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Books you were forced to read at college or uni that make more sense now

Started by EddyWhore, July 31, 2007, 12:34:07 AM

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EddyWhore

I studied philosophy for A Level and was fucking terrible at it - I couldn't get my head round most of the books we had to read except for any concerning philosophy ofreligion ( I went to a catholic school so was familiar with the arguments beforehand).  I just recently found my copy of Sartre's "Existentialism & Humanism" and decided to read it again, having locked it away in the cupboard after my exams 7 years ago. 
From reading the annotations in the margin I realised how clueless I had been over a relatively simple philosophical text - Sartre practically holds your hand all the way through the book and its very clear what his overall message is: Morality is subjective to each individual and any given situation, every man is accountable for his own course in life, there is no such thing as fate and the choices we make determine what kind of person we are perceived as.

Has anybody else re-read a book they had to study to death at school, college or uni and realised they'd completely missed the point?

wasp_f15ting

I was a right little shitbag at high school. I used to pretend, I hated "lord of the flies" in front of the teacher, but I read it 3 times before I wrote my essay on it for my GCSE. But my final two years of High School were spent in a comprehensive, where analysis of literature made you a poof, let alone liking it. The bitch of a teacher used to grill me each time in class, knowing I liked the text, but I used to pretend that I didn't "Err dunno miss its shit, who wants to read anyway."  I am glad I didn't have to explain my A* to the knobs I went to school with.

I think education basically depends on how you like your lecturer; I had an awesome philosophy lecturer who gave me his copies of various annotated books. I ended up doing really shit in my first year, but in the second year I read his annotations and his own articles and got a nice 1st. Lecturers and teachers have the power to inspire so much in you.  I used to be a socialist before joining university, this philosophy lecturer was socialist and his awesome insight and power of belief in socialism turned me realist. 

In political philosophy, I hated reading Popper. Popper was poo-pooing many ideas I was very happy with. Reading him really turned me against new labour and modern politics. I need to read him again I think, without the intense rage my lecturers had against him. 

heavy-leccy

Plato's Republic.

I don't agree with all of it, but did you try and read it when you had no knowledge of philosophy whatever? Mind you there's only a couple of years difference. What I'm saying is that it's more comprehensive now.

Borboski

Quote from: wasp_f15ting on July 31, 2007, 01:00:01 AM


In political philosophy, I hated reading Popper. Popper was poo-pooing many ideas I was very happy with. Reading him really turned me against new labour and modern politics. I need to read him again I think, without the intense rage my lecturers had against him. 


Why did you and the socialists hate him so much?  That's him in my pic, there, you know.

EddyWhore

Quote from: heavy-leccy on July 31, 2007, 04:44:56 PM
Plato's Republic.

I don't agree with all of it, but did you try and read it when you had no knowledge of philosophy whatever? Mind you there's only a couple of years difference. What I'm saying is that it's more comprehensive now.


I liked Republic - we had to study his similes of the ship, the caged animal and the cave.  I remember thinking that if the ancient greeks had politicians so sussed why do we still have morons in charge of the world?  I have come to realise that said morons have utilised political philosophy as an instruction manual for voter manipulation.
I didn't like Plato's Gorgias.  It struck me that Plato thought that Socrates was just the best at arguing ever and if you didn't agree it was because you didn't know how to argue properly.  This bloke walks into your house and just starts going "ahhh, but thats not what you said, you don't understand what truth and beauty are", twists your whole argument out of shape and then shows you just how clever he is.  I think they had a secret party that Socrates wasn't invited to the night he drunk the hemlock.