Logical Positivism and Analytic Philosophy

So, I've studied John Locke pretty closely, David Hume was sort of always floating there in the background in summaries and glosses, and I'm pretty interested in (re)-reading Anarchy, State, and Utopia by Nozick and Ludwig Wittgenstein's tractatus. Wittgenstien's work left a huge impression on me, although I barely got half way through his "philosophical investigations". Strauss I can already tell is kind of a waffler so I'm probably not going to read him. Also: fuck Ayn Rand in her sandpaper cunt.

Anyone here have any experience with these guys? Where should I go next?

 

I know very little about philosophy, but the idea of Positivism seems something that comes up in composition theory because language is directly connected to how we convey and view the world. This is probably a stretch, but comp theory might overlap some of this. Dunno if that helps.

 

This is a different direction - I got a lot out of reading Fritz Perls' studies of Gestalt Therapy. He's big on awareness and personal responsibility - two things I still work on today.

 

Yeah I am vaguely familiar with that from AP Psych. I'll check it out, since it was an appealing idea to me at the time. Then again, a lot of them were.

 

<span style='font-size: 26pt'>HARD DETERMINISM</span>

Fuck John Locke with a bag of stolen dicks. "Daaaah, things have qualities!"

Descartes is good if you want a laugh:

"We have a concept of infinity therefore god exists!!!" Dualists FTL.

 

Descartes is more about the idea that something that is finite can not exist unless there is something that is infinite from which it came from.

 

I know, and it's shitty argument, and he sure as hell doesn't back it up in his meditations.

 

science?

 

Descartes goes out on a limb with no evidence. The only thing he does is attribute everything to "god."


Consider what Frank Zappa said about that (I'm with him).

 

right and I didn't

read more closely

 

Descartes' main legacy is his method, not what he wanted to prove with it or how he himself applied it. He practically invented philosophy as it is today, but I was almost rolling on the floor when reading that his proof that reality existed was because God existed.

Its easy to laugh with the benefit of hindsight, the man hadn't the huge library of historical work to go from we have today. He was also born into a world with very limited thought patterns. Freedom of thought and speech were only just being instated (for which I will praise my own little country no end).

Need a laugh? Read Schopenhauer's On Women.
That piece is utterly hilarious.

Emx:
This statement is a lie?

 

Maybe I need to edit more...I'm not making an affirmative response to the question of whether or not god exists, and don't see myself doing so in the future. I will probably revisit the stuff I've written in the past 6 months or so after I have time to live/enjoy life instead of just internetting it up all day, heh.