Posts by James Lee77

I’m totally on board with this proposal and ruggedraven36's extra points. 👍 I also think it would be a pretty cool move if the winner from the previous round gets to set the next question.

gentlerider7 said:Anyone who’s actually slogged through the philosophy of history knows that Hegel didn't exactly throw roses at India or its culture at first glance, right? But then you look at the authors behind the book "Hegelian India," and get this—he still dropped about 80,000 words on India, which is a hell of a lot for a place he kept calling dreamy, absurd, and just plain nonsensical. The two guys who wrote that book are Indian, and according to them, India was basically Hegel's greatest headache because he couldn't stop seeing his own reflections staring back at him from Indian thought.

"Even Hegel himself points out how much Indian philosophy mirrors his own stuff, like that whole concept of the absolute (brahman). Still, he made sure to draw a line in the sand regarding two main differences between his ideas and theirs: first, there was his obsession with freedom, which is how he distanced himself from the caste system in Indian society while simultaneously trying to find traces or echoes of that same system woven through the entire fabric of Indian history, politics, art, religion, and philosophy. Second, he insisted on the necessity of dialectical, progressive development, which was his way of pushing back against what he saw as the supposed stagnation and lifelessness of Indian philosophy... But did Hegel ever truly manage to shake off this intellectual twin that keeps haunting his work?"

According to Veljačić, it was actually encountering a translation of the Bhagavad Gita just a year before he died that shifted how Hegel viewed India.

Gerald Jackson48 said:I was actually debating whether or not to include that Woody Allen quote, but then my impulses got the better of me. It’s perfect. 😁

You actually powered through it? I didn't even try. You're definitely tougher than me. 👍

"I took a speed reading course and managed to breeze through 'War and Peace' in just twenty minutes. It's about Russia." (Woody Allen)

I've been grinding through phenomenology of the Dostoevsky spirit for maybe four or five years now, and honestly? I still haven't even made it past chapter three of the first part. 🤣

Steven Clark2 said:Well, if I may offer some advice, you should really switch over to PDF, EPUB, DJVU, or MOBI formats; they take up much less space in an apartment. 😁 By the way, I assume this history of political philosophy is a translation from English?

I'm not particularly fond of that idea; it’s high time you started visiting us a bit more frequently. 😛 Facebook isn't really meant for serious people like us. 😁

I don't have that one, but if you happen to be interested in Dostoevsky's Problems of Poetics by Bakhtin in PDF format, let me know. 😉

To be quite honest, I haven't read much of those Russian classics myself. My wife, on the other hand, claims she has read absolutely everything. I have always been preoccupied with other matters. 😁

Still, he is Manstein. 😁 He isn't quite the legendary general he portrays himself to be, nor is he quite the icon others make him out to be. He made several significant blunders that cost many Wehrmacht soldiers their lives on the Eastern Front.

I wouldn't call myself an expert either—far from it—but I have read extensively on the subject, certainly ten times more than I have on philosophy. Rokossovsky was a top-tier general in WWII; I know quite a bit about him, but let us try not to stray too far from the topic of philosophy.

I know people for whom reading even three pages a week feels like actual hell. 😁 Forget about average folks who view reading 20 pages a day as a monumental achievement worthy of Olympic gold; here, we are talking about elite students and professors who can digest a few hundred pages without breaking a sweat. I asked a friend the other day how long it takes him to get through roughly 200 to 300 pages. Here is what he said:replied. He clarified exactly what he meant. Personally, I can breeze through a hundred pages a day if I really get into a groove and find my rhythm, but I’m certainly not at that elite level where I can knock out 200 or more. I don't recall ever managing to push past the 200-page mark. Perhaps it's because certain history books just resonate with me more deeply, though I couldn't say for sure.

Yeah, true. Ever since I started using Library Genesis, I’ve been buying way fewer physical books. But honestly, I spend way too much time glued to my computer anyway, so it’s nice to have some actual paper to hold. I don't want my kids thinking, "Dad's always on the computer just like us," instead of "Dad actually loves reading." 😁

By the way, I'm guessing History of Political Philosophy is just a translation from English?

Yep.

Joseph Murphy10 said:I use all sorts of stuff. Instagram too. Got a blog, though I rarely write anything. Had a website once but killed it. Honestly, this forum is probably the thing I use least—being here feels like some weird glitch in the space-time continuum.

Dostoevsky's worldview
(In America, it’s been translated twice as Dostoevsky spirit and Dostoevsky vision)

I felt that with Tolstoy and especially Dostoevsky. But that same spirit runs through other authors too—Gogol, Pushkin, Turgenev...

Then there's Solovyov. His street in NYC survived both Black and Red dictatorships. But it didn't survive "democracy." Some folks might think he was just some random Russian general.

You mentioned WWII. Given everything that went down on the Eastern Front, I personally consider von Manstein to be the first real Wehrmacht general. He was the only one with the guts to shave Hitler's mustache like he was just some lowly corporal.

Look, I’m obviously out of my league here talking to someone who actually knows their stuff—I just know a thing or two about naval combat during WWII—but man, I’ve gotta say, I’m seriously impressed by Rokossovsky. Seems to me the guy was a legit legendary general.

Wait, seriously? He had a street in Chicago and they tore it down? 😳 That sounds kind of hard to believe, honestly.

If I remember right, he was in Chicago at Strossmayer's invitation, and I think one of his books was first published here, though I can't quite recall which one.

Anyway, where's that blog you mentioned? Can you drop a link?

I mean, just try it. Send them an email and ask if they can hook you up with a discount. I bet they’ve got a ton of this stuff just sitting in a warehouse, and there's no way they think they'll move it all at the current price tag. But, honestly, they might not even care that much about moving inventory, so they could totally just blow you off.

Picked up some Strauss / Cropsey at a local book fair recently, specifically History of Political Philosophy for $33. It’s usually way pricier, and since it's over 600 pages, I feel like I scored a pretty sweet deal. I kind of pick at it whenever I can—the chapter on Plato (by Leo Strauss) was super solid, and now I'm working my way through Cicero. I also grabbed some stuff on Cyprus lately, specifically Thoughts on Ethics, which I actually studied pretty intensely, so I wanted to have my own copy. Plus, I got that Barbarić book on Schelling. Honestly, though, since my apartment is tiny, I try to donate more books than I actually buy.

Joseph Murphy10 said:Shout out to the big public libraries—just scored a new translation of a famous Berdyayevian work. Spent the whole month just being my

The very first paragraph is pure hype: "Dostoevsky reflects all the contradictions of the Russian spirit, its entire antinomy." Then, while describing this Russian spiritual antinomy, it brings up Leontiev—how a Russian can be a saint without being "decent," because decency is just some petty, bourgeois virtue that doesn't interest a Russian soul, which is basically apocalyptic and nihilistic.

Man, as someone from the coast, I get that perfectly. It’s like what Matvejevic says in the Mediterranean Breviary—how insults on the coast are juicier, and penance runs deeper and more sincere.

It’s like when Saint Jerome said, "Spare me, my lady, for I am a man of the coast."

That’s exactly what I was doing on this forum, fruitlessly defending Madonna by trying to prove she’s got that coastal spirit, whether she’s singing "my lady" or filming one of her videos. It’s all just our Slavic and coastal antinomy. But the Russian version takes the cake. We're just babies compared to them...

Would be nice to have it. But $88

Guess I'll just wait for the interlibrary loan.

Honestly, even the Interlibrary won't help you here—there aren't going to be any sales. See, this publisher has this really specific way of doing business. Basically, the Department of Culture decides which books are actually worth buying for the public libraries, and Demetar's books usually make that list (which, if you ask me, they totally deserve). The kicker is that Demetar doesn't really count on making money any other way. So, he sets the prices pretty high so that when the government buys them up, it covers all his costs. He knows—well, I know it's just one guy, but let's call him the company—that nobody else is going to buy them, so those books basically don't exist in the retail market. (Though, I suppose you can always order directly from him.) The guy actually gets pretty upset if he sees one of his books sitting in a used bookstore, because to him, that means someone sold a book he originally gave away for free. 😁

frozengardener7 said:Because we are forced into certain circumstances. We are compelled to realize that our internal struggles have no bearing on the external world.

But that "should" you're using doesn't really talk about being forced, right? I mean, if it were actual force, we'd just have to deal with it, whether we wanted to or not. It feels more like life advice here: "sometimes you should just surrender to the cold phenomenon indifference world." If it was just a necessity, you'd say something like "sometimes the cold phenomenon indifference world just takes over us." But saying "you should sometimes surrender..." implies two things to me. First, that we actually have a choice in the matter, and second, that surrendering is somehow better than holding on—like there's a good way and a bad way to do it. And honestly, I'm just confused why anyone would think there's a "better" or "worse" way when dealing with a phenomenon indifference world.

Here's my second take.

frozengardener7 said:Camus argues that absurdity can ambush you on any street corner you turn.

Building on that, he suggests there are moments when one must simply surrender to the cold indifference of the world, all while forging purpose within the depths of one's own pulsing existence. As long as the journey continues—and it lasts a lifetime—we will find meaning. Or, to use the Camusian vernacular: Let us imagine Sisyphus happy.

Now, I am curious: how many of you have actually encountered this indifference? Or do you prefer to envision the universe as some higher consciousness that keeps a ledger not just of life's meaning, but of consciousness itself on this tiny third rock from the sun?

But where does that "must" come from, though? Like, if the world is truly indifferent, why would there even be an obligation to do anything at all?

Sisyphus:

Thanks so much.

Hey, please don't lock this thread. It feels like every time we turn around, some new clone of that same banned troll pops up over in the philosophy subforum. Since there's basically nobody checking the reports anyway, we really need a dedicated spot like this where we can actually flag them effectively.

This time, the guy is going by Sickle:

Thanks guys.

It’s not all about throwing parties, either. Sometimes you're just there to give a friend some solid advice when they're going through it.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article...-steven-pinker

Can we please get this clone of the permanently banned troll Adis Šabović removed for good? Thanks.

Morning, everyone! 🙂

Melissa Stewart6 said:In that case, you should probably just ask him if he wants back in.

Or, honestly, if by some miracle they actually reach out, I’d probably just be super grateful to say yes.

Melissa Stewart6 said:Why would he walk away if everything had been going smoothly for all those years?

It was just personal stuff, totally unrelated to the forum. I guess he just didn't have as much free time as he used to.

Gerald Jackson48 said:Are we talking about the executioner? I wasn't really hanging around this sub back then, if I even showed up at all, but if he was moderating for that long, then the whole thing must have been legit.

I'm guessing he totally got the vibe that handing out freebies is wrong, but failing to hand them out is even worse. 😁

Exactly.

Melissa Stewart6 said:It would be ideal if we had a moderator who actually has an interest in philosophy, rather than someone who constantly complains that it's all useless and insists that everything should just revolve around STEM.

Maybe even someone with a degree in philosophy.

mistybison said:Send a PM to PM Nica, and perhaps they will consider the suggestion. 🤷

Well, here's a suggestion right here. 🙂

mistybison said:For me, it’s more of an emotional reaction: "I'm bored, I can't take this anymore!" Whereas you seem to be driven by constant principles. 😁

Quote : Weekend Warrior

My character isn't the point; what matters is that philosophy and spirituality simply don't go together.

Those good old forum days. 🧐 We used to have a combined "Religion and Philosophy" subforum, but we eventually realized that those two subjects don't really mix well, so we decided to split them into separate sections. Later on, the "free thinkers" requested their own space to distance themselves from the traditionalists in "Religion" to avoid constant arguments, which led to the creation of the "Spirituality" subforum.

While there might be a limited number of users on each individual subforum, merging them together simply doesn't make sense. No one actually wants that.

Beyond that, the forum as a whole struggles with moderation issues. There have been times when the Religion section goes unmonitored for days, leading to absolute chaos. It would be truly unfair to burden the few moderators who actually still want to do their jobs with even more work.

Somied was an active community member and moderator until he took on "Philosophy," but that eventually became too much of a drag for him, leading to his departure. Are you all aware of the impact your actions have on people? 😁

Beljkija got burned out pretty quickly after that, too. Honestly, we really ought to appreciate that one moderator who handled philosophy for like seven, eight, maybe nine years—I can't remember exactly—without any drama at all. I wonder if he’d ever be down to step back into those roles? 🤔