Quote:
Originally Posted by peter12
Hey evman, I just want to be clear that there was no spite intended. It's just harmless boasting on my part, and I was obviously trying to antagonize you. So please, it's not personal at all.
Two thinkers... hmmm... or perhaps books?
Plato's Republic, and Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil. Perhaps, Strauss' On Tyranny as well, especially the Kojeve bits.
I'm really not much of a neoliberal at all.
EDIT: Selections from Rousseau's Emile, and Letter to M. D'Alembert as well.
Clearly, quite radical, and I definitely see a massive gap in my understanding of Aristotle. But I also lean far towards classical and continental thought. I take it you do more analytical?
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My education is primarily classical and early modern. My university has a massive hole in it when it comes to continental philosophy. We do Kant and Heidegger...and that's about it. Just as well, because I'm not a fan of texts that are deliberately obfuscating (Kant comes to mind here). I prefer texts that elucidate important ideas in "simple" terms. Examples of this are the decent translations of Plato's dialogues.
I also have a minor in normative ethics, so I have an extensive background iin that regard, although it's not my favourite area of philosophy.
Interestingly, one of the works that influenced my personal political philosophy the most is Rawls' "A Theory of Justice", as well as Hobbes' Leviathan. And a random paper called "Tragedy of the Commons" by Garrett Hardin as well. These works gave birth to my belief in the importance of the state, and that society's freedom is maximized not with absolute freedom (anarchy), but with a surprisingly large (by an Alberta message board's account) amount of state intervention.
For example, this explains my view that home schooling should be outlawed and that vaccines should be mandatory. These are things conservatives and libertarians (and many others) would bristle at, but no one can doubt these policies would not benefit the whole. Too often, people use the word "freedom" to defend otherwise odious and wantonly dangerous acts, such as not having your children inoculated.
I also have an extensive background in Aristotle's corpus, as well as Leibniz and Descartes' main works. I also hold a special affection for Spinoza's philosophy.
Individually, "Meno" is probably my favourite work.