A decent overview is provided here by Scruton. Gives the basic outline quite succinctly, but spends a bit too much time on critique and showing us theA decent overview is provided here by Scruton. Gives the basic outline quite succinctly, but spends a bit too much time on critique and showing us the weaknesses in the arguments. One could argue that in a VSI the 'as-is' could be given, with pointers to further reading as far as critiques are concerned. However, it is an easily readable work on Spinoza -and that is saying something.
Scruton seems to leave us with a very stylized picture of Spinoza's philosophy - a system where nothing exists save the one substance – the self-contained, self-sustaining, and self-explanatory system which constitutes the world - understood in many ways: as God or Nature; as mind or matter; as creator or created; as eternal or temporal. It can be known adequately and clearly through its attributes (via reason), but only partially and confusedly through its modes.
To understand this one substance properly, with full use of our illumined reason, under the aspect of eternity, is also to know that everything in the world exists by necessity, and that it could not be other than it is.
What about individuals and our identities? Our separateness, and identity, seem to be denied by Spinoza, and man, as part of nature, seems to be no more important a feature in the scheme of things than are rocks and stones and trees.
Finally, the assertion that everything happens by necessity seems to leave the whole of morality in doubt. It is unclear whether the question ‘What shall I do?’ has any meaning for Spinoza. For not only does the ‘I’ seem to be problematic – a fleeting mode of God with neither individuality nor self-dependence — the whole suggestion that such a thing might actually do something is without meaning, since in nothing does it have the slightest choice.
In the face of the existent "I", Spinoza still had to find a place for ethics - Scruton shows this to us by showing us how the metaphysics of Spinoza works once it is in touch with the world we inhabit.
The free man is the one conscious of the necessities that compel him.
This Sartre-like impasse then leads us in very Hobbesian, Hegelian and Marxian directions as we discuss Politics, organization of state, role of freedom and liberty, etc. - to me this was more interesting than the metaphysics, but it was plain that understanding the metaphysics and how such down-to-earth and reasonable arguments about everyday organization can be derived from a metaphysics that seems to be completely out of touch with reality would be a intellectual spectacle worth witnessing. ...more
Quick revision before the Hamlet at the Harold Pinter. Felt that some lines which did not require simplification were unnecessarily simplified. OtherwQuick revision before the Hamlet at the Harold Pinter. Felt that some lines which did not require simplification were unnecessarily simplified. Otherwise, a decent reading aid, though I prefer footnotes....more
More fun than the cliff notes. Good Illustrations. Useful to read ahead a few cantos here, so that the reader can focus on the poem itself instead of More fun than the cliff notes. Good Illustrations. Useful to read ahead a few cantos here, so that the reader can focus on the poem itself instead of worrying about teasing out the meaning. Recommended.
The valuable notes provided with translations are generally limited (due to lack of space) to brief presentationRaffa’s Pitch
The Pitch goes like this:
The valuable notes provided with translations are generally limited (due to lack of space) to brief presentations of background information and concise explanations of difficult passages.
Danteworlds takes a different approach. The project grew out of a desire to meet two basic challenges facing college students who read and discuss the Divine Comedy, in most cases for the first time, in the Dante course Raffa teaches one or more times each year: first, to become adequately familiar with the multitude of characters, creatures, events, and ideas—drawn from ancient to medieval sources—that figure prominently in the poem; second, to become adept at recalling who and what appear where by creating and retaining a mental map of Dante’s postmortem worlds.
Danteworlds therefore provides entries on major figures and issues arranged so as to help you connect your textual journey through the poem with Dante’s physical journey through the realms of the afterlife. This arrangement allows you to proceed geographically as well as textually, not only canto by canto but also—as Dante and his guides do—region by region through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise.
Sounds like a good deal? Yeah. And makes good sense too.
That is how good Hollander’s footnotes were. However, if you are reading for School, Danteworlds is probably more useful. So again, my vote is for the Hollander translation, if you are looking for a good place to start with Dante. ...more
In these essays which attempt to recreate the mystery of the creation of Moby Dick, Philbrick recreates for us the strange magic of reading Melville aIn these essays which attempt to recreate the mystery of the creation of Moby Dick, Philbrick recreates for us the strange magic of reading Melville as well. The book's aim is to convince a reader who has not read to read. I don't think anybody who has not read Moby Dick should read this - too much is laid bare. Instead, the book should be read a year or two after the novel. Then you will see strange visions resurfacing, new meanings in the mist, and a rekindling of love for the characters you left behind. The vastness of the book requires distance to appreciate. Philbrick wonderfully captures the majesty and the ambition that was Moby Dick, and in the few hours it will take to read this book, you can take the voyage of the Pequod again, and start thirsting for another go at the original. ...more
This book is a highly selective and impressionistic view of/guide-book to Aristotle's philosophy. Ackrill’s aim in this book is ARGUING WITH ARISTOTLE
This book is a highly selective and impressionistic view of/guide-book to Aristotle's philosophy. Ackrill’s aim in this book is not just to impart information, but to arouse interest in the philosophical problems Aristotle tackles, and in his arguments and ideas.
To Ackrill, what really characterizes Aristotle as a philosopher is not the number and weight of his conclusions / ‘doctrines’, but the power and subtlety of his arguments and ideas and analyses.
It is as well that this should be so. For having to learn a doctrine is a boring task, and specially depressing when you know that it is false; but interesting arguments give pleasure and profit whether or not they really establish the alleged conclusions. Aristotle's key ideas have provoked and stimulated philosophers over many centuries, precisely because they are not cut and dried doctrines, but can be applied and interpreted and developed in various ways, still relevant to problems that confront us.
Ackrill shows us how enjoyable and rewarding it is to engage in philosophical arguments with Aristotle. Even as we enjoy the refinement, conciseness and suggestiveness of Aristotle's arguments — we should know that we would enjoy them even more, the more we engage ourselves in them.
Ackrill’s next point was what I found very personal and invigorating:
Now if our aim is only to understand Aristotle, this 'engagement' will have to be carefully limited; we must enter into his thoughts but not go beyond them, we must try to relive his intellectual journey, taking care not to carry with us any twentieth-century baggage or equipment. To achieve such an understanding is certainly a worthwhile aim, calling for both imagination and intellectual power. However, we may desire not only to gain some understanding of Aristotle, but also to understand better some of the philosophical problems he confronts. In this case we are entitled to engage him in argument as if he were a contemporary.
It is not in itself a fault to use modern notions in discussing arguments in ancient philosophers, and to argue with them as if they were contemporaries. It is a fault (the fault of anachronism) only if one's aim and claim is to be doing purely historical work.
To argue with Aristotle, and to learn from him, is not difficult. For the problems he struggled so hard to formulate are still central to philosophy, and the concepts and terminology he used in trying to solve them have not lost their power. Keeping to the aim of the book — to rouse active interest in Aristotle’s philosophy — Ackrill raises many philosophical questions and makes philosophical comments of his own, in order to remind the reader that what Aristotle says is there to be argued about, and to provoke him into further thought on the various problems.
This approach of argumentation is precisely what Plato allows through his Dialogue form, and it is encouraging to hear from Ackrill that a reader might expect the same from Aristotle as well, even if with extra effort.
While I am sure that the exposure Ackrill provides will come in handy, I have a feeling this sort of engagement with Aristotle’s ideas would be more useful for a seasoned reader than for a mere beginner like me. I will be coming back to this often as I go through Aristotle’s works....more
Singer looks at Marx, the Philosopher, and relegates Marx, the Economist to the background. This allows Singer to put aside all the 'refuted' aspects Singer looks at Marx, the Philosopher, and relegates Marx, the Economist to the background. This allows Singer to put aside all the 'refuted' aspects of Marx and focus on the key and relevant ideas. Singer discusses alienation and historical materialism in some detail and tracks their evolution in Marx's thought, but the most interesting segment is when he tries to pin down marx's own conceptions of what a communist utopia should be like. Turns out Marx was extremely pragmatic about it and let slip such ideas only in moments of weakness. As I always like to say to anyone discussing Stalinism wrt Marxism -- just because the prescribed treatment turned out to be off the mark, the diagnosis is not to be dismissed (and that is if the Soviet Russia was even remotely Marxist! Marx must have anticipated all this and is known to have cried out in later life: "All i know is that I am not a Marxist!").
Marx is strongest when he is identifying the deficiencies of capitalism, not when he is trying to propose solutions. Those are our responsibility too. After all, we shouldn't leave everything to one man....more
Peter Singer in this VSI has decided to limit his discussion primarily to one aspect of Hegel’s philosophy: His conception of progr In Reverse Gear
Peter Singer in this VSI has decided to limit his discussion primarily to one aspect of Hegel’s philosophy: His conception of progress and about his idea of its endpoint. To this end Singer starts with The Philosophy of History and discusses it in some detail. He then introduces us to The Philosophy of Right to show us how Hegel uses his historical conception of mankind’s consciousness-evolution to arrive at the ‘Right’ or ‘Recht’ or in more prosaic terms ‘Laws’.
All this while we are only told about Man’s consciousness progressing towards an idea of Freedom. Conceptually it is all very easy (relatively!) to grasp because none of Hegel’s core complications are brought into the visual field of the reader yet! Singer has held all that back so that the reader can have the comfort of grasping at something at least before plunging into those torrents.
In the last part of the book Singer gradually unveils some of those complications. First he lets us know that until now we have discussed only the manifestation of progress, but not the causation of it, not the theory behind it. This is, of course, the key component. Finally we have entered The Phenomenology of Mind, and here we are introduced to the dialectic process, and the consciousness encountering the Other, thus developing self-consciousness and gradually pulling itself by its own shoestrings towards Phenomenology itself.
This bootstrapping process too leads towards the Idea of Freedom which we had already been shown was where history was headed anyway. Thus we have arrived back at The Philosophy of History, after going in reverse gear for so long (starting from later works and moving towards the earliest and then backing up again), but this time with an understanding of why the process works the way it was illustrated there. Also, the concept of Spirit is kept camouflaged all this while (Singer prefers ‘Mind’) and is introduced only at the last possible stage. So any reluctance towards the concepts due to an implied religious coloring is also avoided in this way.
Overall, I believe this was a very interesting way to present things. It allows the reader to grasp the concepts in a much more intuitive way — since first he is shown how things are, and then he is asked to tag along as Hegel deconstructs why things work out the way they do. (Kant prolegomena analytic synthetic include?) Singer has done a good job in making hegel accessible in his choice of books and in his order of their presentation. It also shows the reader the best approach to take towards Hegel as a whole too....more
I believe that the capacity of an introductory book to impress a reader is directly proportional to the reader’s lack of initial knowledge about the s I believe that the capacity of an introductory book to impress a reader is directly proportional to the reader’s lack of initial knowledge about the subject matter.
That said, I felt this was an impressive piece of scholarship. Wokler comprehensively draws up all the major contributions to the thought of Rousseau in his treatment of Rousseau’s intellectual development against the background of the enlightenment. Much space is given to explaining the associations, and repartees present in his works, thus providing us an unravelling of the differences between the principal antagonists. For a philosopher whose majority of works are in response to others or drawing so heavily on others, an introduction had to draw out all these connections, without getting too imposing in the process. Wokler manages that quite finely and leaves us with a wonderful picture of the intellectual atmosphere in which Rousseau was fermented. One of the best VSIs I have yet read....more
Doesn’t really go into the buddhist philosophy at all. More of a biographical and historical overview and a casual investigation of what might have prDoesn’t really go into the buddhist philosophy at all. More of a biographical and historical overview and a casual investigation of what might have prompted Buddha’s trajectory of thoughts/teachings. And since most of that hagiography is common knowledge, even for a western reader, this was not very useful. Could have been a slightly deeper introduction. This one was way too shallow, most VSIs I have read till now cover much more ground....more
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