In regards to what? He has written some pretty good stuff on a variety of topics in moral philosophy. His criticism of Utilitarianism through an indictment of its consequentialist nature is pretty good, as are his early writings on how identity in relation to the self and its body presents us with some interesting problems of reflection. The latter matches up really interestingly with Lacan's writings in which he "returns to Freud"; the two don't actually conflict as one might first think given the wildly different philosophical predilections of the two thinkers.

So, check out Problems of the Self, Descartes: The Project of Pure Inquiry, and Utilitarianism: For and Against imo.

corumjhaelen

France6884 Posts

November 27 2014 10:29 GMT

#1385

What should I read from Derrida ?
I want to be in.

farvacola

United States18865 Posts

November 27 2014 15:22 GMT

#1386

Start with Plato's Pharmacy IMO, it's a great introduction to the concept of "trace" and Derrida's general approach.

Nyxisto

Germany6287 Posts

November 28 2014 03:20 GMT

#1387

Can someone explain to me what's so great about Derrida? From a layman's perspective it looks like the guy just made up cool sounding words that are basically intellectual gibberish

farvacola

United States18865 Posts

November 28 2014 05:26 GMT

#1388

Much of what Derrida wrote is gibberish, and this falls rather nicely in line with the idea that a lot of postmodernist thought can be chalked up to the collective inability of mid-20th century thinkers to grapple with the concept of television. Nevertheless, I think that some of Derrida's writings are incredibly useful when it comes to expanding one's understanding of how text, context, and meaning interact or even exist as ideas.

For example, and this is why I recommend it so, "Plato's Pharmacy" does a good job (unusual for Derrida) of explaining his concept of "trace," which could be thought of as a postmodern take on what exactly "surrounds" a given piece of writing. In describing the conspicuous absence of the word "pharmakos" in Plato's writings like Phaedrus and comparing that with Plato's frequent use of words like "pharmakon" and "pharmakeus" in similar works, Derrida basically establishes that every intentional implementation of a word brings with it an indefinite cloud of meaningful absence, particularly in the case of words meant to signify concepts that are simply "too big" for one word. In other words, the meaning behind a given piece of writing, if such a thing actually exists, hinges on both the words on the page and the words that have played or do play a role in signifying the ideas that the words on the page are meant to represent (in addition to the host of other factors that go into building a "background" for a given text, though Derrida would probably scoff at the ordination of "front" and "back" lol).

Much of deconstruction revolves around a similar thread, that being the idea that an overt focus on a "thing" in and of itself misses out on much of what goes into the construction of the meaning of said "thing," such as the "shadows" of words intentionally not used or the phraseology of rhetoric tossed aside during the authorial process or used by a different writer. Unfortunately, that Derrida wrote in, according to the French-speakers I know, exceedingly obtuse French that translates into even more obscure English really dissuades people from actually giving his work a shot; to make matters worse, this was intentional by Derrida and its a theory of mine that Derrida's intentional obscurantism plays a direct role in the "performance" of his theory, which, of course, only makes his ideas even harder to access.

Though I've only scraped the surface (it feels disingenuous, in attempting to explain the worth of Derrida, to not mention the fact that most of Derrida's work can be chalked up to Derrida feeling that he was the only person on the planet who was in on Heidegger's "big joke"), I certainly do feel that Derrida's works contain some exceedingly valuable insight given that one develops a tolerance for utter bullshit

babylon

8765 Posts

November 28 2014 18:02 GMT

#1389

Told myself I'd only read 25 pages of Seraphina last night and go to bed, next thing I know it's past 3:00 and I'm done with the book.

Which was great, actually. First half was slow, but once things started happening, the book's pacing picked up. The plot was very well worked out, I really loved some of the characters (Orma, esp.) and the relationships between them all (Seraphina's relationship with her dad and Orma; Orma's and Linn's relationship with Imlann, etc.). The writing style was extraordinarily crisp -- almost too crisp, imo; the story could've done with more weight in the words. My only other objection is the treatment of institutionalized religion in the story; the book took a very fantasy-esque approach to it, but it started gaining a tad more nuance near the end of the story, which was nice. All minor objections. Great book.

Not enjoying Gene Wolfe's short stories as much: very much "here are ideas, let me skip the story part of it though," which is very bleh. Sometimes he hits a good note, but most of them have been duds.

Now onto Iliad fanfiction (The Song of Achilles)!

Surth

Germany456 Posts

November 28 2014 21:02 GMT

#1390

On November 28 2014 14:26 farvacola wrote:
Much of what Derrida wrote is gibberish, and this falls rather nicely in line with the idea that a lot of postmodernist thought can be chalked up to the collective inability of mid-20th century thinkers to grapple with the concept of television.

I would like to hear more about this

bookwyrm

United States722 Posts

November 28 2014 21:14 GMT

#1391

recently i've been assigned some late Derrida, it's weird because you can actually understand it, which of course ruins the entire effect

ticklishmusic

United States15977 Posts

November 29 2014 00:38 GMT

#1392

Everyone Else Must Fail, Karen Southwick

A biography of Larry Ellison. A bit sensationalized and biased, but pretty thorough. Southwick doesn't really go through the history of Oracle chronologically instead going through a bunch of parallel storylines, so it ends up being a bit repetitive. Meh. (Book was chosen from a bunch of other ones for a class)

A Beautiful Mind, Sylvie Nasar
A biography of John Nash, the basis for the movie starring Russell Crowe. A reread. Pretty good book, very well-researched, and the author's wit really carries through. Beautifully written.

bookwyrm

United States722 Posts

November 30 2014 19:17 GMT

#1393

some stuff for class this week

[image loading]

also my first application is due today.. .ughhhhh... i am trying to finish up my statement of purpose but this shit is so draining... I hope I get in someplace otherwise I am gonna have to sell my body on the street next year or smth to pay for books...

farvacola

United States18865 Posts

November 30 2014 19:26 GMT

#1394

I believe in your purpose

corumjhaelen

France6884 Posts

November 30 2014 20:16 GMT

#1395

Love the Pavic book, do tell what you made of it afterwards

And gl !

bookwyrm

United States722 Posts

November 30 2014 20:38 GMT

#1396

I read about half of it last night... it's a cool thing but it is a bit too metafiction-y for me these days, I would have loved it a lot more when I was 18 I think. A little too nonsensical. but it's definitely a super-cool book

batsnacks

United States4466 Posts

November 30 2014 21:02 GMT

#1397

On November 27 2014 08:53 bookwyrm wrote:
+ Show Spoiler +

idk why the image wont work, it is georges duby, the early growth of the european econony

Do you play dwarf fortress? I was listening to a podcast with Toady and he said that he was reading this book for inspiration.

bookwyrm

United States722 Posts

November 30 2014 21:08 GMT

#1398

Haha I never have but i've thought about it sometimes. It might be too hardcore/not GUI enough for me. glad to hear gamer podcasts pushing the economic history tho...

babylon

8765 Posts

December 01 2014 18:54 GMT

#1399

"German Quickly" by Wilson

"French for Reading" by Sandberg

Now you too can effectively trick your department into thinking you can read and comprehend German and French academic articles!

bookwyrm

United States722 Posts

December 01 2014 21:47 GMT

#1400

Fake it till you make it. The main lesson of grad school.