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What is the Greatest Work of Philosophy You Have Ever Read?

no my phrase there was real, it is not an order i dont invent my phrases
though it has a poetical touch that i appreciate bein a pretense of making it so no i would definitely keep it as such

while u with ur banana in hand u could give us smthg back of what u r getting to feel being interesting
 
absols said:
no my phrase there was real, it is not an order i dont invent my phrases
though it has a poetical touch that i appreciate bein a pretense of making it so no i would definitely keep it as such

while u with ur banana in hand u could give us smthg back of what u r getting to feel being interesting
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absols......you seem to be having a bit of difficulty mastering the language, so, if you don't mind, I'd like to ask....what is your language or country of origin?
 
Guy Incognito said:
Please list the great work of philosophy you have ever personally read. Two rules, it must be something you have personally read in its entirety and it must not be a translation (you must have read it in its original language).

Thanks! I'm looking forward to what everybody has to say.
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Jean-Paul Satre,,,,,without a doubt..
 
it seems that u have a lot of difficulty to pretend possessin an ability to read as any other human being, so since u mind i d like to see u back faraway of words expressions realities

and for any question about how did i invented that, i would simply say easy, who pretend being is from smthg or smewhere is what reveal never being related to anything and nowhere, which whatever mind it insists to develop alone ridiculize himself of being useless while negative to anything real,
like his signature, is him that absent insistin of gettin pride out of it

how any normal standard of being care about provin evidence or absence proof ??? do u see what those minds are into, completely useless nuts repetitions that are over enslaved from up to sell logics of nonsense being existing too
 
Practical Ethics by Singer
Why I Am Not a Christian by Russell
The Screwtape Letters by Lewis

My favorite would be the translation of The Antichrist by Nietzsche. Dang you, Guy! ;)
 
absols said:
it seems that u have a lot of difficulty to pretend possessin an ability to read as any other human being, so since u mind i d like to see u back faraway of words expressions realities

and for any question about how did i invented that, i would simply say easy, who pretend being is from smthg or smewhere is what reveal never being related to anything and nowhere, which whatever mind it insists to develop alone ridiculize himself of being useless while negative to anything real,
like his signature, is him that absent insistin of gettin pride out of it

how any normal standard of being care about provin evidence or absence proof ??? do u see what those minds are into, completely useless nuts repetitions that are over enslaved from up to sell logics of nonsense being existing too
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I think perhaps, you misunderstood my question. Here it goes again, in various languages:

In what country do you reside?

في أي بلد تعيش؟

Dans quel pays vivez-vous?

В какой стране Вы живете?

In che paese vivi?

In welchem Land leben Sie?
 
here u go again, u r not supposed to use letters how are u expectin any will from words is what confirm the nuts u r

a question is an object thing that matter for u personnally always as long as u r present in the same spot
that is how the question is the right answer which mean to support an existing thing

too elevate for ur brain while it is the zero standard of any quest

using those valuable facts to request things and from others or else is what certify ur state being out of the game so each letter u keep using while knowin ur state, is a serious end against u, ur choice
 
Probably the only one I read in its original english that was specifically philosophy was
Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance and atlas shrugged.

Both books sucked and were boring. the ayn rand book was completely unrealistic, did not portray real life in the slightest, nor did it portray real people. zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance was basically a poorly written self help book (is there such thing as a well written self help book?)

Now give me some good heinlin, asimov, phillip k dick, etc and I will love it all day, whether I agree or disagree. A good story with some philosophy on the side.
 
Guy Incognito said:
Please list the great work of philosophy you have ever personally read. Two rules, it must be something you have personally read in its entirety and it must not be a translation (you must have read it in its original language).

Thanks! I'm looking forward to what everybody has to say.
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Hello everyone! :2wave:

While I have read more works in their entirety than listed below, a lot of the great works were translations into English which prevents me from including them in this reply.

John Locke - The First Treatise: The False Principles and Foundation of Sir Robert Filmer;
John Locke - The Second Treatise: An Essay Concerning the True Original, Extent, and End of Civil Government;
Thomas Paine - Common Sense;
Thomas Paine - The American Crisis I - XVI;
John G. Neihardt - Black Elk Speaks - Being the life story of a holy man of the Oglala Sioux.
 
absols said:
it is funny how u love to assume that philosophy is words or sentences about words

philosophy is about conscious existence
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1) Who assumed this? If I ask someone: "what is the greatest science paper you've ever read?", that doesn't mean I assume science is all words. Language has its limits (as philosphers have bemoaned at great length). But how else are we to communicate ideas to one another? You aren't suggesting that we start trying to mime philosophical ideas to each other, are you? Interpretive dance, maybe?

2) As a kind of corollary to 1, words are about objects (where "objects" is to be construed in the loosest possible sense of "anything we can think about"). Some collections of words are about philosophy. This doesn't imply that philosophy cannot itself be about other stuff.

3) Philosophy is hardly just about conscious existence.

absols said:
how could ever a book b a work
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Obviously, you've never written a book. Writing a book is a lot of work, in my experience...

absols said:
it is silly letters are always same u cant work them out
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If by this you mean that when you look at books in, say, English, all you see are arrangements of the same 26 letters, you're right! It's one of the interesting features of language that arrangements of those letters in different combinations can signify all sorts of different meanings. By the same kind of thinking, I might profess to be unimpressed with existence, since it's all just silly experience, always experience...
 
i dont know which way to reply, i see at least 5 different ways meaning to insult u right while sayin smthg particularly true

merde, and more merde mayb i can draw a cut that join them all as usual

so merde would b enough if it was real but since it is just letters then we have to add smthg else

im tryin to stay calm bc im alone so by myself and u r not existin not even real to any present iam through

but the thing is what i am a true lawyer so i cant stand the idea of rights violations existence that is how such cheap sentences made by rights abuse life touch my buttons absolutely

mister, advocatin words value by words is nonsense at the minimum while in average it is clear that who do that is cheap opportunist

words values are themselves objective letters, tryin to say it by other words too is simply about gettin an expression pretense to u for free

but, who could mean objective value of no object so clearly making a positive statement about nothing existence, is a true opnion that u must b forced to respect its right before meaning the abuse of ur own free expression

u r provin ur inferior standard to any average being in all terms of ways, u confuse everything bc obviously u cant see nor mean logically
words that mean themselves are like u such opportunist conscious means so it doesnt exist
words are concepts of objective abstractions that mean the realisation of anything present existence

and if philosophy become narcist then u r provin ur point being simply to kill individual rights, philosophy is first and last exclusively about objective perspectives and opinions on anything and everything in free so individual ways and terms

and where is ur idea u r communicatin, u r the one who mean fancies about pervert dances of snakes to kill else rights

what is funny is what u reveal about u, since words are an open door to ur mind freedom, and reality is urself prison in havin to experience it, then it says par excellency wat u mean by philosophy being inventions to please urself and also all ur hate to what is real that u cant but limit it to a negative concept

it is reality that freedom is out only

while philosophy wether u dont like it dont change any, philosophy is always about truth and for, so put all ur words work in ur **** arse
 
I don't know that you'd call it a work of philosophy, but Don Quixote is probably one of the most complete expositions of the human condition ever written and, yes, I read it in Spanish. Also, La Peste and L'Étranger by Camus were possibly the two most influential books of my youth. The Communist Manifesto is also pretty seminal, as is Leviathan.
 
Manc Skipper said:
Absols appears to live in Predictive Textland.
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u r provin being blind urself

it is too clear that my sentences are all invented at the moment or instant, how it has no relation at all with any reality of ur ways so surely not objectively existing somewhere like urs
while also subjectively my sentences are clearly made by a human average intelligence and culture so no way related to a powerful creator nor support
 
FluffyNinja said:
I think perhaps, you misunderstood my question. Here it goes again, in various languages:

In what country do you reside?

في أي بلد تعيش؟

Dans quel pays vivez-vous?

В какой стране Вы живете?

In che paese vivi?

In welchem Land leben Sie?
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Let me help...

Khun maa jak tii nai?

¿En qué país vives?

Hangi ülkeye yaşayormısın?

A quin país vius?

En welk land woont u?

Kinda fun!
 
absols said:
what is funny is what u reveal about u
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Ah. I see I was mistaken about what's really funny in this thread.

absols said:
...my sentences are clearly made by a human average intelligence
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Are you quite sure about that "average intelligence" part?
 
ashurbanipal said:
Are you quite sure about that "average intelligence" part?
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it is the only sure thing there, too obvious object what iam standard genetical potential of human being to think its existence and what is more obvious to me is what i know doin for sure always do things i can by the minimum possible ways bc i mean all rights not me, me is my freedom from even rights
 
Depends on what you consider philosophy really.

Every book that is well written and has historical context presents realities about the world which we inhabit.. some more so than the books who are supposed to be analyzing life and the human condition.

That being said, I recommend everybody to read about the life of Newton and Socrates because there are good writings about them in english.

I personally enjoyed reading memoirs and more or less complete biographies of several great romanian men of culture (N. Iorga, M. Eliade) and some other men who are more known. On my to do list is to find a solid work about the life of Nikolas Tesla and his memoirs and find the time to read about him.
 
absols said:
it is the only sure thing there, too obvious object what iam standard genetical potential of human being to think its existence and what is more obvious to me is what i know doin for sure always do things i can by the minimum possible ways bc i mean all rights not me, me is my freedom from even rights
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Absols absolute
 
German guy said:
I've read "Menschliches, allzumenschliches" and "Also sprach Zarathustra" by Nietzsche in German, some Kant, some Hegel, some Schopenhauer (but none of it in its entirety) und "Das Kapital, Band 1" by Marx (if that counts). And I read some of Hannah Arendt's work in German (I'm not sure whether she originally wrote it in German or English). Excerpts from Adorno & Horkheimer and Habermas too.

In English, I read excerpts from Hobbes, Locke and "The Road to Serfdom" by Hayek. And parts of Rawl's "Justice as Fairness".

Not sure I'd say any of it was "the greatest work of philosophy" I have read so far, and probably I didn't understand all of it either.
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I got a decent way through Also Sprach Zarathustra in its original German, and I know that it was making fun of the bible, but I still felt like I was reading the bible, so I stopped. I'm a big fan of Nietschian philosophy though.

FluffyNinja said:
absols......you seem to be having a bit of difficulty mastering the language, so, if you don't mind, I'd like to ask....what is your language or country of origin?
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I've asked him this question many times, he refuses to answer. I say we just continue ignoring him until he starts acting like an adult.
 
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"How to talk dirty and influence people" by Lenny Bruce.
 
Some influential ones:

Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid (commonly GEB) - Douglas Hofstadter
Atheism: The Case Against God - George H. Smith
 
Guy Incognito said:
Please list the great work of philosophy you have ever personally read. Two rules, it must be something you have personally read in its entirety and it must not be a translation (you must have read it in its original language).

Thanks! I'm looking forward to what everybody has to say.
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Without a doubt, "The Prophet".
 
LiberalAvenger said:
Yeah, i still glance through it every now and then.
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I very likely am crazy, but when I tell people that the two books that had the greatest influence on me and that seem to me to be very similar in their view of the nobility and strength of Man are "The Prophet" and "Atlas Shrugged", they look at me like I'm crazy.

"They are wrong who say that, like a chain
You are as weak as your weakest link
For to judge you by your smallest deed
Is to reckon the power of the ocean by the frailty of its foam."

(Apologies to Gibran as I pulled this out of memory)

Both books cite the ability and the nobility of the individual as a part of a greater whole. Both books refer to both the current good and the potential greatness of all individuals and of the societies in which they live. Both books stress the idea that any passing failing of goals or achievement is exactly that, passing, and that the future holds countless new days to be the giant that we can all become.

Both books are works of hope and dreams coming true through intention and work. Powerful investments into the ideas that used to be a part of the American fabric.
 
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