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Philosophy, Law & Politics |
The Trial of SocratesI F StoneAfter retiring at age 70 as a journalist, Stone took up a new avocation, learning ancient Greek in order to study the originals. His topic was the origins of democracy, and in part, how icons like Plato and Socrates have falsely been given credit for fostering these ideals. In this well reasoned book, Stone presents the case against Socrates - not to argue that his death was justified, but rather to show that he was convicted for the political reason that he supported an anti-democratic oligarchy. . "The paradox and shame in the trial of Socrates is that a city famous for free speech prosecuted a philosopher guilty of no other crime than exercising it. To invoke the memory of our own American lapses, Athens had no Alien and Sedition Laws, Athens had no little Iron Curtain like the McCarran-Walter immigration act to bar visitors with suspect ideas.... Athens was un-Athenian, frightened by the three political earthquakes when the democracy was overthrown in 411 and 404 BC and then threatened again in 401. These events help to explain the prosecution of Socrates, but they do not justify it." | |||||||||||
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Paradigm Shifts
The beginning of the 20th century saw upheaval and turbulence as 2 major scientific philosophies crumbled -- the Newtonian Mechanical Universe's replacement by Relativity and Quantum mechanics, and the acceptance of evolution by the scientific community. These events forced a re-examination of basic ways of seeing the world -- and the cultural and political effects of a once stable philosophy suddenly altered radically. Neal Stephenson's Quicksilver has the Newtonian revolution as its backdrop, as The Royal Society emerges from alchemy. Stephen Jay Gould has remarked that Darwin would not have succeeded in presenting his theory, even to brilliant men such as Hooke, Leibniz and Newton, since their minds were not yet prepared for the new kind of science. Fiction like Quicksilver lets us attempt to imagine what that world might have been like. Night Thoughts of a Classical Physicist - Russell McCormmach - Victor Jakob, an aging German physicist in 1918 faces the destruction of Germany after World War I, but even more, tries to salvage something from the realization that his life's work has been in vain. He realizes that his personal search for the world-ether has been as hopeless as the Reich's effort at domination. After a century of living with the implications of quantum mechanics and general relativity, and in a time when string theory attempts to explain it all, it's difficult to understand the unsettling options that bewildered physicists at the turn of the century
An interesting analogy is given by the old physicist, which takes even greater relevance with the discoveries in superstring theory that emerged after this book was written:
This novel is sadly lyric and brings together musings on many fundamental themes. Hopeful Monsters The interplay of biology, physics, philosophy and politics in the first half of the 20th century
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Ronald Dworkin
The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason - Sam HarrisAmazon.com ReviewSam Harris cranks out blunt, hard-hitting chapters to make his case for why faith itself is the most dangerous element of modern life. And if the devil's in the details, then you'll find Satan waiting at the back of the book in the very substantial notes section where Harris saves his more esoteric discussions to avoid sidetracking the urgency of his message. Interestingly, Harris is not just focused on debunking religious faith, though he makes his compelling arguments with verve and intellectual clarity. The End of Faith is also a bit of a philosophical Swiss Army knife. Once he has presented his arguments on why, in an age of Weapons of Mass Destruction, belief is now a hazard of great proportions, he focuses on proposing alternate approaches to the mysteries of life. Harris recognizes the truth of the human condition, that we fear death, and we often crave "something more" we cannot easily define, and which is not met by accumulating more material possessions. But by attempting to provide the cure for the ills it defines, the book bites off a bit more than it can comfortably chew in its modest page count (however the rich Bibliography provides more than enough background for an intrigued reader to follow up for months on any particular strand of the author' musings.) Harris' heart is not as much in the latter chapters, though, but in presenting his main premise. Simply stated, any belief system that speaks with assurance about the hereafter has the potential to place far less value on the here and now. And thus the corollary -- when death is simply a door translating us from one existence to another, it loses its sting and finality. Harris pointedly asks us to consider that those who do not fear death for themselves, and who also revere ancient scriptures instructing them to mete it out generously to others, may soon have these weapons in their own hands. If thoughts along the same line haunt you, this is your book.--Ed Dobeas | |||||||||||
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April Blood -Florence and the Plot Against the Medici
Homage to Catalonia - George Orwell
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Anthony Lewis - Make No Law - The Sullivan Case and the First Amendment -- A readable account of the libel case that dramatically defined and expanded the scope of press freedom. It's difficult to remember that it was only in the 1960's that these ideas were settled by the Supreme Court. Lewis backgrounds the history of press freedom, or rather government attempts to bridle it by various sedition acts that seemed to appear each generation [Ashcroft's current attempts to inhibit 1st Amendment rights is only the latest in a long series] The last chapters of the book cover libel cases through 1991 when the book went to press. The short section on the Pentagon Papers case is particularly timely. "Presidents have used the needs of national security in [an age of nuclear weapons] to justify cloaking more and more of the vital business of government in secrecy. The intelligence agencies spend billions of dollars every year, but the public is not allowed to know the amount or the justifications for it... The price of all this secrecy is one that Madison understood -- the growth of autocracy.... Americans are far too bewitched by the presidency and its ever-growing claims that national security demands secret government. The public resents the press when it tries to hold the President accountable on issues of war and peace, as Madison and h is colleagues intended the press to do.
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Daniel Dennett
John Searle |
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Science fiction often explores these themes. Roger Zelazny - Lord of Light Hindu pantheon in SciFi setting Mars Trilogy - Kim Stanley Robinson Other links: |
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