Re: hume, kant, and thoreau need a fourth

On Thu, 21 Jun 2007 14:32:00 -0700, Mike Healy <healy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

On Jun 20, 8:59 am, "Neil X." <nei...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Jun 20, 11:48 am, mr rapidan <jmi...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:





On Jun 19, 11:27 am, mr rapidan <jmi...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Imagine that Hume, Kant, and Thoreau need a fourth person at the table
to participate in an agreeable, but interesting conversation. Who
should it be?

The deal is I got a Barnes & Noble gift card for Father's Day. I
already know you motherfuckers are smart and funny, what I was hoping
was that someone smart and helpful would pop up - and it could still
happen, right? I'm looking to read a book either by or about another
dead, white, European man. Someone who might fit as an answer to my
original question and/or be a good answser for this fill-in-the-blank:
Hume, Kant, and _______. I suppose Nietzsche is a good and fitting
suggestion, and I don't really know what I'm talking about, but I
really thought that I had previously settled on a third philospher to
read (either primary or secondary source) after Hume and Kant - who
would be appropriate to read before Nietzshe - I just forgot who it
was. I guess if the "answer" isn't obvious to you folks, then my
forgotten choice wasn't really a good one. This is all new to me, I
don't pretend to know much, if anything, and I don't pretend to
understand and/or be using these terms correctly, but what I'm looking
for is naturalist, humanist and/or non-religious foundations /
orgins / examination of/for morality, consciousness, etc.

On Jun 20, 11:48 am, mr rapidan <jmi...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:





On Jun 19, 11:27 am, mr rapidan <jmi...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Imagine that Hume, Kant, and Thoreau need a fourth person at the table
to participate in an agreeable, but interesting conversation. Who
should it be?

The deal is I got a Barnes & Noble gift card for Father's Day. I
already know you motherfuckers are smart and funny, what I was hoping
was that someone smart and helpful would pop up - and it could still
happen, right? I'm looking to read a book either by or about another
dead, white, European man. Someone who might fit as an answer to my
original question and/or be a good answser for this fill-in-the-blank:
Hume, Kant, and _______. I suppose Nietzsche is a good and fitting
suggestion, and I don't really know what I'm talking about, but I
really thought that I had previously settled on a third philospher to
read (either primary or secondary source) after Hume and Kant - who
would be appropriate to read before Nietzshe - I just forgot who it
was. I guess if the "answer" isn't obvious to you folks, then my
forgotten choice wasn't really a good one. This is all new to me, I
don't pretend to know much, if anything, and I don't pretend to
understand and/or be using these terms correctly, but what I'm looking
for is naturalist, humanist and/or non-religious foundations /
orgins / examination of/for morality, consciousness, etc.

I think Descartes is a natural place to start--he set the foundation
for modern scientific thought, and the way we view ourselves in the
world. Much of what came after Descartes is a response, an extension,
or a repudiation, of what he began. He tries to reconcile the
spiritual with the natural world (albeit via the pineal gland, not his
best idea), but much of what he developed was directly adopted by
Newton when he invented calculus and modern astronomy and optics, as
well as by others in Britain--Hooke, Locke, Natural Philosophers, as
well as Leibniz's invention of boolean algebra, the basis of computer
logic.

You might really love Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle. Granted, it's
3000 pages long, but it addresses many of the issues you are
interested in in the format of a historical novel, and it is a really
fun read--educational and enjoyable at the same time.

Thinking, Therefore Existing,
Neil X.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I loved the Baroque Cycle. It covers so many bases. Neil Stephenson is
a genius. I'm reading a book he wrote in 1988 about this guy who finds
toxic polluters in Boston Harbor. He wrote it as a tribute to Crumley
and it is indeed Crumleyesque.

I liked Zodiac, although it's been quite a while since I read it. Not
his best work but still very enjoyable.
.