(Part 3) Best philosopher biographies according to redditors

> Dear Tofu Roshi: When I meditate, I seem to exhale more completely than I inhale, and consequently, by the end of the meditation period, I feel quite deflated. What do you think I should do?
> — Prudence Birdwhistle
>
> Dear Prudence: Proper breathing technique is widely misunderstood. You are not alone in having trouble with it. From your letter it sounds as though you may be making a common mistake: breathing out more times than you are breathing in. This is why we recommend counting breaths. Only by counting can you be completely sure you are exhaling and inhaling the same number of times. One of my students uses golf counters for this. With her left hand she enumerates inhalations, while with her right she takes account of exhalations. At the end of the period, she checks to make sure the numbers on the two counters are the same. If there is any discrepancy, she takes an extra moment to even things up, adding the indicated number of exhalations or inhalations. But it is best to alternate, whenever possible. Breathe in once, breathe out once, and then go all the way back to the beginning of the cycle and repeat. This is a basic principle of Zen.
> — Tofu Roshi

Muir has a great book he wrote himself called "The Story of My Boyhood and Youth: On Coming of Age, Invention and Ecology".

You can find this at your local Barnes and Noble, it's very neat.

If I remember correctly, Lakatos acknowledges that Feyerabend's criticism that it is possible with some minor adjustments to transform a degenerative research programme into a progressive research programme. This problem is unanswered--and perhaps unanswerable--by Lakatos. Is that what you're thinking of?

Lakatos, however, is an interesting example of a synthesis between Hegelian and Popperian thought. There's the famous phrase 'Minerva's owl' from Hegel that Lakatos appropriates repeatedly: "rationality works much more slowly than most people tend to think and, even then fallibly. Minerva's owl flies at dusk." And Lakatos studied under Lukács. A good biography of Lakatos is Chocolate and Chess. Highly recommended reading. But anyways, they had different aims in mind, with Lakatos combining historiography and rational theory preference into an overarching attempt to produce rational theory preference on the level of History; Feyerabend did not.

If Feyerabend is right, it doesn't just pull Lakatos but all other Popperians and Hegelians into anarchism as well (but this goes the other way--Feyerabend isn't that different from Popper but liked to say controversial things; he was Loki); if Feyerabend is making a psychological assessment of Lakatos, he might be right: Lakatos and Feyerabend seem to have been very similar in temperament. That is to say, both of them were assholes.

But anyways, tired. Sorry my typing isn't going so well. Spent the day writing.

Ich hab mit dem Buch hier angefangen. Man bekommt erstmal einen Überblick und kann sich dann über das Internet und weitere Bücher weiter reinfuchsen.

Ich lese auch gerne das Hohe Luft Magazin. Kostet leider ~10€ kommt aber auch nur alle viertel Jahr raus. Die App hab ich nie ausprobiert, aber ich weiß das es eine gibt und die Ausgaben ein wenig billiger sind. Mir hat das Magazin immer besser gefallen als Bücher weil es irgendwie angewandter war und nicht nur so trocken. Ich lese die jetzt seit 5 Jahren und hab fast alle Ausgaben gekauft. Die Texte sind auch als nichtakademiker fast immer gut zu verstehen.

Bei einigen Büchern, oder Schriften von berühmten Philosophen braucht man ein philosophisches Wörterbuch, aber das ist dann eh schon die Fortgeschrittene Abteilung. Internet geht sonst auch, ich fand das Wörterbuch aber immer besser.

Most of your topics are admittedly experience based. I think if you are in a procurement role, it's best to read books about negotiating and the commodity markets. If you're in a product management role, my favorite site for the topic is Aha! https://blog.aha.io/ . For quality... you're going to get a lot of crap just because quality is one of those buzzword books.

A friend of mine just launched a book who's been in the Dairy industry for like, 30 years and if you read the comments, he talks a lot about SQF and HACCP. Note I have not read the book, but I think this might help you. https://www.amazon.com/New-Manager-Mindset-Secrets-Leadership/dp/1520507240/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

As a product developer, I focus on improving my creativity and how to convince people my ideas don't suck. So I read those books. You can see the list on a blog I write here: http://myfoodjobrocks.com/books/

Stoicism seems the most applicable, but most of literature, philosophy, and religion is one long sustained effort of mankind to come to terms with the vicissitudes and trials of life. You mentioned Zen, but Secular Buddhism and other meditative or contemplative traditions should be considered. There is no shortage of religions, philosophies, schools, practices, etc that teach some form of renunciation of or withdrawal from the world, to one degree or another.

I'd also check out Epicureanism for another secular attempt to deal with these problems. This is a pretty good book on the subject. Diogenes the Cynic took a more militant step towards overcoming the vicissitudes of life--rather than mere passive renunciation, he cultivated outright scorn for the world.

There is also Vipassana, which I've seen described as part of Buddhism. But when I attended a course in Delhi in 2014 there was no religious teaching at all. It was a practice, one that did not depend on any specific beliefs per se.

Hi, speaking as a fellow dilettante in philosophy, I feel I can offer you some tips.

The r/askphilosophyFAQ is great.

https://plato.stanford.edu is also an amazing portal into many philosophical topics.

Online lectures are my preferred medium. I've tried to read philosophical works (Meditations, Beyond good and evil, Essays by montaigne) and I've almost always gotten bored. (You can also go with audiobooks if that's your thing).
Don't start with anything really tough like Nietzsche. I've heard Bertrand Russell's "The problems of philosophy" is a great place to start, or you can start with Plato. Dig around, find what interests you. I started with Montaigne because he said he wasn't a bookworm and only read for pleasure and he had some very rational ideas so I thought his essays would be a good place to start. I'm only halfway through, they're still quite tough to push through.

The other commenters have also given great and helpful options.

Ethics is also my favorite field in philosophy. One word of caution, once you get in too deep, you're left agonizing over simple decisions to see if they fit whatever moral theory you subscribe to (Chidi from the Good Place is a good example of this).


A personal recommendation I'd like to give is 'Living Biographies of Great Philosophers.'

(https://www.amazon.com/Living-Biographies-of-Great-Philosophers/dp/B000FMQPWA)

I found this book in my grandfather's bookshelf and it's written in a very lucid, precise and alluring manner. Studying the life of philosophers gives amazing context to their philosophy. I was not at all bored reading this book. The biographies were quite intriguing.

I also fluttered through a few pages of "the story of philosophy" by James Garvey. Seemed good enough for beginners.

Not sure if this is the oldest book I own. I have a hard cover with library marks. They were going to throw it out.

> Essays on the life and work of Newton by Augustus De Morgan (1914)

Nope, sorry, two older books threatened with the same fate.

> AN ELEMENTARY TREATISE ON FOURIER'S SERIES AND SPHERICAL, CYLINDRICAL, AND ELLIPSOIDAL HARMONICS by William Elwood Byerly (1893)

>Treatise on Universal Algebra with Applications by Alfred North Whitehead (1898)

Barbra Branden wasn't a close friend of Ayn Rand's, except for maybe a short time, but in the end she became one of betrayers. It is documented that has lied about Ayn Rand's life over and over and thus I wouldn't believe a word she say to say.

book documenting her lies which will be republished

From Ayn Rand herself on how the Brandens are bad people

http://www.amazon.com/Diogenes-Cynic-Luis-Navia/dp/1591023203

I am going to order this book, it has good reviews and seems to paint the man as he was.

I listened to A History of Western Philosophy on audio and I think it was pretty good. You might also try the series on individual philosophers, "(name of philosopher) in 90 minutes". And if you don't mind podcasts, try the Philosophize This podcast, it's very approachable and easy to understand. Start from the beginning of that one, obviously.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Nietzsche-Beginners-Guide-Guides/dp/1851687572

Read this first

https://www.amazon.com/Memoirs-Twentieth-Century-Ugo-SPIRITO/dp/9042012420

His autobiography. Well, sort of. He really question his belief system and the course of his life in the context of self-worth and responsibility. Really fascinating read.

I don’t know what to say about your first paragraph, but for the second, I found these helpful: https://pvspade.com/Sartre/sartre.html. I enjoyed going through The Transcendence of the Ego in conjunction with his notes on it (in the Being and Nothingness PDFs the first 70 pages or so were about that book, iirc). I also really enjoyed this: https://www.amazon.com/Sartre-Oneworld-Philosophers-Neil-Levy/dp/1851682902

There are other more thorough things out there, of course, but this is nice 300 or so pages of material that gives you a lot of the core of elements of his phenomenology in a far more approachable way than just jumping into Being and Nothingness and the literature on it.

I know they may not be exactly what you are after but both these books show the outlaw perspective from an 'outsider' who lives the outlaw life for a period of time 1 2
Another good read is Mafia Enforcer Which is about a guy who was president of a MC who then went on to be a hit man for the Canadian Mafia.
this book is also worth a read as it has a few good looks into the daily routine of a MC

Are you taking any medications that lead to Serotonin boost? High Serotonin is known to dampen the brain's ability to reach orgasm, which means a bigger dopamine rush is needed to get there, which means people with high serotonin tend to seek out more intense stimulus. Rape fantasy is the most commonly reported fantasy in studies, so don't feel ashamed about it.

I learnt this recently while reading http://www.amazon.co.uk/What-Do-Women-Want-Adventures/dp/178211257X/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1416273183&sr=8-7&keywords=what+women+want+book .. maybe worth looking into.