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-- What Are You Reading? Part Deux.
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Game of thrones series

quote:

Originally posted by Meat187 Oscar Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Gray It's about a bunch of gays and one of them is called Bas. Fuck

While I wouldn't necessarily call it a fine novel, Lord Henry's mono/dialogues are some snazzy stuff. Yet for sheer wit, I feel The Importance of Being Earnest is a superior work - there are passages where virtually line is a snappy comeback.

I've 32 pages left in the first volume of Proust's In Search of Lost Time: Swann's Way. Part I - Combray pretty much blew my mind, being not so much a narrative as a collection of impressions so ethereal I more or less read it twice because I reread just about every paragraph before moving on to the next to ensure I wholly grasped the text. Part II - Swann in Love was a much easier read yet less enjoyable; Proust exchanges psychological perceptions for a bumbling romance amidst a bunch of snobs. Part III - Place-Names: The Name (what an odd title) redeems the work by returning to the style of Part I. Being a book written in such a peculiar style, I can't really say much else about it...

Finishing The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene and after that I am onto his latest book Hidden Reality.


Just finished reading Breakfast of Champions, Brave New World, aaaand One Nation Under Contract this past month.

Just finished reading "The Man in the White Suit" by Ben Collins (aka White Stig from Top Gear). Pretty good if your a car junkie.

Also just finished "Last Night a DJ saved my life" by Ben Brewster & Frank Broughton. Very good book about the history of our chosen craft.

Next book im waiting to come in is Adam Carolla's "In 50 years we'll all be chicks"

Finishing Packing for Mars... was going to start Homage to Catalonia but i have a feeling that with school, i wont have time to read it, so i will wait until school is up i think.

Now that i dont have cable tv, this is what iv been reading...

Got my copies in the mail, at last.



I don't know which one to read first. But I'm excited to say the least. Hitch gives me a mind boner.

Going through this now:



Also had three ship in today: Les Mis�rables by Hugo, Don Juan by Byron, & Kawabata's Snow Country.

His way of thinking is similar to mine, but reaches wildly different conclusions. I like it.

Just finished "My First Summer in the Sierra" by John Muir,
now reading "The Yosemite" by John Muir
not quite as good though

Back reading "South" by Sir Ernest Shackleton for the second or third time.






Next up, "How to win the Nobel Prize" by Michael Bishop.

Few more waiting in the wings -
"By Any Means" - Charley Boorman
"Long Way Down" - Charley Boorman and Ewan Macgregor

The last two will probably inspire me to read "Jupiter's Travels" and "Dreaming of Jupiter" by Ted Simon for the third or fourth time.

Finished re-reading the Game of Thrones series the other day and just finished re-reading 1984 this afternoon, since all you guys were arguing about it and I couldn't remember all the details


Just ordered from Amazon:

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin A. Abbott

and

Idiot America: How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free by Charles P. Pierce

Peter Unger- Ignorance

pure win. We can't know anything, and the only reason we believe we do is because we are irrational and hold dogmatic beliefs.

quote:

Originally posted by EgosXII Peter Unger- Ignorance pure win. We can't know anything, and the only reason we believe we do is because we are irrational and hold dogmatic beliefs.

Or because it makes life much, much easier

quote:

Originally posted by Lews Or because it makes life much, much easier

still doesn't mean you know anything though. Pragmatic responses like yours also still take things for granted, and make knowledge claims (hence irrational, and dogmatic)...

for example, even saying it makes life easier implies you know that life is made easier... why do you know that? what is that based on? etc

quote:

Originally posted by EgosXII still doesn't mean you know anything though. Pragmatic responses like yours also still take things for granted, and make knowledge claims (hence irrational, and dogmatic)... for example, even saying it makes life easier implies you know that life is made easier... why do you know that? what is that based on? etc

I'm saying that acting as if things are most likely the case is most likely easier than constantly thinking that nothing is real and you don't know anything. I think it's perfectly acceptable to take many things for granted. Things like gravity, mathematics, etc.

Everything is irrational when you get down to it. Thinking there is no knowledge is quite irrational. Irrationality/skepticism/etc is definitely an interesting idea, and I am fond of Schr�dinger/Heisnberg/Brain in a vat etc, but in the end it's academic bullshit and not really helpful in living day-to-day.

And I would argue that my pragmatic response is actually true (and I know it's to be true), because it is much quicker to write "something is the case" than "something is most likely the case." Therefore, it's easier. If I had to say 'most likely the case' all the time, it would take up quite a bit of time.

quote:

Originally posted by Lews I'm saying that acting as if things are most likely the case is most likely easier than constantly thinking that nothing is real and you don't know anything. I think it's perfectly acceptable to take many things for granted. Things like gravity, mathematics, etc. Everything is irrational when you get down to it. Thinking there is no knowledge is quite irrational. Irrationality/skepticism/etc is definitely an interesting idea, and I am fond of Schr�dinger/Heisnberg/Brain in a vat etc, but in the end it's academic bullshit and not really helpful in living day-to-day. And I would argue that my pragmatic response is actually true (and I know it's to be true), because it is much quicker to write "something is the case" than "something is most likely the case." Therefore, it's easier. If I had to say 'most likely the case' all the time, it would take up quite a bit of time.

it depends what you're doing really. If its a philisophical or scientific investigation its irresponsible to be 'ok' with likelihood when the whole point of it is to achieve certainty (even if the certainty reached is that there can't be certainty). Problem with most philisophical and scientific investigations is it takes the everyday things we take for granted (we're probably right) as Knowledge. That's what the book is disputing. I don't disagree that its easier to say something is most likely the case in casual situations though.

It depends on what concepts we're using and the terms anyway, but the point is most people DO NOT think that nothing can be known (philosophy and science try to prove, not just looks for probabilities), and the pragmatic thing isn't really good enough for challenging sceptical problems, since its just a really weak epistemological cop out anyway...

http://www.amazon.com/God-Virus-rel...07524248&sr=8-1

Almost done with it, and I'm shocked just how far and in how many ways the "mind virus" idea works.

just finished 'female chauvinist pigs' by ariel levy

now reading

quote:

Originally posted by Capitalizt http://www.amazon.com/God-Virus-rel...07524248&sr=8-1 Almost done with it, and I'm shocked just how far and in how many ways the "mind virus" idea works.

Most excellent.
I just bought a copy. =)

quote:

Originally posted by EgosXII it depends what you're doing really. If its a philisophical or scientific investigation its irresponsible to be 'ok' with likelihood when the whole point of it is to achieve certainty (even if the certainty reached is that there can't be certainty). Problem with most philisophical and scientific investigations is it takes the everyday things we take for granted (we're probably right) as Knowledge. That's what the book is disputing. I don't disagree that its easier to say something is most likely the case in casual situations though. It depends on what concepts we're using and the terms anyway, but the point is most people DO NOT think that nothing can be known (philosophy and science try to prove, not just looks for probabilities), and the pragmatic thing isn't really good enough for challenging sceptical problems, since its just a really weak epistemological cop out anyway...

How is it irresponsible to be '99.999% certain' if that is the best we can get?

Maybe I've been lucky with my science and philosophy teachers. I've never had a teacher try to prove something 100%. They've always taught me that we can never be certain about anything and that nothing is ever known for sure, but that we do as best as we can. And considering that the best we can is 99.99999999999% that's good enough for me to "believe" in stuff and ride airplanes and all that shit.

quote:

Originally posted by Capitalizt Almost done with it, and I'm shocked just how far and in how many ways the "mind virus" idea works.

I put that on my wish list. I'll get it eventually.

quote:

Originally posted by Capitalizt Slmost done with it, and I'm shocked just how far and in how many ways the "mind virus" idea works.

Read about discourse analysis: It's the same thing without the biological metaphors... and obviously reaching far more than just religion.

Reading Idoru at the moment. Before that Count Zero and before that The Fountains of Paradise.

Sci-fi binge.

quote:

Originally posted by Lews How is it irresponsible to be '99.999% certain' if that is the best we can get? Maybe I've been lucky with my science and philosophy teachers. I've never had a teacher try to prove something 100%. They've always taught me that we can never be certain about anything and that nothing is ever known for sure, but that we do as best as we can. And considering that the best we can is 99.99999999999% that's good enough for me to "believe" in stuff and ride airplanes and all that shit.

So, Unger is right, right?

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