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Books Online

Category: Books - Philosophy

The Professors.

The Professors by David Horowitz is a critical look at academics in America. In his early years, Horowitz was an avowed Marxist actively working to infiltrate and dominate cultural institutions like the great American University. Today's Universities have cast aside their classical liberal view and are hotbeds of radical left ideology. In this work, Horowitz examines the work of 101 American professors.

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Libertarianism: A Primer; David Boaz.

David Boaz does an excellent job explaining the foundations of the libertarian philosophy. Modern libertarianism is closer to the liberal point of view held by the founders of the United States. This well written and easy to read volume has many interesting insights on common law, natural law, human rights and the relation of the people to their government.

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The Open Society and Its Enemies; Karl Popper.

My eyes almost fell out of their sockets when I read this book. Some philosopher dude from out of left feild actually has the strength of character to question the philosophical primacy of Plato, and to peg Plato's vision of The Republic and Plato's philosopher king as one of the longest standing enemies of the open society.

In this rather brutal intellectual treatise, Karl Popper uncovers the roots of historicism and the long standing philosophical traditions that have given rise to the extremely brutal dictatorships that have marred western development for the last several millennia.

Rather than seeing an intellectual giant defending the Socratic method developed by his teacher. Popper portrays a reactionary zealot pining for a past that didn't exist, diverting the grand intellectual tradition of the west from beauty of reasoning to a class society where philosophy and knowledge is held in by a small ruling class.

The second volume of Popper's work takes aim at the towering edifaces of Hegel and Marx.

Both volumes belong in the must read category.

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Wittgenstein's Poker; David Edmonds, pages 339.

Ideas matter.

Wittgenstein's Poker concerns a fundamentally important shift in ideas that occurred in 20th century Europe. The book revolves around a ten minute non-conversation that took place between Karl Popper and Ludwig Wittgenstein in Cambridge in 1946. This was the first and only meeting between Wittgenstein and Popper?who were both prime players in the reactionary movement against the German idealism that led to the rise of Hitler's Germany and the Soviet Union.

Both Wittengenstein and Popper were from Vienna and had Jewish ancestors, both were iconoclastic thinkers with slightly different takes on the grave intellectual errors that opened the way to the totalitarian regimes that devastated Europe. Both philosophers played important roles in the post war intellectual communities.

From the upper class of Vienna, Wittengenstein had more fanciful ideas of pure languages, game theory and logic. Popper's life was grounded in the middle class. As an outsider, he was able to see many of the flaws building up within Wittgenstein's Vienna Circle, as well as the harm that the seemingly fanciful ideas had when put into practice.

At the heart of the poker incident is the nature of language and if ideas matter. Popper's crusade held that ideas mattered. His primary work, The Open Society and It's Enemies showed how the pseudo-scientific historicism proffered by Socrates and Hegel led to totalitarianism.

Wittgenstein might best be understood as the heir to the thrown of Bertrand Russell. Wittgenstein also addressed the logical flaws of German idealists. He strove for a better understanding of the nature of science and logic, but was trapped in the never ending game of philosophical musings of unbridled academics.

Wittgenstein's Poker is not simply about the ideas. It is about the fascinating lives of the players. Both Popper and Wittgenstein were driven into exile during WWII.

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Atlas Shrugged; Ayn Rand, pages 1075.

Atlas Shrugged is a fun philosophically based read that can help break the lure of socialism. Ayn Rand was raised in the former Soviet Union as was weaned on a philosophy that cast history as a conflict between the community and horrible individuals. Ayn Rand flipped the Soviet historicism upside down and noted that a more compelling case can be made that history can be summed up as a conflict between the individual and the oppressive forces of society. Removing the productive individuals that socialists despise results in social collapse.

Over all, this is a fun fast paced philosophically based story, and continues to sit well among the most influential books in history.

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