Philisophical Books

This is for people interested in reading philosiphy. (im not sure if a post similar to this has been done before or not?!?)

Reccomend the reading of a good philosophical book, topic, and author!

I reccomend Catch 22 by Joesph Heller, takes place in WW2, catch 22 is a military term for going nuts during war. Anyways, its a great book and it switches from dark humour and adventure.

Sophie’s World is a great beginner philosiphy book, it also has a mind blowing plot line.

P.S. I thought catch 22 was the catch where if you want to join the army your crazy but if you don’t then your not so you have to or somethihng with a paradox… :confused:

Oh, I was just gonna mention Sophie’s World. What a trip that was. I don’t think I’ll ever forget the name Hilde Moller Knag or Alberto Knox.

Heh, Sophie’s world was great!

Has anyone ever read any Timothy Leary??, what do you think of him? The Politics Of Ecstacy is an amazing book

I started reading Sophie’s World when I was way too young to understand it. If only I could find it again, I think I’d love to read it now. A good book is The Invisible Landscape by Terrence and Ralph Mckenna, but it’s pretty scientific, and dense. Actually, a better one would probably be Chaos, Creativity and Consciousness, but I lost that before I got very far, so I can’t really recommend it.

Sophie’s World is a great introduction indeed!

For more advanced philosophy, check the work of Ken Wilber. He has developped a brilliant synthesis between western and eastern philosophies, through the field of integral psychology. This guy is a genius :smile:
The best introduction to his work is probably A Brief History of Everything. The Atman Project and The Spectrum of Consciousness are classics.

Other more or less philosophical books about the convergence between West and East I can recommend are:

Fritjof Capra - The Tao of Physics
Amaury de Riencourt - The Eye of Shiva

Rupert Sheldrake - A New Science of Life
David Bohm - Wholeness and the Implicate Order

I checked out a book, i figure it was consider a Philisophical book (that’s why I’m here :cool: ) and it’s called Conversations with God by Neale Donald Walsh. Jack mentioned it to me a long time ago, and I’m about 60 pages into it. I like it so far, although I’m not fully sure whats going on :bored: I’ll figure it out :tongue: Ever heard of it? :peek:

Well, im about half through the book, and it’s amazing. It answers so many question about life, that you, yourself can understand, or atleast try to understand (in general) but i’m very happy that i picked up this book. Things are changing for the best, and the books wisdom is so odd, it’s written as if God is really talking to you :eek: That’s what i think at least (or that’s the idea) i get lost though. I cant understand how the author talks and asks questions, and he answers them as if god was speaking.(lots of dialogue) You have to be real open minded to read this :grin:

The cool thing i wanted to talk about is; i was with a friend from work, she asked about the book was reading. I explained it to her and told her what its about. I also was telling her that it’s not working for me, or God isnt talking back to me, as if it was in the book for the author. And when i said that a squirrel popped up like that was my answer. This book exclaims that everything is God, from the last sound to the next thing you read to the next thing you see, etc. . . . It’s god talking, and once i explained this all and said i couldnt hear him, or comprehend, but i did. Right at that moment, coincidence you may think? I dont :tongue:

Any thoughts about this book? Jack , have you read the whole collection??

i’m reading The Ultimate Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy by douglas adams, it’s a funny book (or rather collection of the 5 books in the hitchiker sereis) and is intentionally quite silly, but if you see what the author is making fun of and how he makes fun of things/characters/situations, you’ll see there are rather insightful philosophical messages behind his humor

but if you want a serious book on philosophy that doesn’t hide its message behind jokes, stephen miller’s translation of the Tao Te Ching is my all time favorite. i love eastern philosophy and it is an eastern classic

Cool, whenever i get the time i’ll take your suggestions. It’s weird, normally i dont read as much, but now I’m reading like once a day or more :grin: . BTw, my book keeps geting better and better, can’t wait to finsih it :happy:

Carlos Castaneda Journey To Ixtlan

Not only the book which introduced me to the concept of lucid dreaming (which he calls dreaming ) but a basic outlining of Castaneda’s whole system of awareness enhancement (which he calls sorcery or shamanism )

And don’t waste too much time wondering whether the stories are true or not. Just take in the ideas. I reckon.

Wow, that book is just lying down on by my window, it’s my friends. He just checked it out from the library. He said it’s good so far. Have you read it fully?

For me, i finished Conversations with God volume 1, im waiting for the call for Volume 2. The book is great, i like it alot. But i was bothered with the fact the the book has other releases like Conversations with god for a teenager and such.

Neo -
Catch 22 in the book said that if you may leave the war and go home if you are crazy. First, though, you must ask to be sent home for being insane. And, according to catch 22, anyone who asks to be sent home must not be insane. So even though catch 22 says you may be sent home for being insane, you really can’t.