Friday, January 16, 2009

Reading, Reading, Reading!

I have been reading tons and tons of books lately, all in preparation for my book. I'm more than halfway through "The Making of the Fittest" right now, a superb book about evolution and genetics. I know it will come in handy for my chapter on evolution.

My next superspurt of reading is going to focus on philosophy, and I have already started (a little) on it. I've read "Language Truth and Logic" by A. J. Ayer, which was very helpful, although I don't think Ayer was right about every single thing he wrote. Very good book on empiricist (observation based) philosophy.

I also read "The Philosophy Gym" by Stephen Law, mainly because I emailed him about the philosophy of knowledge and he told me he had written about it in this book. I have to say, I wasn't impressed with the book. It's fine if you're new to philosophy and just want a fun, easy read on the subject, but I need something a little more serious.

I also read the "Squashed" Version of David Hume's Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. I now see why so many philosophers love David Hume! He is a very clear, very sharp thinker who didn't pull any punches when it came to being skeptical.

Well, that's about it for now, if any of you have any suggestions for me, by all means leave a comment!!

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