Hello, firstly id like to ay how interesting this forum is, i can feel my mind slowly expanding the more i read! ,

now,

im am on a search for books/writings/poetry/authors, who write about life/people/society in a Philosophical/analytical mannor. Hopefully not through rose tinted glasses, so a negative outlook would be great , the books that i come across all 'explain philosophy' but i would like some poetry to read or books with a philosophical/analytical style to them, talking on life/people in general

can you good people suggest some authors, or types of books that i should be looking for? . i search in google ' philosophy books' and they all seem tos sort be educational. Im sure their must be famous poets/writers that write on life from a negative viewpoint. sorry to be so negative , i just find this sort of thing interesting.

i may not be talking about Philosophy altogether, perhaps just creative writings or thought provoking writings on us!

i am new to this sort of thing as you can probably tell. So i cant really explain what i mean to well. sorry, i hope someone gets the jist of what im trying to say.

any poets/authors to check out would be great.

Thanks in advance,

Sam .

---------- Post added 07-03-2009 at 10:55 AM ----------

or even just a few books to check out, with a dark analytical view on life... dont worry , im not a goth or emo haha. im trying to write thi sort of thing my self, and would like to see other similar writings.

Robert Lowell and T. S. Eliot, set some good peotry, I would like to consider Edward Said a philosopher, though mostly. he would believe he simply mitigated why others were afraid, to accept the truth. There are numerous Greek classics of which I am sure you have heard there names, simply google Greek classical writers and they will appear.

You may wish to wait for the attention of others, who may recomend a more modern approach or advice about fields of philosophy. A certain field may grab your attention.

Sophie's World by Jostein Gaardner covers alot of ground in a lot of things including philosphy and has a pretty weird story woven into it aswell.
Notes on the Underground by F.M. Dostoevsky is pretty dark. I enjoyed both.

In most great poetry there is some philosophy lurking in the rhythms and rimes, as with most great novels, for that matter. Often the philosophic themes or positions are implicit or if explicit are extremely veiled.

Confining myself to recent writers, I would suggest Camus, Sartre, and Hesse. The first two are philosophers in their own right that have used literature to illustrate their philosophy. In all three, philosophical ideas play throughout their literary works in a very pleasing way.
Regards,
John

I should suggest, now that I think about it, the poetry of Tennyson (Maud, Idylls of the King) and of course our own Whitman and Robert Frost, although you have probably read them already.

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Welcome Ethix! My recommendation would be Walter Russell. That link is to a book we've placed online as an introduction however, the best is the Home Study Course which deals with the philosophy of humankind so it's a bit off the traditional and historical philosophy but can be some of the most enlightening and profitable reading one can read. Walter Russell was a poet, musician, artist, scuplter, philosopher, scientist and a general master of the arts and sciences and gained the respect of Nikola Tesla. There's a lot of reading of various articles from his books on that site but the Man Who Tapped the Secrets of the Universe is a great introduction to let you know if you want to read more of his stuff.

Great having you on the forum and hope some of this has helped.

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"By a divine paradox, wherever there is one slave there are two. So in the wonderful reciprocities of being, we can never reach the higher levels until all our fellows ascend with us." - Edwin Markham

well , thankyou all for your replys. i will look in to all writers tonight and over the weekend and see if i like what i read. and this should open doors to similar writers. i didnt expect so many replys, thankyou all again.

I would suggest Albert Schweitzer’s writings on the reverence for life in “Philosophy of Culture.” Albert Schweitzer was an early 20th century theologian, accomplished musician, author, and medical doctor. Raised by devout parents, Albert completed his theological studies and was quite accomplished in this regard, publishing several books which are still held in very high reference among academic theologians (like Quest for Historical Jesus) But it seems like he was a jack of every trade, being proficient in music as well and also became a very apt medical doctor. Around 1913, Albert established a hospital at Lambaréné in French Equatorial Africa. During his time (and brief incarceration for being German during WWI) in Africa, he helped the small community (and the wider expansive territory of people who traveled to seek treatment from him) of Lambaréné. For his work, he received numerous awards such as the Goethe Prize of Frankfurt and the Nobel Peace Prize.


But besides the extraordinary achievements of the man himself, he also developed a very beautiful and philosophically complex theory on complex universal ethics, namely in his book series “Philosophy of Culture: The World View of Reverence for Life.” “Reverence for life” essentially says that that there is a constant will to live which is innate within us. This notion binds everything together, from ants to humans. Life is what binds all of us together within the sphere of an intense will to live. But because we are human (the only creature to be aware of this awesome truth), and we understand that some things in life, such as killing a cow to eat it or pulling up a plant to devour it, are inevitable as part of our will to live. We take careful responsibility for every bite we eat and so on because those things too had a will to live and we know full well the repercussions for obtaining our own sustenance and also maintaining a reverence for life. Here is a wonderful excerpt I found detailing how Albert discovered his own reverence for life;

To be honest, this is perhaps one of my earliest exposures to philosophy so many years ago. There was this series called The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles that came on TV during the early 90’s. I… loved…this… series. You can actually buy the series in stores (or download it). It was for kids and adults, but they explored all sorts of historical stuff, like WWI, Archeology in Egypt, intellectual history in Greece, etc. But one of the episodes (Congo, January 1917: Oganga, the giver and taker of life) featured Albert Schweitzer. It was fantastic, speaking from the perspective of a kid who barely knew anything about philosophy. Come to think of it, the whole thing may actually be on youtube.

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"With prudence the philosopher approves or blames. If errors triumph, he departs and waits"- Pythagoras (F.13 GVP 174)

Douglas Noel Adams wrote some great books (if not many nor long) filled with a overall negative (his best series of books start with earth exploding) and humorous view of life. Special attention to the "Hitch Hiker's guide to the galaxy", his best series of books.

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Yes these books are absolutely great, I highly recommend them.

I think you should not miss reading, "Language, Truth, and Logic" by A. J. Ayer. His opening sentence in the book is something you should find intriguing: It is,

THE traditional disputes of philosophers are as unwarranted as they are unfruitful. The surest way to end them is to establish beyond question the purpose and method of philosophical enquiry. This is not necessarily a difficult task.