Sunsets, Stars, West, Wind
My Brain Upgrade Project continues apace with readings on social and political philosophy. I wrapped up the chapter with a section on the Limits of the State, which included the following Philosophy and Life insert on p. 595 of my Philosophy textbook:
I choked up reading the quote above in the left-hand column attributed to Henry L. Stimson. Continue reading “Dropping the Bomb”
Two of my real-life book clubs are reading Being Mortal this year. I recommended it to my uncle, who wrote the following review:
Book Review: Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande (Five Stars) – http://wp.me/p4lV5z-XJ
This paragraph in the “Human Nature” chapter of my Introduction to Philosophy textbook speared me, considering the turmoil before, during and continuing after our most recent elections. It’s a long paragraph so bear with me. I’ll split it at points to add more white space for emphasis and where my mind flipped thoughts from ‘right’ to ‘left’ instead of its usual on-edge position:
Your perception of human nature determines even how you think we should set up our society. Ask yourself this, for example: Should our society be based on capitalism or socialism?
As I promised in yesterday’s post on my Brain Upgrade Project, the following are excerpts from the email responses I received to the following question:
“Ask six friends what they think philosophy is.”
The study of critical thinking.
. . . philosophy is the contemplation of our existence, sentience, and interaction with the universe and its inhabitants. I believe we as humans agree that our capacity to reflect upon our existence is unique. And that we are seeking elusive knowledge for our propose through this process.
Narrowly, philosophy is the love of knowledge. Broadly, it’s the inquiry into what is real, true, valuable; how we know it and what difference it makes; what is man, who am I, why am I here, what am I to do? It is the search of meaning and purpose in life.
Philosophy to me is a general moral framework to help determine one’s actions and explain how the world works (or should work).
After taking two required philosophy courses in college many moons ago, I decided philosophy is the opportunity for a professor to put forward his/her agenda and give you poor grades if you don’t agree with it-no matter how much you support your point of view.
I guess I would define philosophy as the study/search for answers regarding, well, existence: who we are, what things are, why things are the way they are, and how things should be (i.e. ethics and morality). I believe (although I could be wrong) a lot of science has it’s roots in philosophy (if I remember correctly, it was one of the very early philosophers that theorized the existence of atoms). You could almost say that philosophy is the study of questions.
I would say philosophy is the study of thinking, the why we think, that we can think, the how we think ~ leading to our conclusions ~ which remain in a state of flux, to a point!!
The importance of this should be that we understand the decisions we make, there is a trail or should be of how we got to that point.
My answer to the similar question posed to my Philosophy class by our professor:
“How philosophy is defined? How would your define it?”
Philosophy means the love of wisdom with a goal to help us achieve autonomy, by making us more aware of our own beliefs and encouraging us to think through issues for ourselves. Philosophy is also an activity, and not an easy one, but the struggle for freedom never is, especially when we examine our most basic beliefs and assumptions under the microscope of reason. I would define philosophy as unrelenting curiosity and drive to ask, and attempt to answer for ourselves, the hard questions about our purpose, our place in the world and the universe, our mortality and our morality
Next post I’ll ruminate about my reading of the second chapter of my Introduction to Philosophy textbook: Human Nature
On the ides of November, with forty-six days left in 2016, I achieved my self-inflicted reading goal. I have read seventy-five books so far this year. I will read more before 2017 arrives. I am currently reading four books simultaneously in various formats: an audiobook (classic mystery by Christie); an ebook (one of next year’s most likely to succeed Hugo Nominees); a hard cover (non-fiction Kansas Notable); and another ebook (bible study ongoing).
For the most part, I avoided reading duds this year. I only abandoned two books, both of them book club reads that I just couldn’t get into. I read a lot of books for discussion groups. That leaves me little room to squeeze in the must-read new releases that I buy to support my favorite authors. Of the seventy-five books read since January 1st, I added fourteen to my ‘loved-it’ shelf and forty-eight to my ‘liked-it’ one. The remaining thirteen books wallow on my ‘meh’ shelf, which is just slightly elevated above my ‘disliked’ and ‘abandoned’ shelves.
Since 2011, I’ve averaged eight-nine books per year, with peak reading occurring in 2013 (102 books read) and 2014 (136 books read). My lowest reading year occurred last year, where I only read a measly sixty-two books. I can’t remember why I didn’t get as much reading done last year. Still, that means I’m reading between seven and eight books per month. Makes sense when you consider that I’m involved in 3-4 real world book clubs and a couple of virtual ones plus tackling my huge to-be-read pile not associated with any discussion groups.
I should be able to finish another half-dozen books by year’s end. In fact, I’ll probably read another ten or so. I have several novellas I need to read, and those usually only take an hour or so to finish. Perfect for lunch time reading.
But what to challenge myself with next year? Should I play it safe, again, and set the bar back at seventy-five? That might be a wise decision as I’m returning to college after a decades long hiatus to complete my degree. I see the mist of my spare time for leisure reading evaporating before me. Perhaps fifty might be an even safer bet?
Only time and my capacity to absorb the written word will tell.
The Lansing Community Library Adult Book Group recently celebrated their first anniversary. Since last year’s banned book celebration in September 2015, we’ve read a variety of fiction and non-fiction, classics, essays, award-winning fiction, graphic novels and touched most genres.
About A Great Deliverance
To this day, the low, thin wail of an infant can be heard in Keldale’s lush green valleys. Three hundred years ago, as legend goes, the frightened Yorkshire villagers smothered a crying babe in Keldale Abbey, where they’d hidden to escape the ravages of Cromwell’s raiders.
Now into Keldale’s pastoral web of old houses and older secrets comes Scotland Yard Inspector Thomas Lynley, the eighth earl of Asherton. Along with the redoubtable Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers, Lynley has been sent to solve a savage murder that has stunned the peaceful countryside. For fat, unlovely Roberta Teys has been found in her best dress, an axe in her lap, seated in the old stone barn beside her father’s headless corpse. Her first and last words were “I did it. And I’m not sorry.”
Yet as Lynley and Havers wind their way through Keldale’s dark labyrinth of secret scandals and appalling crimes, they uncover a shattering series of revelations that will reverberate through this tranquil English valley—and in their own lives as well.
The continuing mystery of any book group is always what to read next. And this time of year we start to see the ‘best of’ lists or, in the case of GoodReads, the annual Choice Awards (voting ongoing). We’re scheduled through May 2017, so we’ve got some time to fill up the rest of 2017.
Continue reading “Eclectic Adventures in Adult Group Reading”
I spent a couple of hours last Saturday volunteering at my local library. You can find me most Saturday afternoons helping out behind the front desk. About halfway through my scheduled shift, I realized that the stack end cap across from me had changed since the last time I’d been in (see photo right). This time of year, the last two months, and the first month or so of the upcoming year, breeds lists, especially of the ‘best of’ variety. Until I saw this end cap, I didn’t realize the State Library of Kansas had been producing a curated list annually for the past ten years:
The Kansas Notable Books List is the annual recognition of 15 outstanding titles either written by Kansans or about a Kansas related topic. The Kansas Notable Book List highlights our lively contemporary writing community and encourages readers to enjoy some of the best writing of the authors among us.
A committee of academics, librarians, and authors of previous Notable Books identifies quality titles from among those published the previous year, and the State Librarian makes the selection for the final List. A medal awards ceremony honors the books and their authors.
Kansas Notable Books is a project of the Kansas Center for the Book, a program of the State Library. Throughout the award year, the State Library promotes and encourages the promotion of all the titles on that year’s list at literary events, and among librarians and booksellers.
All last week, I looked forward to the weekend as a chance to get some astronomical observing accomplished. The weather forecast seemed too good to be true: Sunny and clear, highs in the mid 70s and lows in the 50s, with dew points in the upper 40s and lower 50s. My astronomy club hosted a club star party, but I did not want to lug the scope to Louisburg and share the observing grounds with a previously scheduled private party. Continue reading “Backyard Observing”
Autumn arrived mid-week here in the Heart of America, but you wouldn’t have known it by looking at the weather forecast: Mid 90s and moderately high humidity. Also with the change of the seasons, I retired my FitBit Charge (or rather it retired itself by falling apart) and upgraded to a Samsung Gear Fit2. The new fitness tracker is spurring me on to be more active, although my sleep pattern hasn’t improved much. I can safely blame work (10 pm to 4 am conference call on a Saturday night/Sunday morning) and astronomy, which requires, well, dark skies, for my reduced snooze time.
Speaking of astronomy, I’ve upgraded, finally after two years of paralysis analysis, from the Meade ETX 90, gifted to me by my father in October 2010 (also, unsurprisingly the birth of this blog site), to an Orion SkyQuest XX14G. Continue reading “Autumn Arrives and Adventures in Astronomical Observing”
I can always count on Mr. Modesitt for my morning refresher course in human nature. Eight thousand years of repeating ourselves. You’d think we’d learn.
Sometime around 7500 B.C., people began building clustered mud-brick houses at Catalhoyuk, Turkey. According to detailed archeological studies, for roughly the next thousand years, the same patterns of life persisted, apparently with all families living in the same fashion and with approximately the same level of goods and the same size houses. Analyses of the…
via Another Take on Income Inequality — L.E. Modesitt, Jr. – The Official Website