Good Books

[Common Sense]

I thought I'd post a list of philosophical/religious books that have had something of an impace on me. I'd like to see a list of some of yours, as well.

Augustine. Confessions, City of God, The Teacher. Frankly, anything by Augustine is great.

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. Emile. It's a book on pedagogy and the philosophy of education. A welcome change from his more political writings.

Wittgenstein, Ludwig. Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, Philosophical Investigations. Probably the two most important books in 20th century philosophy.

Kant, Immanuel. Critique of Pure Reason. Classic.

Helmholtz, Hermann von. Physiological Optics.

Berkeley, George. New Theory of Vision.

Goethe, Johann. Remarks on Colour.

James, William. Anything by William James is excellent. Same goes for John Dewey.

Tolstoi, Leo. The Kingdom of God is Within You.

Books that should never be read under any circumstance. If you own any of these books, they are to be used either as toilet paper or kindling:

Anything by Ayn Rand.

Anything by Richard Dawkins.

All short-sighted, narrow-minded, and uttlerly uninspired.

[hippie_chick666]

I enjoy reading anything by Bertrand Russell, Lama Surya Das, Thich Nhat Han, and HH the Dalai Lama.

Peace and love

[SvgGrdnBeauty]

Not counting scriptures:


Autobiography of a Yogi- Paramahansa Yogananda (and any book by him)

Pilgrim of the Stars- Dilip Kumar Roy, Ma Indira Devi

The Prophet- Kahlil Gibran (and any books by him)

Essays and Poems- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Siddhartha- Herman Hesse

Leaves of Grass- Walt Whitman

...to name a few. :)

[Iconoclast]

I'll second the recomendation for Bertrand Russell.

I'd add most of anything from Erich Fromm and JL Mackie's "Ethics" (his theory isn't wonderful, but his critique of other theories is very good).

[Maryslittlebrat]

Nagarjuna- Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way

[BlackBillBlake]

Post Modernist/Post structuralist works by Foucault, Bruilliard, Lyotard etc.


Esp Foucault's 'History of Sexuality'.

BTW - I disagree about Dawkins - His works are actually quite interesting.

[Brother Joseph]

I'll say ditto on Ayn Rand...TP or fireplace is best use.


Siddhartha and Yogananda's Autobigraphy are at the top of my nonscriptural ref list.

[mandell]

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Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism: Selected from
The Transmission of the Lamp by Shi Tao-yuan