August 2008
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Archives for the 'Books' Category

Insomnia Thought #2

Plato’s republic compares five types of government: Philosophic, Aristocracy, Oligarchy, Democracy and Tyranny. He also places them in that order, best to worst.
Democracy may seem to have done poorly, but he is talking about what we would probably term Anarchy.
The kicker of the book is that he is not exactly writing exclusively about the government […]

9 May 2008 | Books, Wisdom | No Comments

The Origin of the World

A double feature today. Two versions of the nature of the universe, and how everything works. Lucretius’ “On the Nature of the Universe” was written around 50-100BC by a Roman Epicurean. Lucretius was an atomist, which means that he believed that all matter was composed of a bunch of unseen atoms that, while they have […]

10 March 2008 | Books | No Comments

Marius the Epicurian

The introduction to this book states that it is the best novel ever written in the English language. With an endorsement like that I had to buy it. It was written in Victorian times and so the language is quite complex. Initially I thought that it would be unreadable for me, but with some persistence […]

31 January 2008 | Books | No Comments

The Last Days of Socrates

I seem to be in a rut with the Plato books, but here is another. The Last Days of Socrates has several dialogs starting with Socrates defending himself against a charge of corrupting the youth of Athens and for being an atheist. He describes how the Oracle of Delphi proclaimed him to be the wisest […]

3 December 2007 | Books | Comments Off

Cicero

Another book from my favorite bookstore, McLeod’s Books, on Pender St., a couple/few blocks east of Granville. I can’t even remember the cross street, but this is a great book store. I buy these little penguin classics for ~$3. What a bargain! Its hard to imagine such a bargain as $3 for some of the […]

26 November 2007 | Books | No Comments