HN user

ebullientocelot

175 karma
Posts1
Comments65
View on HN

So a lot of philosophical writing references a sort of general canon, at least as far as western thinking is concerned. Other traditions I'm sure have their own details but I can't speak intelligently to them. The field is enormous, and without more specific information regarding your goals it is difficult to pinpoint the classics in subfields that may interest you. That said, there are a few highlights I think you're bound to come across reference or allusion to in many, many other works that would benefit you to get some exposure to. I am strongly biased toward a western analytical philosophy tradition--you'll want to check into things far more broadly than I'm recommending to find your own path. My little list is not meant to be exhaustive and is coming from personal memory of "aha!" moments in my own life, but will perhaps serve as a useful beach head for your own investigations:

* Descartes' Meditations

* Locke Essay Concerning Human Understanding

* Hobbes Leviathan

* Kant Critique of Pure Reason

* Kant Prolegomena

* Kuhn Structure of Scientific Revolution

* Hegel Phenomenology of Spirit

* Foucault Discipline & Punish

* Sellars Epistemology and the Philosophy of Mind

* Sellars The Scientific Image of Man

* Quine Word & Object

* Davidson On the Very Idea of a Conceptual Scheme

* Nagel What is it like to be a bat?

* Searle Minds, Brains, and Programs

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy [0] has a ton of great summary articles and bibliographies that could definitely keep you busy for a few decades or so. I've never been tremendously into ancient or non-western philosophy, which is a deficiency I aim to correct one day, but there are a ton of great essays there as well.

[0] https://plato.stanford.edu/

While not as cool as getting this done in 1969 with people I think it's nice to see that this sort of thing is happening at all these days. As contentious as things have been lately at ground level I'm encouraged any time I read about people getting things done in space for some reason, even if it isn't some novel event.

I don't know that the purpose is promoting understanding of popular political issues, but it definitely seems to me that work of this kind is fashionable to celebrate in literary circles. Take my view with a grain of salt, though--I'm neither fashionable nor in literary circles.

No argument with what you're saying, but on a personal level I can't stand Anna, the character. Reminds me too much of a rather unfortunate ex, and ruins the story for me.

Your comment is literally the first time in my life that I have seen the words "teachers get paid well" in what seems to me to be a serious fashion. Someone quoted below that the highest paid teachers are pulling something like 68k.. I'm east coast, and not smack dab in a major metro, but still--calling 70k "well-paid" seems pretty unrealistic.

I think it's possible for an additional tax dollar to help people, for sure. But it seems unreasonable to assume that a positive tax revenue delta will manifest in useful or well-managed social programs. Additional money in the public coffers is a necessary precondition for expanded social programs of value, but there are still problems of management, possibilities that the money will be spent on unjustified wars, etc.

I largely agree with the points you are making, however I think there's a fundamental difference in the carpenter analogy: regardless of the type of screwdriver used there is no material difference in the UX of the cabinet, whereas that does not hold for web development decisions.

I came across "elsagate" the other day and was unpleasantly not surprised by what it means. As a father of two young children this is a tough one--I'm 100% pro free speech, especially the speech I don't agree with, but have a hard time with deceptive messaging designed to harm vulnerable populations. I don't have an answer, but it sure is a damnable problem.

Battling Entropy 8 years ago

I know, right??

Some real gems:

pg. 21: Emotive forces shape the gestalt of the brand identity.

Actually no, the whole thing is patently absurd. Wow. What the fuck?

Apparently this presentation earned a million dollar fee:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/pepsis-nonsensical-logo-redesig...

In fairness it is marked as WIP.. I suppose it could have been completely scrapped and redone before presenting to the client :P

Edit:

AdWeek was less convinced at the time:

https://www.adweek.com/digital/the-pepsi-logo-design-pdf-emb...

Can't find anything definitive on what this actually was, seems like a lot of "hoax or not?" type pieces with no conclusion that I can see.

I don't think your two points are mutually exclusive, and suspect they are both correct to one degree or another. I live in a second-tier city working for a second-tier company and my daily life is already fairly cyberpunk! During the day I actively work on the advertising economy surveillance state, and at home I do things like install the Pi-Hole for my family and try to help anybody who will listen reduce their target profile for the eye in the sky. I mention this, particularly that my city and company are second-tier, because you don't have to work at FAANGM in SV to experience these things.

There is definitely a sense in which I would be interested in at least checking out a cyberpunk community, but as other have mentioned, it's more or less culture now.

In a way--my question boils down to why this was written in the first place. Engaging with literary criticism is an invitation to perpetuate literary criticism :P

This seems silly to me--if an idea or subject _is_ difficult, then so be it. If something difficult to read is worth it to somebody, then that person will read it. I don't understand the fascination with difficulty--whatever that means, as an independent metric. To me, the value of writing is the idea or set of ideas the writing expresses.

Amen. Overseas positive identification and rules of engagement were drilled into our heads constantly, driven home by threats of prosecution for murder/war crimes if you got it wrong. Despite the fact that Tommy Taliban loved to fire at us from crowds in markets and the windows of school buildings, US forces did a remarkable job of restraint. This is not to say that mistakes weren't made, or that certain groups didn't do things that they most certainly should not have, but by and large I would much rather trust US infantry to not shoot me than the Pittsburgh Police in a confusing situation.

That said, during those rare moments of clarity on the Afghan battlefield, there was zero doubt with respect to the outcome.

+1 for psychogeography. This is a cool comment, do you have any recommendations for books/essays in this vein beyond Guy Dubord?

Edit: an => any typo

I tried googling around for Matthew Simon and couldn't find anything, even with San Jose State University added to the search terms (found from "Look Inside" on Amazon for the book--worth a look by itself). I'm a bit disappointed, was hoping for a zany blog or old school static site to enjoy.

This rings true from my experience in Afghanistan too. We did route clearance in RC North, and were often out for days at a time. Very little bad sleep, end up scraping together whatever cigarettes were available so few people had their preferred brand, the same tired MREs, plastic tasting water which was used for brushing teeth as well as drinking, etc. We did, however, get cases of Rip It and huge boxes of Cliff Bars from the chow hall, sometimes two or more to a truck (3-6 guys). Eventually, all you want is a "flavor" of some kind, and it starts to matter less and less where it comes from. We were all aware that it was better for us to drink the shitty water, but the desire for some kind of gratification eventually overwhelms even the most conscientious efforts to be healthy or maintain balance.