Libraries...

[scottmandue]

Our town (San Pedro) remodeled our library... I hate it (but I get free wifi there!)
I have moved to using a Kindle (kicking and screaming) only because our house is overflowing with books.
However I have backtracked to ordering the occasional book... I have discovered (to my peril) Amazon has a 'buy used' option... if I can find a hard copy at a significant lower price I will drop the hammer.

Useless knowledge? (disclaimer, I love ancient philosophy)
Socrates
Plato
Aristotle
Pascal
Voltaire
and so on....

[JD159]

Originally Posted by scottmandue

Useless knowledge? (disclaimer, I love ancient philosophy)
Socrates
Plato
Aristotle
Pascal
Voltaire
and so on....

Well you can expect a philosophy major to chime in about this one.

The very first essay I wrote in University was on Socrates and his argument for the immortality of the soul. Incredibly interesting. I studied philosophy because I felt that it might help me find some objective conclusions about the universe, so when I began reading one of the greatest philosophers and his argument for an immortal soul, I thought this stuff must be gold! It has to be true!

Well the soul may or not be immortal, and his argument may or not be true. HOWEVER. As I wrote the essay I had to outline and understand his argument and the argument flow. Fully comprehending his work to clearly outline step by step how he arrived at his conclusion was a mind opening experience. That is when I really started to love philosophy. It wasn't asking and debating the universal metaphysical questions that I'll probably never have an answer to (which is still great fun), but comprehending and explaining a philosophers argument. It truly is one of the greatest mental exercises and skills one can perform, IMO, and will grant you a set of useful and transferable skills that are very applicable. But to make use of these skills in the real world, you need books that will grant you "knowledge".

Philosophy as useless knowledge? Yup. But with those kinds of works, it is the mental exercise that you gain.

Hell, you could easily add Dostoyevsky to that last.

[rfloz]

Originally Posted by JD159

The very first essay I wrote in University was on Socrates and his argument for the immortality of the soul. Incredibly interesting. I studied philosophy because I felt that it might help me find some objective conclusions about the universe, so when I began reading one of the greatest philosophers and his argument for an immortal soul, I thought this stuff must be gold! It has to be true!

Well the soul may or not be immortal, and his argument may or not be true. HOWEVER. As I wrote the essay I had to outline and understand his argument and the argument flow. Fully comprehending his work to clearly outline step by step how he arrived at his conclusion was a mind opening experience. That is when I really started to love philosophy. It wasn't asking and debating the universal metaphysical questions that I'll probably never have an answer to (which is still great fun), but comprehending and explaining a philosophers argument. It truly is one of the greatest mental exercises and skills one can perform, IMO, and will grant you a set of useful and transferable skills that are very applicable. But to make use of these skills in the real world, you need books that will grant you "knowledge".

Philosophy as useless knowledge? Yup. But with those kinds of works, it is the mental exercise that you gain.

And this is why the "Socratic method" is still almost universal in law school.

If you haven't had the opportunity, you owe it to yourself to visit Athens and walk along the very marble paving stones in the agora where Socrates taught. Very humbling.

BTW, if you think philosophy is a useless major, you should try anthropology.

[JD159]

Originally Posted by rfloz

And this is why the "Socratic method" is still almost universal in law school.

If you haven't had the opportunity, you owe it to yourself to visit Athens and walk along the very marble paving stones in the agora where Socrates taught. Very humbling.

BTW, if you think philosophy is a useless major, you should try anthropology.

I took a globalization anthropology course. It taught me the trading habits of the kwakwakwa people and the their magical shells.

Travelling to Athens and doing that has been a dream of mine for a long time. Ancient Greek philosophy was always by far my favourite. Although Chinese philosophy was pretty interesting. Early modern stuff e.g. Spinoza Hume Leibniz never really caught my interest.

[intakexhaust]

Heard in the news that public libraries have a problem controlling porn viewed openly on the PC terminals. Bizarre that they have rows of PC's in the open for all ages of passerby's to view. To use the terminal, one does need to enter their library card so its no secret who's using. Creepy.

Also, I guess libraries are the babysitters for kids afterschool. Working parents tell their kids to safely stay at the library and then later pick them up. Kids gravitate to all the PC's and into net gaming.

[vash]

my best friend since childhood had a funny quirk.

EVERY single time we walk into a library, he would take a sniff of that "book smell" and have to take a dump. it was damn near 100%. we had an old library downtown el paso, my mom would drop us off..we go in..and he scurries off

[scottmandue]

Originally Posted by JD159

Well you can expect a philosophy major to chime in about this one.

Hell, you could easily add Dostoyevsky to that last.

Nikola Tesla... so there!

And I know better than to list the books on religion on my shelf

I actually studied electronics... the library was very helpful along those lines because those kind of technical books get tossed on a shelf and never looked at again... until they get moved to a box and then to the garage... and then donated to goodwil

Los Angeles library: