From: Ken Clements (Ken@InnovationOnDmnd.com)
Date: Mon Oct 04 1999 - 18:55:35 MDT
David Lubkin wrote:
> What I've read or heard in the past has dealt with important questions, but always
> seemed like a waste of time -- people arguing back and forth, with very few
> verifiable facts in their arguments. And the books seemed too dry and dense to read.
>
> But many of you don't feel this way. So I'd like to understand why you read and
> discuss philosophy, and what you'd recommend I read as a seductive introduction.
>
Dear David,
I recommend that you do not try to dive into the traditional texts directly, but rather,
given that you come from a background in engineering, you should read the writers from
science and engineering who are working philosophy into what they are doing, or are
looking back over what they have done.
A good example is Richard Feynman. Feynman professed to hate philosophy. I have a tape
of him bitterly complaining about his college philosophy class in which he claimed that
most of their time was spent debating the chicken that was not in the refrigerator. But
then, the experiences of his life *made* him a philosopher. I suggest you read his book
_The Meaning of It All_, which can be nothing if it is not a work of philosophy. Here is
a quote:
- It is a great adventure to contemplate the universe,
- beyond man, to contemplate what it would be like without
- man, as it was in a great part of its long history and
- as it is in a great majority of places. When this objective
- view is finally attained, and the mystery and majesty of
- matter are fully appreciated, to then turn the objective
- eye back on man viewed as matter, to view life as part of
- this universal mystery of greatest depth, is to sense an
- experience which is vary rare, and very exciting. It
- usually ends in laughter and a delight in the futility of trying
- to understand what this atom in the universe is, this
- thing -- atoms with curiosity -- that looks at itself and
- wonders why it wonders.
Good luck,
-Ken
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Nov 01 2002 - 15:05:24 MST