 people found this review helpful.

Offering no scientific proof whatsoever, the author embarks on a mindless quest to make sense of random events. The alignment of the cosmos is less a factor in human history than solar wind and the earth's magnetic field (and the latter two may have only a negligible effect). I initially thought that this work was an attempt at parody.

Astrology? Are you serious? 1 out of 5 stars.
3 of 16 people found this review helpful.

This dense, heavy book is painful to read, and the pseudo-scholarship is all in the service of promoting the long-discredited view that the stars rule our lives. Give me a break! There is absolutely no evidence that anything in astrology is true. Wake up Tarnas, join the 21st century. Stop wasting your time with nonsense.

Editorial Review:

From a philosopher whose magisterial history of Western thought was praised by Joseph Campbell and Huston Smith comes a brilliant new book that traces the connection between cosmic cycles and archetypal patterns of human experience. Drawing on years of research and on thinkers from Plato to Jung, Richard Tarnas explores the planetary correlations of epochal events like the French Revolution, the two world wars, and September 11. Whether read as astrology updated for the quantum age or as a contemporary classic of spirituality, Cosmos and Psyche is a work of immense sophistication, deep learning, and lasting importance.

The Body in Pain: The Making and Unmaking of the World

Elaine Scarry

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Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Part philosophical meditation, part cultural critique, The Body in Pain is a profoundly original study that has already stirred excitement in a wide range of intellectual circles. The book is an analysis of physical suffering and its relation to the numerous vocabularies and cultural forces--literary, political, philosophical, medical, religious--that confront it.

Elaine Scarry bases her study on a wide range of sources: literature and art, medical case histories, documents on torture compiled by Amnesty International, legal transcripts of personal injury trials, and military and strategic writings by such figures as Clausewitz, Churchill, Liddell Hart, and Kissinger, She weaves these into her discussion with an eloquence, humanity, and insight that recall the writings of Hannah Arendt and Jean-Paul Sartre.

Scarry begins with the fact of pain's inexpressibility. Not only is physical pain enormously difficult to describe in words--confronted with it, Virginia Woolf once noted, "language runs dry"--it also actively destroys language, reducing sufferers in the most extreme instances to an inarticulate state of cries and moans. Scarry analyzes the political ramifications of deliberately inflicted pain, specifically in the cases of torture and warfare, and shows how to be fictive. From these actions of "unmaking" Scarry turns finally to the actions of "making"--the examples of artistic and cultural creation that work against pain and the debased uses that are made of it. Challenging and inventive, The Body in Pain is landmark work that promises to spark widespread debate.

Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand (The Ayn Rand Library, Volume 6)

Leonard Peikoff

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Total reviews: 78 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Authoritative, Systematic and Elucidative Source on the Philosophy of Ayn Rand! 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

The author of this book is Ayn Rand's chosen intellectual and legal heir, making him the highest possible authoritative source on her philosophy. With Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand (OPAR), Dr. Peikoff has created the first and only systematic and comprehensive presentation on the philosophy of Ayn Rand. If you want to get a deeper understanding of Ayn Rand's philosophy beyond reading many of her essays and her two most famous novels, there is no avoiding this work. This book is both great to read cover-to-cover as well as excellent for random access. Consider it an informative textbook that is also fun to read!

Thought Provoking and Refreshing 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This book is on the Modern Library's Top 100 Non-Fiction List. It places #3 on the Reader's Choice. As someone who admittedly has not read a trememdous amount of philosophy, and this being one of the first books I've read about Objectivism, I thought it was an excellent introduction to the philosophy of Ayn Rand and I look forward to reading more about Objectivism and philosophy in general.

With that being said, I would recommend it to anyone with an interest in ideas. This book is thought-provoking, and trully inspiring on all levels. Ayn Rand was an amazing person, and Peikoff does a beautiful job explaining her philosophy. This book is Gold! I will be reading this and other Objectivist books many times more in the future!

Editorial Review:

The definitive statement of Ayn Rand's philosophy, written by the preeminent Rand exponent and scholar. Illustrated with excerpts from her published works, complete with an abundance of new material that Rand communicated only in private conversation with Peikoff, this book illuminates Objectivism--and its creator--with brilliant clarity.

Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church: Understanding a Movement and Its Implications

D. A. Carson

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Total reviews: 47 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

The answer lies in the middle 3 out of 5 stars.
3 of 5 people found this review helpful.

What I find interesting is that I was actually driven by watching the debate on this book to read McLaren's book "A Generous Orthodoxy" prior to reading this one as I thought the debate was a riveting one. Having read both books, I have to say that I feel McLaren has been much maligned in the characterization of that DA Carson makes of his work. That is not to say that some of his assertions are not valid in regards to areas of the emerging church.
Many of Dr. Carson assertions are quite valid. It has been my personal experience that many emergent churches (several I have visited or attended) do seem to struggle with a watering down of the Gospel through offering services about being a better you and other self help style sermons that can sometimes remove the focus on God. Many struggle with, as Carson put it, "a shallow" view of faith that often borders on a selfish pursuit by these christians of a "prosperity gospel" that portrays God as a cosmic slot machine for believing. Prayer goes in -- red corvette and wealth come out. There is truth to a tendency of these groups towards a "feel good" and "non offensive, political correct, and an all encompassing tolerance that rubberstamps all divergent beliefs&

Editorial Review:

A perceptive evaluation of the new “emerging church” movement showing how we must not only interact with a fast-changing culture but also have our vision and practice of ministry shaped by biblical theology with Scripture as the norm.