Well I've never delved into philosphy much and I'm looking for recommendations.
To narrow it down, here's a bit of what I believe.
I tried to find a political belief for a long time. I crossed the political spectrum, exploring the popular and unpopular ideas of how to run a government and I noticed soething. I read different accounts in books of the exat same events. Communists recall the Russian Revolution as a popular movement by the workers towards socialism. Conservatives remember it as a coup by intellectuals. And so-on. You know the old proverb "history is written by the victors" or whatever.
So I concluded that nothing is right. No matter what you believe, there will be milllions of people who disagree because of their beliefs. What applies to politics also applies to morals. We are flawed people and thus our political and moral constructs are flawed. They are founded on subjective grounds and thus could not possibly be absolutely right everywhere. Pretending your ideas of right and wrong are above anyone else's is just plain arrogance IMO. There is no right or wrong when it comes to morals.
So those are my crude thoughts on the matter. Why I want to refine them by reading up on any philosopher who might have shared similar ideas so I can find what school of thought I fall into.
Some people have suggested Nietzsche to me already, though.
Last edited by Luminatus on Jun 27th, 2009 at 09:48 PM
Ugh, I tried reading Mills' Utilitarianism... Got through half before I realized it was a bunch of crap.
__________________ Recently Produced and Distributed Young but High-Ranking Political Figure of Royal Ancestry within the Modern American Town Affectionately Referred To as Bel-Air.
The essay "Civil Disobedience" by Henry David Thoreau
__________________ "There is so much silence between the words,
you say. You say, The sensed absence
of God and the sensed presence
amount to much the same thing,
only in reverse."
- Atwood, In the Secular Night
Gender: Male Location: Dreaming...Or am I living...
Utilitarianism By JSM is good stuff if a bit wonkey. Not a doable political system or personal philosophy, but if you are reading philosophy to find the meaning of life you are doing it wrong.
It seems to me that you are interested in both Political Theory and Moral philosophy, so I'm gonna give you some readings in both of those, you might not agree with what the authors say, but they are good reads.
Mind, Language and Society- John Searle
This is a good place to start because he is modern, very clear and not too dense.
Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals- Immanual Kant.
-I really enjoy Kant but he is incredibly dense. He has a concept of morality very different than yours, based upon a priori concepts, (things that transcend people and have always existed.)
Second Treatise of Government -John Locke.
The American governmental system is pretty much what Locke outlined in this work, worth checking out.
On the Social Contract-Rousseau
Same vein as Locke, and a contemporary of his, but slightly different work. Rousseau inspired most of the French political system, its good stuff.
Leviathan-Hobbes.
Written in direct opposition of Locke's treatise his concept of the state of nature as a state of war is interesting, if not practical. Longer than all the other ones put together its essentially a justification of Kingships.
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Jun 27th, 2009 09:45 PM
