[Puolueeton]

Bah. Huntington is genius.

And about the Red Army, well I wonder why it triggered the biggest panic mass migration in history before it? Because they were handing out to many flowers?

[Rifleman]

Chin Peng. My side of the story.

Irvine Welsh. Ecstasy.

Beirman & Simth. Alemein.

[Apollos]

I invite you to read "The Principle of Relativity" by Stephen Hawking and Albert Einstein

I believe you mistake the nature of the book I'm planning on reading. I am NOT EVEN CLOSE to smart enough to understand the General Theory of Relativity. Not even near it. This book by Koukl is about relativism (i.e. the post-modern notion that truth, particularly moral truth, is relative). I might consider it anyway though, because I hear the General Theory of Relativity is actually quite effective as support for the Kalam Cosmological Argument (which is why Einstein tried to introduce his "fudge factor" into the equations to offset this fact).

[Conservative Libertarian]

Second Contact: Colonization by Harry Turtledove. The continuation of the Worldwar series.

[Apollos]

Conservative Libertarian

GAH, he took my old name

Beware my friend, these people don't understand how that is possible.

[Rhinestone Pseudo-Commie]

BERLIN - The Downfall 1945 by Antony Beevor. Its brilliant.

No shit! Did you read STALINGRAD too? Beevor knows his stuff.

As for now...I'm reading A Year in Pyongyang by Andrew Halloway,
Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare, and Ishmael by Daniel Quinn.

[Kamil]

As an effort to start reading again, here is my list:

Escape from Freedom by Erich Fromm
The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness by Erich Fromm
Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics by Immanuel Kant
The Future of Spacetime

[Apollos]

Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics by Immanuel Kant

As frustrating and contradictory as he can be, Kant is one who knew how to write, I give ya that.

However, Hume was the most artistic of the Nihilist literature. His Treatise on Human Nature was quite stirring (at least the parts I read).

[Lokakyy]

Just went and borrowed some exam books, at least they seem fairly interesting:

Lash, Scott - The End of Organized Capitalism
Barber, Benjamin - Jihad vs. McWorld
and
Held&McGrew - Globalization/Anti-Globalization

The latter being just for fun reader.

[Cyanne]

At the moment, I just got done reading another novel by Emile Zola, The Sins of Father Mouret to be precise. Before that, I cleared through about four short novels by Par Lagerkvist. Right now I am either going to re-read Envy by Yuri Olesha, or begin The Man Without Qualities by Robert Musil.

Cyanne

[Ombrageux]

Bah. Huntington is genius.

Why? Because he knows how to make generalizations based on a few isolated conflicts? Or his ability to ignore any intracivilizational conflicts which are easily as common as intercivilizational ones?

Any criticism he blocks with his it's-just-a-really-generalized-pseudo-paradigm shield®. I'm less and less impressed with him the more I read. Certain good points, but no more.

[Clann]

How closely does the Last of the Mohicans film measure up to the book? I love the film.

[Lokakyy]

I think the problem with both Fukuyama (who was of course completely wrong with his theory put forth in The End of History) and Huntington is that they tried to formulate all-encompassing theories that require such simplifications and generalisations that they render them virtually useless.

It is of course very ambitious to try to cover the whole system and future of the world within 400 - 600 pages (I don't remember exactly how many Huntingtons Clash of Civilization had) but hardly sounds very realistic.

[Kamil]

owever, Hume was the most artistic of the Nihilist literature.

Nihilist literature? Are you referring to the type of literature that emphasizes the objectively meaningless nature of life and the insignificance of man?

[Potemkin]

Nihilist literature? Are you referring to the type of literature that emphasizes the objectively meaningless nature of life and the insignificance of man?

I think he was. Which just tells you the extent to which he misunderstands the work of David Hume.

[repr0bate]

Sin City #3

[Kamil]

I think he was. Which just tells you the extent to which he misunderstands the work of David Hume.

Heh.

[Apollos]

Hume himself may not have been a nihilist, but the logical consequence of his beliefs is similar to nihilism. I put him right in the same chain of thought with the nihilists while he was more of an agnostic.

[Potemkin]

I put him right in the same chain of thought with the nihilists while he was more of an agnostic.

No, David Hume was not an agnostic. Hume was an atheist. I suggest that you go back and read his work again (I'm assuming that you read it a first time).

[Puolueeton]

Why? Because he knows how to make generalizations based on a few isolated conflicts? Or his ability to ignore any intracivilizational conflicts which are easily as common as intercivilizational ones?

Any criticism he blocks with his it's-just-a-really-generalized-pseudo-paradigm shield®. I'm less and less impressed with him the more I read. Certain good points, but no more.

Few isolated conflicts? Dude, just about every conflict in the modern world can be fitted to into the civilizationist paradigm. He doesn't ignore intra-civilizational conflicts, but he predicts or rather according to his paradigm, they should be short and small.

How closely does the Last of the Mohicans film measure up to the book? I love the film.

Well, the plot is rather different; e.g. the two chicks (Cora & Alice) and Duncan and some calvinist don't travell to Monro with the reinforcements, but take a detour, guided by Magua (the Mohawk adopted Huron), who then tries to lead them into an ambush. They are saved by the two Mohicans and hawk-eye. So already it's been quite different. Perhaps even a bit more believable.

Duncan is not portrayed as a jealous prick that is against the Mohicans, but as a brave and capable fellow, if rather clumsy concerning native customs.

The language can also be really annoying, sentences with 15 different clauses can really throw you off-course.