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Just picked up a few new books

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CastleBravo

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Im really terrible about reading multiple books. It stems from my tendency to buy interesting books when i see them. Then i get them home and i start reading them. I have started 6 books this week.

Here are the books i recently bought;

Objective Knowledge - Karl R. Popper - If it isnt obvious why i bought this one, get off this forum now :D (yes, i know it has nothing to do with Objectivism)

Methods of Logic - W.V. Quine

Crimes Against Logic - Jamie Whyte

The Coming Insurrection - The Invisible Committee (don't tell me what you think about this one. I want to form my own opinion)

How to Win Any Argument - Madsen Pirie

Return of the Primitive - The Anti-Industrial Revolution - Ayn Rand

If you're noticing a pattern, its because there is one. Ive recently taken an interest in formal logic. What are some other good books on learning it? My girlfriend is supposed to get me the complete works of Aristotle for xmas :(

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I would suggest against Popper.

Why? I cant defend him because i haven't read enough. I did read "Of Clocks and Clouds". I thought it was a well presented argument against physical determinism. A lot of people seem to like "The Open society and its Enemies".

Ruby is definitely on my list. None of his books are ever in book stores though. It is truly depressing to walk to the Philosophy section and see "Twilight and Philosophy" and no Ruby. It is a blatant sign of the times, i suppose. Depressing, really...

I read the first essay in "The Anti-Industrial Revolution" and, as with everything else ive read by Rand, it spoke volumes to me. She absolutely nailed it every time she put her pen to paper. I always wondered when/where/how the left got their hands on our schools...

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  • 1 month later...

I would suggest reading everything, even Kant and Popper. Remember that what made Ayn Rand great is that she integrated concepts by essentials. That's why she wrote fiction to demonstrate the goal of her philosophy. I was under the spell of thinking that just reading Ayn Rand books was enough to satisfy my intellect. Any one author's books are refined observations/inductions from multiple authors' works. You are cheating yourself of the learning process by thinking that you actually can completely learn something from one source (or at least learn everything about it). What is the goal of knowledge? It is essentially to form more knowledge after acting on that knowledge and assuming the benefits. It is sort of like the goal in making money - to make more money, and to put that capital to use to create something. It is a death premise to think that one should shield one's self from any work for any reason in my eyes. You have the ability of not having to believe everything you read. If you believe everything you read, you are sort of like a consumer who believes every advertisement they see. Very few people do that anyway, so keep amassing and integrating knowledge from all corners and read all of those books you mentioned.

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Im really terrible about reading multiple books. It stems from my tendency to buy interesting books when i see them. Then i get them home and i start reading them. I have started 6 books this week.

Here are the books i recently bought;

Objective Knowledge - Karl R. Popper - If it isnt obvious why i bought this one, get off this forum now :P (yes, i know it has nothing to do with Objectivism)

Methods of Logic - W.V. Quine

Crimes Against Logic - Jamie Whyte

The Coming Insurrection - The Invisible Committee (don't tell me what you think about this one. I want to form my own opinion)

How to Win Any Argument - Madsen Pirie

Return of the Primitive - The Anti-Industrial Revolution - Ayn Rand

If you're noticing a pattern, its because there is one. Ive recently taken an interest in formal logic. What are some other good books on learning it? My girlfriend is supposed to get me the complete works of Aristotle for xmas :)

I have Crimes Against Logic by Jamie Whyte and read it about 3 to 4 years ago. I enjoyed that book.

- Anthem 2112

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