chrispy Posted July 16, 2014 Posted July 16, 2014 Hey everybody, I've got to the point where I'm listening to FDR on a daily basis. I'm really benefiting from it and as well as enjoying it. My question is, besides Stefan, what other philosophers do you listen to or read? I'm also watching Adam Kokesh. I'd like to have a diverse stream of philosophers to learn from rather than just one source. Thanks!
fractional slacker Posted July 16, 2014 Posted July 16, 2014 It's hard to go from the best, Stefan, to the rest, but variety is sometimes needed. Aside from Kokesh, I like Larken Rose, Christopher Cantwell, the articles on Daily Anarchist.Jason Lewis podcast is also good for a "mainstream" show. He is a miniarchist in name only, his message is that of volunteerism.
NameName Posted July 16, 2014 Posted July 16, 2014 I know this isn't a philospher, but I also reccomend watching Peter Schiff, he is great.
AustinJames Posted July 16, 2014 Posted July 16, 2014 The Mises Institute is a great resource for libertarian philosophy. https://mises.org/ offers thousands of free articles, books, essays, and podcasts. I also enjoy Dan Carlin's Hardcore History Podcast. Though he is not, strictly speaking, a philosopher, he often waxes philosophical in his intimate analysis of historical events. I think it's important for anyone interested in philosophy to delve into the classics, as well. https://librivox.org/ is a great resource for public domain audiobooks. There are works available from the great philosophers, such as Aristotle, Plato, Voltaire, Nietzsche, etc. I like to listen to the audiobook while reading the pdf (found easily with a google search), as I find it improves my retention and comprehension. 2
SamuelS Posted July 16, 2014 Posted July 16, 2014 Voltaire -- Candide or The Optimist was a great read and quite influential in my early exploration of thought.Thanks for sharing that link, AustinJames, that's an amazing resource and sure to keep me busy!
Mr. Roth Posted July 16, 2014 Posted July 16, 2014 Ayn Rand, Ayn Rand, AYN RAND! (Leonard Peikoff) Also Aristotle, Cicero, Epictetus, Aurelius, John Locke. Also have read the rest of the big names but they're only worth something if you want to stay in the cave, or maybe try and become bipolar. The Mises Institute is a great resource for libertarian philosophy. https://mises.org/ offers thousands of free articles, books, essays, and podcasts. I also enjoy Dan Carlin's Hardcore History Podcast. Though he is not, strictly speaking, a philosopher, he often waxes philosophical in his intimate analysis of historical events. I think it's important for anyone interested in philosophy to delve into the classics, as well. https://librivox.org/ is a great resource for public domain audiobooks. There are works available from the great philosophers, such as Aristotle, Plato, Voltaire, Nietzsche, etc. I like to listen to the audiobook while reading the pdf (found easily with a google search), as I find it improves my retention and comprehension. Btw... Great philosophers like Nietzsche? And PLATO?! That's hysterical, but you probably should let people know you're joking, lest they'll end up wasting their precious time or succumb to lunacy. Those guys are more responsible for misery throughout history than perhaps anyone, especially Plato, who also with his insane relativist notions created the Middle Ages, and hindered progress for approx a millenium. 1 1
Clay Posted July 16, 2014 Posted July 16, 2014 I just finished reading Ayn Rand's "The Fountainhead" a couple of weeks ago, which was a really powerful experience for me, and has really encouraged me to work on developing some better work ethic, and to find more creative projects that inspire me. I'm really looking forward to reading Atlas Shrugged in the future, but I'm not in any rush. I plowed through Robert Heinlein's "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" last week, and loved every minute of it. I Had trouble putting it down, at times. One of the best book-reading experiences I've ever had. I read Plato's "The trial and death of socrates" a few months ago, which was captivating, but admittedly, some of the language was hard for me to comprehend on my first try. If nothing else, it was some really gripping drama with some valuable lessons about how to engage in discourse. I wouldn't mind giving this one another shot in the future, as well as delve into the rest of what Plato wrote about Socrates. Aristotle is on my "to read" list, but I'm not really sure what the best place to start is with him. Any recommendations for that would be most welcomed. I'd also like to give another recommendation for Dan Carlin's Hardcore History, as someone already did above. A truly great podcast. Also, Penn Jillettes "Sunday School" podcast is a great one. It's more entertainment than philsophy, but Penn is a great thinker and often goes on really inspired rants about Gods, Governments and Libertarianism.
greekredemption Posted July 16, 2014 Posted July 16, 2014 Lately I've been listening to some podcasts by Alonzo Fyfe. His ideas on desire utilitarianism are pretty fascinating.
mangodrink Posted July 17, 2014 Posted July 17, 2014 Any have any other good philosophy podcasts they listen to? There's quite a few out there, but most of them are trash and unimpressive. Either the host is annoying or he's British. Brutal. The best one I've found outside of FDR is the Partially Examined Life, where it's normally three guys that pick a philosopher for the month and read certain areas of his work and then sort of have a roundtable discussion about it for a couple hours. They really go in depth on these guys(to the point of absurdity sometimes) and they have hit just about every major philosopher you could think of from Aristotle to Ayn Rand. I was not impressed with the Ayn Rand episode because it was obvious they did not respect her and spent the first few minutes making the typical jokes at her expense, but it's worth a listen I guess. Overall each episode I've listened to so far has been entertaining and even valuable, so I'd recommend it.If I was reading them correctly, their next episode will be on Robert Nozik, which could be interesting. Also, they cuss sometimes and that makes me happy.
MrCapitalism Posted July 18, 2014 Posted July 18, 2014 I highly recommend "The Economics and Ethics of Private Property" By Hans Hermann Hoppe. Pretty much anything by Murray Rothbard is going to be awesome. Walter Block's "Defending the Undefendable" Series is a lot of fun.
DrTruthiness Posted July 19, 2014 Posted July 19, 2014 James Allen, followed closely by Ralph Waldo Emerson. They were convinced that morality, ethics, and principle divorced from unthinking dogma was the true light of the human spirit. That thought should be cultivated, nourished with the enlightenment of tracing cause-and-effect, and allowed to bloom through consistent action. Although they both dabbled in concepts of mysticism, their work on the power of mind, the soul-suicide of worry/fear/regret, and what it truly means to be alive are worth reading. Like Stef said in a recent podcast: Isaac Newton had some un-empirical ideas he wrote about, but we don't discount his work on gravity just because we personally disagree with an unrelated idea.
abcqwerty123 Posted July 20, 2014 Posted July 20, 2014 I know people might get angry that I am saying this and that I am like this but... I don't really enjoy watching most other philosophers. I follow Stefan and I do watch a few others as well, but the problem is that aside from Stefan, I always find problems with other philosophers. The philosophers I do follow are: Adam Kokesh Larken Rose Josie Outlaw BraveTheWorld But each one of them has their flaws and none of them will admit to being wrong when they are proven wrong (from what I have seen). What they are wrong on is never usually big stuff and nothing that I can think of off the top of my head, but when I catch one, it gets a little frustrating. So for the most part, I follow Stefan and follow Larken and Josie when they actually post new content, and then with Brave/Adam, I sometimes watch their new stuff if it seems interesting at the time. Aside from that, I really do enjoy figuring things out for myself. I love problem solving and I love being presented with topics by people that I cannot just answer off the top of my head but rather have to think about. I will then go through to find Stefan talk about that topic after I came up with my answer to see if his is similar, and so far they always have been so I feel I am doing something right. Oh, and my other problem with other philosophers is that once you have discovered fact/truth, learning about all these other philosophers just doesn't do it for me because they can't go against the truth Stefan speaks without contradicting themselves and if I want to hear that, I'll walk downstairs and talk to my dad or something. Until I can hear some arguments to what Stefan says that actually make for contradictions and have Stefan not acknowledge it, then I just don't see the point of spending so much time learning about "random" people. And this isn't just about philosophers. This goes for everyone and everything. I don't enjoy wasting time on contradictions.
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