I'm currently reading The History Of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell, which is interesting (and surprisingly easy to read), although I'm not sure if it counts as studying as I'm reading it out of interest rather then with any particular aim in mind. I've also been learning Greek on and off for the last few years so I have quite a few (unfinished) text books for that which I'm "officially" in the middle of reading, but haven't actually looked at for a few months.
Oh, and of course I'm also studying the book which is pretty much compulsory for Javaranchers to read at some point - Sun Certified Programmer for Java!
Though I havent read many books this year. I try to read about 20 books a year. heres what my list looked like for 2005
1.The power of positive thinking 2.Awaken the giant within 3.The alchemist 4.The Da Vinci code 5.First things first 6. Students guide to Indian economics(I dont know why I read this) 7.Who are we? 8. Siddhartha 9. The Zahir 10.The manual of the warrior of light 11.Stop procrastinating 12.A short history of nearly everythng 13.Me talk pretty one day 14.The kite runner 15.Freakonomics 16.The tipping point 17.Tuesdays with Morrie 18.Curious incident of the dog in the night time 19.snow falling on cedars 20.The complete sherlock holmes (still reading this one)
In 2007 I plan to read: 1. The world is flat 2. Why do men have nipples? 3.The Fabric of the Cosmos space time and texture of reality 4.you shall know our velocity 5.tenenats of buddhism 6.two lives 7. Life of Pi 8.cosmic trigger 9.The Motorcycle Diaries
Books I finished reading or read partially since June 2005 1) Ivor Horton's Beginning, Java 2) Pragmatic Programmer by Andy Hunt and Dave Thomas 3) K&B Book 4) ANT: The Definitive Guide by Steve Holzner 5) Swing Hacks by Joshua Marinacci and Chris Adams 6) Winning by Jack Welch (only Careers section)
Currently Reading: 1) Head First Servlets and JSP 2) Code Complete 2 by Steve McConnell
Planning to read after SCWCD: 1) Continue with Code Complete 2 2) Some good book on XML 3) Head First EJB 4) Head First Design Patterns 5) Refactoring by Martin Fowler
Originally posted by Sameer Jamal: Reading about the history of western philosophy is somewhat similar to read about history of eastern science and technology both have blank pages.
Well the book is about an inch thick and so far none of the pages are blank!
I suspect you are perhaps joking, but if not then I recommend reading a bit about the subject - it is very interesting. The West has a very large and complex philosophical history. The book covers the following people:
Pythagoras, Heraclitus, Parmenides, Empedocles, Anaxagoras, Protagoras, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, the Cynics, the Sceptics, the Epicureans, the Stoics, Plotinus, St Ambrose, St Jerome, St Augustine, St Benedict, Pope Gregory the Great, John the Scot, St Thomas Aquinas, Machiavelli, Erasmus, More, Bacon, Hobbes, Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, Rousseau, Kant, Hegel, Byron, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, the Utilitarians, Marx, Bergson, William James and John Dewey.
That's hardly a lack of content! This is a large group of people who have contributed a lot to philosophy in general and shaped much of the way the world is at the moment.
Originally posted by Dave Lenton: The West has a very large and complex philosophical history. The book covers the following people:
Pythagoras, Heraclitus, Parmenides, Empedocles, Anaxagoras, Protagoras, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, the Cynics, the Sceptics, the Epicureans, the Stoics, Plotinus, St Ambrose, St Jerome, St Augustine, St Benedict, Pope Gregory the Great, John the Scot, St Thomas Aquinas, Machiavelli, Erasmus, More, Bacon, Hobbes, Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, Rousseau, Kant, Hegel, Byron, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, the Utilitarians, Marx, Bergson, William James and John Dewey.
You might as well stop after John Locke. Western philosophy went downhill after that. I base my belief on the observation that social movements based on Locke's philosophy made society better; movements inspired by most of the philosophers who came after him wreaked havoc to a greater or lesser extent.
I need to learn JavaScript for a project I'm starting on. I bought Beginning JavaScript, 2nd Edition by Paul Wilton, which looks like a good introduction.
Originally posted by Frank Silbermann: You might as well stop after John Locke. Western philosophy went downhill after that. I base my belief on the observation that social movements based on Locke's philosophy made society better; movements inspired by most of the philosophers who came after him wreaked havoc to a greater or lesser extent.
If a philosopher's theories cause trouble, does that make his/her work any less interesting or worth reading? Perhaps it makes them more worth reading, so that the flaws in their theories can be explored and learnt from.
for myself: "We, children from Bahnhof Zoo" [Hermann, Rieck] "Sztuka programowania mikrokontroler�w AVR" [Pawluczuk] (in free translation: 'The art of AVR microcontrollers programming')
and because I really must: "Core Java 2, Advanced features" [Horstmann, Cornell]
It is not something to learn about, it is something that comes from within.
Hatha Yoga classes have been available in the U.S. since the 1950s. I think Yoga would be alot more popular if healthclubs offered sessions of Tantric Yoga instead. [ November 20, 2006: Message edited by: Frank Silbermann ]
Just finished The Bancroft Strategy - Robert Ludlum
Reading The Negotiator and Icon by Frederick Forsyth; recently, read a thread in which Bear suggested "To say nothing of a dog"...i think i might take up that too.