You Evil Parents!

[Sam]

Same as my love for Feyerabend ... I don't agree with the guys but you gotta love those personalities. I watched the "Beyond Belief" conference back in 2008 or 2006 and Tyson was dynamic. Wrong on substantial points but dynamic. Gotta love the guy.

Never knew that Eco was a philosopher. Always figured he was a linguist or something. I love his novels. Don't know anything about Borges.

Eco's a professor of semiotics ... linguistics is a sub-discipline of that. "Baudolino" is definitely Top 5.

If you haven't picked up Borges yet and you love Eco, you are in for a TREAT. "Collected Fictions" by Borges has all his stories. "The Aleph", "Ragnarok", "The Yellow Rose", "The Book of Sands", "Garden of the Forking Paths", "The Library of Babel" ... so many great works. Eco was/is heavily influenced by Borges. Still no e-Book of "Collected Fictions", which is a travesty given "The Book of Sands" ... I found a PDF online once and laboriously converted it to an eBook, with proper formatting and footnotes and endnotes ... that's the kind of effect Borges is gonna have on a fan of Eco!

[OU812]

Euthyphro dilemma is garbage even in the original context (multiple pagan gods).

Explain why it is "garbage", please.

[Adrift]

Same as my love for Feyerabend ... I don't agree with the guys but you gotta love those personalities. I watched the "Beyond Belief" conference back in 2008 or 2006 and Tyson was dynamic. Wrong on substantial points but dynamic. Gotta love the guy.

Meh.

Eco's a professor of semiotics ... linguistics is a sub-discipline of that.

Ah. Ok.

"Baudolino" is definitely Top 5.

Definitely in my top 5. As far as historical fiction goes, it's up there with Madison Smartt Bell's All Soul's Rising for me.

If you haven't picked up Borges yet and you love Eco, you are in for a TREAT. "Collected Fictions" by Borges has all his stories. "The Aleph", "Ragnarok", "The Yellow Rose", "The Book of Sands", "Garden of the Forking Paths", "The Library of Babel" ... so many great works. Eco was/is heavily influenced by Borges. Still no e-Book of "Collected Fictions", which is a travesty given "The Book of Sands" ... I found a PDF online once and laboriously converted it to an eBook, with proper formatting and footnotes and endnotes ... that's the kind of effect Borges is gonna have on a fan of Eco!

I'll have to look into him.

[Jesse]

As an ironically big fan of existentialism, I should also recommend Kierkegaard. "The Sickness Unto Death" was a good read.

And you're a much better person than I am if you're willing to dive deep into any of this stuff. I gave it all up for stories about labyrinths and longitude.

Thanks for these. I am putting your suggestions in a text document so I can look over these works.

Nah, you went through these way before I even thought about it. I do find this interesting though. Maybe I will be able to wrap my head around it a bit better. I am thinking of starting with Feyerabend's The Tyranny of Science. This looks very interesting to me. You think that would be a good starter?

[Sam]

Thanks for these. I am putting your suggestions in a text document so I can look over these works.

Nah, you went through these way before I even thought about it. I do find this interesting though. Maybe I will be able to wrap my head around it a bit better. I am thinking of starting with Feyerabend's The Tyranny of Science. This looks very interesting to me. You think that would be a good starter?

Can't remember ... I went through Feyerabend a little more than ten years ago with a pile of other reading and untreated narcolepsy. Everything's pretty much a jumble, at this point. But the title sounds familiar and Feyerabend's awesome so I'll say YES.

[Paprika]

As an ironically big fan of existentialism, I should also recommend Kierkegaard. "The Sickness Unto Death" was a good read.

How on earth do people read that book?

[Sam]

How on earth do people read that book?

A little Hegel first helps ... basically after him you're just happy your brain is no longer bleeding.

[fm93]

Meh, you neophytes don't know anything. "Being and Time" was my bedtime story as a child and "Infinite Jest" counts as light reading for me and now I'm just completely lying.

I do enjoy Borges, though.

[Paprika]

A little Hegel first helps ... basically after him you're just happy your brain is no longer bleeding.

I've tried and given up at least three times on that book because it's just not possible to figure out what on earth he means by 'self'.

[OU812]

Originally Posted by Darth Executor:
"Euthyphro dilemma is garbage even in the original context (multiple pagan gods)."

How is it "garbage"? How is not logically defensible?

[Sam]

I've tried and given up at least three times on that book because it's just not possible to figure out what on earth he means by 'self'.

You don't read the existentialists to learn things! You read existentialists to justify doing awesome things that no rational person should ever attempt.

[Darth Executor]

Originally Posted by Darth Executor:
"Euthyphro dilemma is garbage even in the original context (multiple pagan gods)."

How is it "garbage"? How is not logically defensible?

Its premises are questionable, as are its deductions. It's an emotional argument disguised as a rational one.

[Sam]

Given the conversation regarding theories of truth (correspondence, coherence, etc.):

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