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Re: Study the Great Books, Painlessly

Aristophanes — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 23:42:03 GMT

Anyway, I think your response to the guy who asked about Confucius was speaking to the current anti-Western bias, yes? The cultural affirmative action, so to speak? And I too despise that. I am unabashedly a partisan of the Western tradition.

His tone and implicit dismissal of the importance of the Western series rubbed me the wrong way.

I agree. I was just noting that there are a few interesting exceptions. When I say there's a libertarian essence to Taoism, I don't mean that their mystical philosophy has a libertarian flavor: I mean that some of the early Taoists wrote extensively on straight politics and were overtly libertarian.

Taoism is also explicity anti-materialism. It is almost as if it preaches constant meditation of the soul and mind as well as pacifism.

As opposed to (most of) the Western traditions of worshiping intelligence, virtue (classical: getting what you want), and material creativity. Not that those are necessarily bad things.

Re: Study the Great Books, Painlessly

Luminar — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 23:27:13 GMT

Where do I actually find these books? I'm not buying them because they should already be available on the internet, but I can't find them. Is this the reading list?: http://www.angelfire.com/art/megathink/greatbooks/misc/All_Years.html

Re: Study the Great Books, Painlessly

Andrew Cain — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 05:07:57 GMT

This seems interesting. We should really revitalize the History reading list.

Re: Study the Great Books, Painlessly

Minarchist — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 04:26:37 GMT

Eastern stuff is cool, but it is a lot more mystical in nature.

I agree. I was just noting that there are a few interesting exceptions. When I say there's a libertarian essence to Taoism, I don't mean that their mystical philosophy has a libertarian flavor: I mean that some of the early Taoists wrote extensively on straight politics and were overtly libertarian.

Anyway, I think your response to the guy who asked about Confucius was speaking to the current anti-Western bias, yes? The cultural affirmative action, so to speak? And I too despise that. I am unabashedly a partisan of the Western tradition.

Re: Study the Great Books, Painlessly

Aristophanes — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 04:18:52 GMT

Eastern stuff is cool, but it is a lot more mystical in nature.

Re: Study the Great Books, Painlessly

Minarchist — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 04:11:29 GMT

...talking about Confucius, the first volume of Rothbard's "History of Economic Thought" had some interesting things to say about Eastern political philosophy. I had never studied any Eastern philosophy whatsoever, so I was pleasantly surprised to learn than there's a very strong libertarian essence to Taoism. I didn't even know they were political.

Re: Study the Great Books, Painlessly

Minarchist — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 04:05:01 GMT

Robert Nisbet makes fun of the Great Books method. "No modern economics student has been roused into the profession by pouring through The Wealth of Nations." (The Present Age)

I see the whig theory of history is alive and well.

Re: Study the Great Books, Painlessly

Aristophanes — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 04:01:47 GMT

And what if I also wanted to read Confucius? Is there a similar collection for Eastern literature?

Gah, You sound like a douche.

Re: Study the Great Books, Painlessly

Luminar — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 03:48:22 GMT

The Great Books are exactly what they sound like. Everything from Plato to Malthus to Aquinas to Hegel to Bacon. The Trivium and Quadrivium were a much more in depth education system than what we have today.

Why? Aristotle, Hegel, Tolstoy, and (Ayn) Rand all have fairly intersting things to say about what makes art "art" (instead of propaganda or mere (mindless) entertainment).

Robert Nisbet makes fun of the Great Books method. "No modern economics student has been roused into the profession by pouring through The Wealth of Nations." (The Present Age)

And what if I also wanted to read Confucius? Is there a similar collection for Eastern literature?

Re: Study the Great Books, Painlessly

Aristophanes — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 03:10:59 GMT

The Great Books are exactly what they sound like. Everything from Plato to Malthus to Aquinas to Hegel to Bacon. The Trivium and Quadrivium were a much more in depth education system than what we have today.

I won't have my patience tried with useless ramblings about the epistemology of art.

Why? Aristotle, Hegel, Tolstoy, and (Ayn) Rand all have fairly intersting things to say about what makes art "art" (instead of propaganda or mere (mindless) entertainment).

Robert Nisbet makes fun of the Great Books method. "No modern economics student has been roused into the profession by pouring through The Wealth of Nations." (The Present Age)

Re: Study the Great Books, Painlessly

Luminar — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 03:02:10 GMT

Are these books interesting? I won't have my patience tried with useless ramblings about the epistemology of art.

Study the Great Books, Painlessly

John James — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 08:05:19 GMT

From Tom Woods:

My friend Jason Jewell, who heads the department of humanities at Faulkner University and who prepared 84 lectures in Western civilization for my Liberty Classroom, made a new year’s resolution in 2011 to read the 60-volume Great Books of the Western World series over the course of seven years, including the additional Gateway to the Great Books (another ten volumes). Here’s his post laying out the plan, along with links to the table of contents for each series. He’s blogging about his weekly reading on his Western Tradition blog.

Follow along with him — it’s just a little reading every week, and surely worth the effort.