Books

Summary Split into six separate meditations, Descartes seeks to discard everything uncertain and rebuild philosophy from first principles. His chief goal is to demonstrate that the existence of God can be made evident and irrefutable by philosophy alone. This, in turn, suggests that the mind is the only ingredient required to discover God. Thoughts As often happens in life, the thing we set out to do bears little resemblance to what is actually done. Intended as a work of apologetics, it is Descartes’ doubt that would forever be remembered. The prevailing school of thought at the time was one of certainty in the senses. Descartes’ success lay in his ability to cast doubt on the reliability of the senses because they can often be tricked. For example, we trust our senses while dreaming, yet discard their reality upon awakening. I personally have also had dreams where I wake up, and yet, in reality, am still dreaming. The film “The Matrix” plays with this idea of a curated reality designed explicitly to trick the experiencer into a “false” experience. Accepting this possibility, what then can we know? This question produces his famous statement, “I think, therefore I am.” If one imagines reality to be the most extreme version of untruth, where everything we experience is a trick, one thing remains true: it is the “I” that is being deceived. Descartes then takes this as his foundation for the rest of his arguments, which are, unfortunately, less convincing. Another valuable insight is his distinction between “clear” and “confused” ideas, or more clearly, ideas that can be confused and those that cannot. For example, consider a square. It is impossible to think of a square without the geometrical properties that designate it as a two-dimensional shape. On the other hand, if you imagine any “real” object like an electron, lamp, or airplane, there will be something lacking in your idea of the thing and the thing itself. One can approach the real, but in the end, the real cannot be entirely captured by the mind. I hear criticisms of Descartes more than of almost any other philosopher. In most professions, that would be considered a bad thing, but in philosophy, it means that you are difficult to discard. While the last few meditations can easily be disregarded, the first few will persist as long as writing does. They represent a clear illustration of the correct philosophical approach to ideas: a mind that interrogates, doubts, believes, and entertains. ...

“Benjamin Franklin is the founding father who winks at us…” When we think of Benjamin Franklin today, we picture a Santa Claus character with a touch of mania. We see him flying a kite in a thunderstorm, or perhaps we see him behind a desk penning some of Poor Richard’s famous one-liners like “a cat in gloves catches no mice”. Franklin was indeed often conducting unique experiments, and his witty sayings were legendary, but Isaacson wants to show us the Franklin that has been forgotten. He was the only founding father to have signed and helped create four of the major documents of the American Revolution. His ability to strike a balance between idealism and realism along with his aversion to extremism made him the exact character required to stitch together thirteen disparate colonies into a single country. ...

Summary Socrates has just been charged with impiety and is preparing for his trial, which will ultimately lead to his execution. He encounters Euthyphro, one of the few people in Greece whom Socrates has not yet alienated. Socrates quickly remedies this oversight. Euthyphro is on his way to court to accuse his own father of murder. His father had owned a slave who murdered another slave, and in response, Euthyphro’s father ordered the guilty slave to be bound and thrown into a ditch while he sent messengers to officials to determine the appropriate legal action. Before the messengers returned, the slave died from exposure. According to Athenian law, murder charges are typically allowed only by relatives of the victim. This accusation would have been considered highly impious by Euthyphro’s society; therefore, he must be highly confident in his understanding of “goodness” and his ability to convince a court of his definition. Socrates, himself about to be tried, uses his circumstances as a casus belli to challenge Euthyphro’s confidence. Socrates initially asks Euthyphro a simple question: “What is goodness?” Euthyphro responds that it is to do what God has ordered, as that is pleasing to God. Through dialogue, this definition is shown to have hidden assumptions, which leads Socrates to pose another seemingly innocent question that creates a truly thought-provoking dilemma for those inclined to ponder it: “Is the good loved by the gods because it is good, or is it good because it is loved by the gods?” ...

Summary Towards the end of Franklin’s life, he decided to write down an account of his life, ostensibly for the edification of his son. His authorship was briefly interrupted by his involvement in the Revolutionary War, and unfortunately, it appears he wasn’t able to finish it before dying in 1790. We are left with a brief account of his family history and selected anecdotes from his life, all the way up to around 10 years before the Declaration of Independence was signed. ...

Summary The gospel of philosophy according to Bertrand Russell begins at the dawn of historical records. In the beginning were the Pre-Socratics, who said many things. Then came the Platonists, who said fewer things, only to be surpassed by the Aristotelians, who said even less. When we arrive at the Middle Ages, folks were saying very little indeed. In the Dark Ages, a silence had broken out; it continued for quite some time, but alas, this state of affairs could not continue. Sooner or later, someone would start talking again. Literally crawling out of an oven, René Descartes presented a freshly baked philosophy to the world, which started the conversation again, and people haven’t stopped talking since. ...

Summary The moon has exploded, no one knows who done it, but scientists quickly figure out that it will spell the end of the world in approximately two years. Thoughts The first half of this book was nearly flawless. Positioned as a hyper realistic sci-fi similar to books like ‘Martian’, it faithfully, to a layman at least, describes what the experience would be like for people trying to survive in what could be described as a slightly improved international space station. The major thing that stuck out to me from the book was just how easy it was to sympathize with the characters’ predicament. This was in part a product of exemplary writing, but there was also something more. Something hauntingly familiar about the way the explosion of the moon occurred. I could easily imagine the way the story would propagate across our information superhighways. The neuronal synapses it would causes to fire, the horror, but also the detachment that would follow. This fictional series of events felt all too familiar for reasons that are difficult to explain. ...

Summary The first in a series of seven books, ‘Swann’s Way’ opens with reflections by a narrator on some of his earliest memories, one of which involves being visited by a man named Charles Swann. After a period of reflection, we begin to follow Swann, a man of society, as he eventually falls in love with a former courtesan named Odette de Crécy. The rest of the book chronicles the rise and fall of their relationship. ...

Summary Antoine Roquentin, an isolated aspiring biographer, inhabits Bouville (mud town) like a ghost. “Nausea” by Sartre is not so much a story as it is an attempt to let the reader have an experience. Roquentin’s alienation provides the space to observe, producing the typical results of social critique. Yet, he goes beyond this to grapple with the existence of things in general. Thoughts This book will have a very hit-or-miss reception among readers. It can be easily dismissed as another case of a melancholic Frenchman who needs to spend more time in the sun. When I picture Antoine, he is quite pale, so those readers would probably be correct. However, for my friends who don’t know when to stop asking questions, this book will give you a few more. ...

Summary Sapolsky is a biologist specializing in neurology. Ever since he was a child, he has been obsessed with primates, so shortly after graduating from Harvard, he travels to Kenya to begin his studies on a troop of baboons. His study focused on the effect that stress has on the development and overall well-being of a physical system and eventually spanned around 25 years, where he would spend four months in the field and the rest of the year analyzing his findings in the States. The book is separated into sections that align his own maturity with those of the baboons, such as adolescent, young adult, etc. With this handy narrative device, the reader is able to witness the maturation of the author simultaneously with his subjects. ...

Summary Written in 1844, Max Stirner aimed to stir-ner the pot. While teaching at a school for girls by day, he was a revolutionary writer by night. His publication of “The Ego and Its Own” necessitated his resignation from teaching, but earned him a spot among influential German thinkers. As a young man, Stirner attended lectures by Hegel before joining the ‘Young Hegelians’, a group that included Marx and Engels but eventually imploded due to disagreements - a common issue among philosophers. In “The Ego and Its Own”, Stirner seeks to open the reader’s eyes to the world’s workings. He argues that we are born into a body limited by materialistic constraints - we can’t fly, we need to eat, we must stay warm, etc. However, as we mature, we discover a limitless internal mind. This internal world, unbeknownst to us, has been populated with “spooks” or “ghosts” by society, religion, parents, etc. Since we are unaware of the origins of these ideas, we feel they are inviolable and real. Stirner aims to demonstrate that these are not real (in the sense of natural laws) and that surrendering our autonomy to these ideas is a mistake. He argues that all our ideals are egoists, working only for their advancement. Stirner poses the question: why work for another egoist when you can act independently? Beyond this, he suggests that human behavior, when examined, is ultimately driven by egotism. For example, why did person A donate to an orphanage? If you probe deeply enough, it appears that actions are motivated by perceived personal benefit. Stirner posits that there are only two ways to live: either as a conscious egoist or as one who believes they aren’t. Recognizing one’s egoism, according to Stirner, allows a person to cast off any “spook” or ideal like humanity, nation-states, etc., as soon as it no longer serves the individual. He argues that we are more than concepts and should not submit to them when they cease to serve us. Unlike Ayn Rand, he does not elaborate on what this approach might entail in practice. ...