95% of philosophy is just arguing over semantics
Most questions that people see as profound are ill posed and could be resolved by properly defining everything.
>Ship of theseus
>chinese room
>anything to do with determinism
These are all literally not worth discussing
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>>9976978
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>>9976978
Someone hasn't read their Kripke
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>>9976978
So what's the proper definition for ship of theseus?
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Thoughts on this? I mean an opinion from reading the actual book please, not some biased opinion from solely watching the film.
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never read it or watched the movie. but im gonna offer my opinion anway. its a lame attempt at capitlizing on the zombie craze.
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>>9976951
I read it a couple days ago. It's a fast read and it's cute. The film is pretty accurate desu
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>>9977255
Thanks, this is a most sensible response.
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Are humans and human endeavor fundamentally irrational?
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Define irrational
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Maybe. The decisions we make, the actions that spring from our minds, are never purely rational. But that doesn't make us fundamentally irrational.
Placed against the unfathomably large universe, though, what makes any sense at all?
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>>9976933
not fundamentally
So, I tried to read Sci-Fi. It's a genre that I never was very interested in, but I decided to give it a try. Since Asimov is considered one of the best in the genre and since this book is considered one of his best creations, I thought "that's it".
After finishing it I'm very disappointed. The beginning is interesting, it's the best part in the book, I was really enjoying the thing until I got to the alien plot(the book is divided into 3 narratives: Earth/ parallel universe/ Moon). The alien plot is full of very boring stuff, but the end is cool so it was ok. The problem is the Moon narrative, that's when you're introduced to the two most boring characters in the history of literature: Denison and Selena. The dialogue between those characters is boooring and their "romance" is boooooring. The Moon narrative(the end of the book) is simply bad, it's a book that gets worse in the end and this leaves you with a very bad taste in your mouth.
I'll give 7/10 for the Earth plot, 7/10 for the alien plot and 4/10 for the Moon plot. It's really that boring.
Is Asimov overrated? Are there better Asimov books and I made an unlucky choice? Also, what are some good Sci-Fi books that I can read to forget this crap?
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Dune is better, try Dune.
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Ender's Game
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Sci-Fi is absolute crap.
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"The surest way to improve society is to become a great man to lead oneself and convince others to do likewise." - Jakub Bożydar Wiśniewski
ITT Self improvement books
What books have helped you improve yourself the most?
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That's a nice image.
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>>9976806
bmup
I'm also looking for texts that turn me from low energy to Übermensch. Discourses is pretty good stuff as is Marcus Aurel.
But is there more modern worthwhile literature as well?
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>>9976806
I will read all of those books then get back to you in a
couple months
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Guys help, for a laugh I started watching Slavoj Zizek videos on YouTube ironically and now I'm starting to agree with him. How do I fix this!?
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>>9976786
Can't fix what ain't broke
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>>9976786
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>>9976838
fpbp
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>writes the best novel and the best poem of the 20th century simultaneously
How did he do it bros?
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>>9976694
It's a very good novel but in commenting on the self-absorption of the academic world it, ironically enough, becomes that which it critiques. It's expertly done, no doubt, but lacks the profundity of Joyce, Proust or Faulkner.
The poem is pretty good too but not my cup of tea
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>>9976709
Thank you for a measured response
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>>9976694
Must have been a slow century.
Anonymous
Purves Biologie German PDF 2017-09-03 11:19:46 Post No.9976488
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Purves Biologie German PDF
Anonymous
2017-09-03 11:19:46
Post No. 9976488
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Does anyone have this PDF in German? Thanks
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>>9976488
sent ;)
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>>9976490
what?
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Or this one
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Guys I just finished this. It was a masterpiece. Only a pleb could not have read it and loved it. Joe and Herbert clearly represent profound dialectical truths. The psychology of the main characters changed the way I look at myself.
I laughed out loud on every page. The book was haunting yet frequently hilarious.
The only thing I disliked was that it was too short. It was only 440 pages
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[imagine i pasted the london frogposter here]
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>>9976470
Just for you I'm replying to it. Didn't sage, either.
What's the best travel writing? I'm looking for stuff closer to P.L. Fermor than Barnes and Noble-core like Wild or Eat Pray Love. You know, something written by someone who knows how to make a place come off the page. Bonus points for casual racism
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Great writers who travel almost always produce great travel writing. Read Goethe, Orwell, Mark Twain, etc.. Better than any of that NYT bestseller shit.
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>>9976390
Matthiessen. Though he toned down the racism as he aged.
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>>9976409
I never noticed much racism in his work, at least not at the same level of Fermor. A lot of Blue Meridian was devoted to shots at apartheid. Then again I have yet to read The Snow Leopard so for all I know there could be some hilarious Indian/Nepalese jokes
Reading Joyce for the first time (Dubliners) and have to say that he's great. The guy's capacity for story telling is amazing. After every story I feel like screaming, "wait, don't stop! I need to know what happens!" He just leaves you lingering in an emotional stupor.
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>>9976377
I don't know why, but I feel like this thread it b8.
However, on the chance that you are praising Joyce in earnest, you should check out A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. As a whole, it is flawed, but it's still worth reading.
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>>9976403
Not b8, m8. Although, it does read like b8...Not my intention. Portrait is next on the list.
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Dubliners is *hugely* different from Portrait, though. And you can basically say it's not the same author who wrote Ulysses.
How important is reading Hegel to understanding Marx?
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>>9976368
Not very. Reading Marx can help more in understanding Hegel than vice versa
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Understanding Marx's understanding of Hegel is fairly important to understanding Marx. Reading Hegel now would be like reading a Chinese instruction manual, if you do it on your own without any help, and would have nothing to do with Marx if you had help from modern Hegel commentators.
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Is it true Marx misinterpreted what Hegel wrote, which is why we have the fever dream known as Marxism? What secondary sources should I read on Hegel before reading his philosophy so that I won't turn into a Marxist?
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I need to find some stories about wicked imps and gremlins
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The Twilight Zone Movie remake of the original 1950s "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YL6bQqg2B3E
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Not exactly an imp or a gremlin, but
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gef
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>>9976275
They're not really wicked but Jack Vance's Rhialto the Marvelous stories have some excellent imp-like entities.
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Sartre on Citizen Kane:
"Kane might have been interesting for the Americans, [but] it is completely passé for us, because the whole film is based on a misconception of what cinema is all about. The film is in the past tense, whereas we all know that cinema has got to be in the present tense. ‘I am the man who is kissing, I am the girl who is being kissed, I am the Indian who is being pursued, I am the man pursuing the Indian.’ And film in the past tense is the antithesis of cinema. Therefore Citizen Kane is not cinema."
What did he mean by this? And don't give me that guano about Sartre never having remembered writing this. That's damage control if I ever saw it.
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More importanty, what did Borges mean by THIS?
>The second plot is far superior. It links the Koheleth to the memory of another nihilist, Franz Kafka. A kind of metaphysical detective story, its subject (both psychological and allegorical) is the investigation of a man’s inner self, through the works he has wrought, the words he has spoken, the many lives he has ruined.
>We all know that a party, a palace, a great undertaking, a lunch for writers and journalists, an atmosphere of cordial and spontaneous camaraderie, are essentially horrendous. Citizen Kane is the first film to show such things with an awareness of this truth.
>I venture to guess, nonetheless, that Citizen Kane will endure as a certain Griffith or Pudovkin films have “endured”—films whose historical value is undeniable but which no one cares to see again. It is too gigantic, pedantic, tedious. It is not intelligent, though it is the work of genius—in the most nocturnal and Germanic sense of that bad word.
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>>9976205
Sounds like he just has a stupid and narrow conception of what a medium is or could/should be.
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Makes sense coming from a guy that can't even look straight.
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Does he have any literary value besides his role as a anti-communist crusader?
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I started "One day in the life of Ivan Denisovich" and honestly I couldn't go on, the agony was just so much. But yes, it was well written.
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>>9976193
I mean that's a pretty huge literary value there OP.
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>>9976228
>One single day of one single man is too much.
Read more of his novels anon and learn why people hate Communists so much.