Reading Log
January 30, 2023
This is a log of articles and books I’m reading, podcasts I’m listening to, conversations I’m having, and movies I’ve seen in reverse chronological order. But I’m calling it a reading log for short. I’m keeping it at a fairly granular level, so I can refer to it later, but not exhaustive, so I don’t get sick of doing it.
Legend:
- R means “Recommendation,” and I’ll link to it if it was made in public.
- SEP Is the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
2023
January
30th
- Nietzsche, Ecce Homo
- Sivers, Hell Yeah or No
- Old Testament: Exodus, Psalms, Proverbs. Mainly reading this to see how Jaynes’ theory lines up.
- New Testament: Matthew.
29th
- Pierre Briant, Alexander the Great and His Empire
- Schopenhauer, WWR1/2
27th
- Hume, Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748)
16th
- Michel de Montaigne, Essais, “Apology for Raymond Sebond”
15th
- The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Scepticism, ed. Richard Bett, chapter 2: “Pyrrho and early Pyrrhonism” by Svavar Harfn Svavarsson
- The always excellent Historiansplaining podcast: Myth of the Month 21
14th
- Schopenhauer, more WWR1/2
- By the Sea for my book club
- Trying out a new podcast: Thresholds
13th
- Clendinnen: Aztecs: An Interpretation, Part I: “The City”
- John Berger, Steps Towards a Small Theory of the Visible
5th
- Bible
- Analog Sea Review, section from Zweig’s World of Yesterday
4th
- Started reading the Bible, NRSV: Genesis, Proverbs, Psalms, Matthew
- The Analog Sea Review: Number Three by Jonathan Simons
- The Oxford Book of Twentieth Century English Verse: I’m thinking of just recording readings of all these poems. Hardy today.
- John Erskine: “The moral obligation to be intelligent” (1915): Interesting argument for the English origin for the American distrust of intelligence.
- Podcast: In Our Time, Peter Kropotkin
- Heart Sutra History - Tricycle: The Buddhist Review
- The Expanding Dark Forest and Generative AI
- Podcast: Very Bad Wizards Episode 251: First Order, Then Chaos
3rd
- Schopenhauer
- Sextus Empiricus, Outlines of Scepticism (~190, trans. Annas/Barnes 2000)
- Why We Won’t Ever Arrive at Truth – Erraticus: Agree that James is not a monist
- Navigating your Personal Odyssey
2nd
- Rethinking the European Conquest of Native Americans - The Atlantic
- Finished Beckwith, Greek Buddha (2014)! Fantastic stuff.
1st
Still reading Schopenhauer WWR vol I and II simultaneously (since the second volume comments on the first, though I didn’t know that when I started them!).
- Schopenhauer, WWR I, trans. E.F.J. Payne, §15, on perception and knowledge
- Schopenhauer, WWR II, trans. E.F.J. Payne, chapter VII: “On the Relation of Knowledge of Perception to Abstract Knowledge”
2022
December
29th
28th
20th
- Ñāṇavīra Thera: Nāma - Ñāṇavīra Thera Dhamma Page
18th
- Sextus Empiricus, Outlines of Scepticism (~190, trans. Annas/Barnes 2000)
- Carol E. Cleland, “Methodological and Epistemic Differences between Historical Science and Experimental Science,” (2002) PDF: Excellent paper on two types of reasoning (both used in both types of science, but with different emphases).
17th
- Ñāṇavīra Thera: A Note on Paṭiccasamuppāda: Fantastic but difficult piece on dependent origination
14th
- Wikipedia: Pre-sectarian Buddhism
11th
- Madhupindika Sutta: The Ball of Honey
- MN 126 Bhūmija Sutta | To Bhūmija
- SA 300: 他—Choong Mun-keat
- Deciding Without Delusional Thinking | by Douglas C. Bates | Medium: on the meaning of Logos in Pyrrhonism
10th
9th
- A Note on Paṭiccasamuppāda - Ñāṇavīra Thera Dhamma Page: Dense but good
- Pre-sectarian Buddhism - Wikipedia: Excellent primer to the debate about whether we can ever construct anything roughly like what the Buddha thought. This matters, as it may explain later divisions in Buddhism.
- Philosophy of Zettelkasten: What is the Ghost in the Box? • Zettelkasten Method
- Very Bad Wizards Episode 250: Metaphors All the Way Down
- A bunch of suttas on dependent origination
- SN 12:46 Aññatara Sutta | A Certain Brahman
- SN 12:17 Acela Sutta | To the Clothless Ascetic
- SN 12:67 Naḷakalāpiyo Sutta | Sheaves of Reeds
- MN 38: Mahātaṇhāsaṅkhayasutta—Bhikkhu Sujato: The Longer Discourse on the Ending of Craving
8th
- Abelard’s Philosophical Works: Editions, Translations
- Oldest Known DNA Offers Glimpse of a Once-Lush Arctic - The New York Times
- Very Bad Wizards Episode 249: Phlegm and Carelessness (Hume’s “The Sceptic”): Good episode but would have been nice to hear more about Pyrrhonism.
7th
- I released a podcast: Film, beauty, and iridescence, in which I discuss Powell and Pressburger, Wings of Desire, War & Peace, beauty, and iridescence with a friend of mine
- Sextus Empiricus, Outlines of Scepticism (~190, trans. Annas/Barnes 2000)
- Abelard: Logic, Semantics and Ontology
- History of Philosophy without any gaps: Parmenides
- History of Philosophy without any gaps: Zeno and Melissus
6th
5th
- Sextus Empiricus, Outlines of Scepticism (~190, trans. Annas/Barnes 2000), p20–32: “Things which we think shameful when sober do not appear shameful to us when we are drunk.”
4th
- Schopenhauer, WWR II, trans. E.F.J. Payne, chapter VI: “On the Doctrine of Abstract Knowledge, or Knowledge of Reason”
- History of Philosophy without any Gaps podcast: Zeno
- What Hollywood’s Ultimate Oral History Reveals
- Brain Science with Ginger Campbell: Neuroscience for Everyone: Evan Thompson: Is Meditation a “mind science?”
3rd
- Schopenhauer, WWR I, trans. E.F.J. Payne, §14
- History of Philosophy without any Gaps podcast: Parmenides
- Gary Snyder: What is anarchism all about?
- Buddhist anarchism
- Siderits: Buddha
- Kropotkin: Conquest of Bread, chapter 3: “Anarchist Communism”
2nd
- Sextus Empiricus, Outlines of Scepticism (~190, trans. Annas/Barnes 2000), p16–20: dogs are more rational than humans, he argues. Dunks on Stoics.
- History of Philosophy without any Gaps podcast: MM McCabe on Heraclitus
- Clendinnen: Aztecs: An Interpretation, Part I: “The City”
1st
- Sextus Empiricus, Outlines of Scepticism (~190, trans. Annas/Barnes 2000): FANTASTIC.
Is this the first FAQ in history?See this for earlier FAQs - An Epitome of Pyrrhonism: good overview of Pyrrhonism
- Pyrrhonism in a Nutshell: even shorter overview of Pyrrhonism
- Review: Pyrrhonism: How the Ancient Greeks Reinvented Buddhism: critical but positive review of Kuzminski’s book
- The Fire of Life: Rorty on poetry vs philosophy
- How to think about truth: reasonable overview of the mainstream positions but with a lot of implicit assumptions
November
30th
- Nietzsche, “On the Concept of the Organic Since Kant” (1868) PDF
- The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge
- Matthew Neale, review of Greek Buddha (2015) PDF
- History of Philosophy without any Gaps podcast: Heraclitus
29th
- I appeared on a podcast! Growing up with Delia Burgess #20. We mainly discuss the article I wrote on Dependent Origination
- History of Philosophy without any Gaps podcast: Pythagoras
- SEP: Sextus Empiricus
- R: Tolstoy: Letter to a Chinese Gentleman
- R: Inclining the Mind toward “Sudden Illumination”
- SEP: Sextus Empiricus
- Beckwith, Greek Buddha (2014)
28th
- History of Philosophy without any Gaps podcast:
- SEP: Sextus Empiricus
- Schopenhauer, WWR II, trans. E.F.J. Payne, chapter VI: “On the Doctrine of Abstract Knowledge, or Knowledge of Reason”
- Varela et al, The Embodied Mind, Chapter 6, “Selfless Minds,” on Dependent Origination
27th
- I appeared on a podcast! Modern Golden Age #16; video here
- Dīgha Nikāya 9
- Saṁyutta Nikāya 1:25
- “From Sensation to Cognition,” Mesulam (1998) PDF
I'm Bryan Kam. I'm thinking about complexity and selfhood. Please sign up to my newsletter, follow me on Mastodon, or see more here.