A friend for whom I recently did a minor favor very graciously bought me a $50 gift certificate for Amazon.com. This is probably the best kind of gift to give to someone like me. The shipping costs to send them to Belgium were fairly high, but I managed to finagle three books out of it. I really wanted to get Jaegwon Kim's Physicalism, or Something Near Enough, but couldn't figure out a way of doing it and still getting two more books. I received my order a few days ago and realized that as the books are completely incommensurate with each other, they illustrate the diversity of my psychoses. Here they are, for what it's worth:
Daniel C. Dennett, Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life. I use this book in my dissertation, and it finally reached the point where it was much more convenient to own it than to continue getting it from a library. In fact, I really need to familiarize myself with all of Dennett's books as his philosophical foci overlap mine in several places. Also, the more I read him the more I like him.
Ronald L. Numbers, ed., Galileo Goes to Jail and Other Myths about Science and Religion. I've been wanting this one ever since it came out, especially to read Dennis Danielson's chapter, but never had the spare change to buy it. Now all I need is the spare time to read it.
Dallas Willard, Knowing Christ Today: Why We Can Trust Spiritual Knowledge. I've mentioned before how this book sounds like it's written to address my particular spiritual condition. I read somewhere that you shouldn't constantly read new books on spirituality, but instead find a handful of books that speak to your condition and just feed off them. Dallas Willard's books fill that role for me. I also note that his website has brought back the page on his current projects which I mentioned here.
Saturday, November 12, 2011
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3 comments:
Dennett? you like homunculus man? I'm dying to know how he has grown on you.
My reason for liking Dennett -- my reason for liking Nietzsche -- my reason for loving philosophy -- is that I love love love weird ideas.
'nothing human is foreign to me'? 'there but for the Grace of God'?
He really must love us and our freedom to allow us the freedom to even think our own humanity away - to take that magnetic attraction of the abyss - as the realest of things.
I'm told repentance isn't so much about awareness of sin but willingness to know you are loved.(wiped his feet with her hair)
The god Anteros, however, owns homunculus man and worked his magic on the transvaluer.
I'm happy you like Dennett, if there had been more curious and less moralising of Nietzsche at the turn of the C20th 1914-45 might not have happened.
Homunculus man and the E.M.'s presage . . . . .
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