Week 37 book reviews!

Week 37 books that I read and my reviews and commentary. I hope you enjoy reading the summaries and my philosophical journey.

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Peace of Mind by Seneca

Im a Platonist, thus romantic; stoics are a bit too rational and cynical for my taste, but they do offer wisdom. What did I learn from Peace of Mind by Seneca?

Rich and poor are equal when it comes to pain and misery; it's of different forms.

That blessed is the one that has lost it all because he has nothing more to lose; thus, why worry? Yes, Stoics have a bit of British wit hidden in their saying, but the best advice from Seneca was to conserve energy and be frugal. That life best lived is of servitude, giving to others and serving them. There also lies the secret of leadership, to lift others so they can lift you.?

It works oppositely, of course, but then it is not called leadership but something else. Life is not a marathon; the runner dies at the end, and it is not even a sprint, so think carefully about what Seneca said about conserving energy and applying it daily for long life.

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Common Sense by Thomas Paine

The Father of the American Revolution, Thomas Paine, wrote this book, Plain Truth, and then changed to Common Sense. He offers arguments for why the USA should declare independence and be autonomous. My favourite argument was the efficiency of governance, like that to make a decision needed to go by post to the UK in a six months trip and so much for deciding since the UK parliament did not give priority to the colony. Taxed with no right to vote and a lengthy decision-making process is something that anyone could revolt against.

The good point that he makes and is good that my fellow Americans should remember is that he accused the British Monarchy of starting wars to pacify the internal greed for profits and gains. (note that USA foreign policy on the subject changed recently hence is good to wait and see if they will start another war soon)

Now imagine this, from the time of Pericles and Ancient Athenian Democracy, no one dared to give voice and voting power to those that didn't own property.?

Thomas Paine and, by extension, the American dream gave us, the majority, a voice and a right to vote, and he was among if not the first to demand such a right to be granted.?

Of course, they argue a lot about it, the Negros, for example, and women were given that right much later. American Democracy and its founders are the brightest example of democracy after the golden age of Pericles and ancient Athens. Without Paine, the son of the bitch (as Jefferson was calling him),i,e Hamilton and the other founders, the world could have been ruled by a totalitarian system without the right of disobedience when it's needed and is correct.

Never take Democracy for granted; we need to protect it constantly and understand the Kyklos of Polybius and act accordingly.

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"IF by Kipling: A Father's Advice to His Son”

I have never read so much wisdom packed in 4 stanzas, no wonder why Rudyard Kipling won the Nobel prize for literature. Written during the Victorian era of the British empire, it encapsulates all the rational romanticism and ethics of the period.

Kipling was born in India; his symbol, the Swastika, was borrowed from the Indian symbol of Good Luck but then later removed due to misuse by the Nazis.?

Nevertheless, Budha himself could have written the stanzas; the influence of place of birth is visible.

I guess in the poem; one could find the true path to eudemonia; the instructions are clear and precise, perhaps worth memorising. I wonder why this is not taught at schools or given to new parents as the best advice one could give them.

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Treatises on Friendship and Old Age

By Marcus Tullius Cicero

Cicero the Great Roman Orator "wrote'' this book to define Friendship and old age. He added "old age" to the book because of the previous chapters; he almost tells us that friendship cannot last. Hence added what old age looks like for a (hu)man with no real friends. He uses reduction by describing all possible reasons why a friendship could collapse.

?According to Cicero, from envy to growing older and changing opinions to the miserable position of being a politician and therefore cannot have any friends (according to Cicero).

He finds true friendship to derive from loyalty; only then can a friendship last despite the hardships of everyday life. Compared to Platonic Love and the metaphor of the Ladder of Love, Socrates had a different opinion.

Socrates thinks searching for the truth is the virtue that keeps two friends together. In my opinion, Socrates wins because he gives friendship a good goal, as loyalty can be achieved by other means.

To be frank, 48 Laws of Power, chapter 2, has an excellent description of the opposing sides of friendship. That Machiavellian type of book is a perfect addition to Socrates and Cicero, but nothing beats the symbolic value of the Ladder of Love by Socrates.?

Of the seven types of Greek love, the highest form is Philia (friendship), which is hard to obtain but a good goal for life. Keep searching, my friends!

Love all, hate none

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The Book of Lieh-Tz?: A Classic of Tao

By Liezi

"If you want to read a bit of the Empedocles elements or the Atomic theory of Democritus but the simplified Chinese version, this book is for you. I'm not arguing who said what first; back then, the word had no hard borders, especially for the wisdom seekers.

The thing with TAO is the duality of human nature, the good in the evil and evil in the good, the Yin and Yang.?

From this point of view are all the sayings of the book written, at times very cynical, and at other times convenient and strategic advice. The chapter I liked the most since I'm searching for the missing link between the Greek and Chinese connection is chapter 2, Cosmology. The early stages of their cosmology follow Hesiod's Theogony.

Starting with TIAN, the letter a standing ALPHA with the middle line closer to the head to indicate longer legs; from TIAN comes the Tiananmen square (Gate of Heaven-Sent Pacification).

In Hesiod, it starts with TITANS, with the Titanomachy being the Acropolis marble.

Chapter 3 continues with the Yellow Emperor (Ξανθου?) and his descendants trying to stop the Great Flood of Gun-Yu (Chinese: 鯀禹治水) or what we call the west the Noah story of the Flood.

A short book packed with knowledge, but I don't find what I was searching for yet.

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The Tree Of Wisdom: She-rab Dong-bu

by Nāgārjuna

When you read philosophy, you could easily get lost in translation, especially if the text is not in your mother tongue. This is a Tibetan book of wisdom, like the Gospel of Budha but not.

It contains 260 sayings, probably roughly translated because some, one could consider them, rude or better chapters of Sun Tzu's art of war and not a religious book.

What interests me is the evolution of Buddhism AFTER the conquest of India by Alexander the Great.?

It is a historical fact that Buddhism started with Great Ashoka when he published his Edicts in the Greek city of Bactria, in his mother tongue, which was Greek.

Empires to be ruled, they need moral codes and ethics; you either provide them by making citizens philosophers or by establishing religious systems or by monologues like Marcus Aurelius' meditations.? Could Sha rab Dong be part of that Empire building method of the Greeks in Asia? Maybe. HOWEVER, Indian thought has similarly influenced the Greeks.

The concept of ATARAXIA which is prominent in the Epicurean school of thought, probably has come from the east as it's similar to Nirvana and Taoism. Perhaps the concept of ADIAFORIA came from the Tibetan school of thought and influenced Pyrros and his Pyrrhonism (scepticism).

The same ADIAFORIA concept, when translated from Greek to Latin, changed the meaning a bit, and from NO DIFFERENCE (the middle way in any argument as Tibetan teacher) changed in Stoicism to INDIFFERENCE (when translated as apathy).

When moved to the west, significant concepts from the east were categorised as branches of thought and expanded by great Greek and partly Roman teachers. The Greeks did it to educate citizens, and the Romans to pacify them with a framework of thinking. Either way, it is fantastic that after all those years, we have an opportunity to look a bit deeper into the logic and morality of our ancestors and make the connections between east and west.

PS: If you are a hardcore feminist, you might find this book insulting

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The Dhammapada

The Dhammapada is one of the most significant canons of Buddist.

It starts with the verse: All that we are is the result of what we have thought, is it founded in our thoughts, is made up of our thoughts.

That sounds like the Kybalion of the Hermes, the Trismegistus of the Ptolemaic Greeks of Egypt. Hermetic philosophy starts with: "The All is Mind; the Universe is Mental."

But who was Budha? Kind of like Historical Jesus is rather difficult to agree even on his date of birth. However, this book, chapters 19 to 22, refers to survivors of the flood and names them metaphorically for their abilities (courage, perseverance, qualities of a survivor)

We know that Buddha was born in the region of Gandhara; there, we can find his first statues not in the lotus position but Erect and with Greek Hercules standing by his side as his protector. It is an indisputable fact that the first writings about him are the Edicts of Great Ashoka in the Indo-Greek cities of Bactria. Gandhara was also a diverse city of Indo-Greeks filled with many Buddhist statues. A special commando mission of German archaeologists was remove many of them, to "protect them" during the Afghan war. Soon, we will probably see them in museums in Berlin.

Hopefully, also that could become a point of Indo-Greek cooperation to take them back; just saying...

Anyhow, I feel proud that I can read the first words written about Buddha 3000 years before reading this book; I encourage you to read the inscription below so you can understand the baseline of the Buddhist school of thought.

?Yes, the first words written about Buddhism (established religion practise) are in Greek:

[.ε?]σ?βεια κα? ?γκρ?τεια κατ? π?σα? τ?? διατριβ??· ?γκρατ?? δ? μ?λιστ? ?στιν

?? ?ν γλ?ση? ?γκρατ?? ?ι. Κα? μ?τε ?αυτο?? ?πα[ι]ν?σιν, μ?τε τ?ν π?λα? ψ?γωσιν

περ? μηδεν??· κεν?γ γ?ρ ?στιν· κα? πειρ?σθαι μ?λλον το?? π?λα? ?παινε?ν κα?

μ? ψ?γειν κατ? π?ντα τρ?πον. Τα?τα δ? ποιο?ντε? ?αυτο?? α?ξουσι κα? το??

π?λα? ?νακτ?νται· παραβα?νοντε? δ? τα?τα, ?κ(λ)ε?στερο? τε γ?νονται κα? το??

π?λα? ?π?χθονται. Ο? δ’ ?ν ?αυτο?? ?παιν?σιν, το?? δ? π?λα? ψ?γωσιν φιλοτιμ?τερον

διαπρ?τονται, βουλ?μενοι παρ? το?? λοιπο?? ?γλ?μψαι, πολ? δ? μ?λλον βλ?πτου[σι]

?αυτο??. Πρ?πει δ? ?λλ?λου? θαυμ?ζειν κα? τ? ?λλ?λων διδ?γματα παραδ?χεσθα[ι].

Τα?τα δ? ποιο?ντε? πολυμαθ?στεροι ?σονται, παραδιδ?ντε? ?λλ?λοι? ?σα

?καστο? α?τ?ν ?π?σταται. Κα? το?? τα?τα ?π[α]σκο?σι τα?τα μ? ?κνε?ν λ?γειν ?να δει-

αμε?νωσιν δι? παντ?? ε?σεβο?ντε?. ?γδ?ωι ?τει βασιλε?οντο? Πιοδ?σσου

κατ?στρ(α)πται τ?ν Καλ?γγην. ?ν ?ζωγρημ?να κα? ?ξηγμ?να ?κε?θεν σωμ?των

μυρι?δε? δεκαπ?ντε κα? ?ναιρ?θησαν ?λλαι μυρι?δε? δ?κα κα? σχεδ?ν ?λλοι τοσο?-

τοι ?τελε?τησαν. ?π’ ?κε?νου το? χρ?νου ?λεο? κα? ο?κτο? α?τ?ν ?λαβεν· κα? βαρ?ω? ?νεγκεν·

δι’ ο? τρ?που ?κ?λευεν ?π?χεσθαι τ?ν ?μψ?χων σπουδ?ν τε κα? σ?ντα(σ)ιν πεπο?ηται

περ? ε?σεβε?α?. Κα? το?το ?τι δυσχερ?στερον ?πε?ληφε ? βασιλε??· κα? ?σοι ?κε? ω?κουν

βραμεναι ? σραμεναι ? κα? ?λλοι τιν?? ο? περ? τ?ν ε?σ?βειαν διατρ?βοντε?, το?? ?κε? ο?κο?-

ντα? ?δει τ? το? βασιλ?ω? συμφ?ροντα νοε?ν, κα? διδ?σκαλον κα? πατ?ρα κα? μητ?ρα

?παισχ?νεσθαι κα? θαυμ?ζειν, φ?λου? κα? ?τα?ρου? ?γαπ?ν κα? μ? διαψε?δεσθαι,

δο?λοι? κα? μισθωτο?? ?? κουφ?τατα χρ?σθαι, το?των ?κε? τ?ν τοια?τα διαπρασσο-

μ?νων ε? τι? τ?θνηκεν ? ?ξ?κται, κα? το?το ?μ παραδρομ?ι ο? λοιπο? ?γεινται, ? δ?

[β]ασιλε?? σφ?δρα ?π? το?τοι? ?δυσχ?ρανεν. Κα? ?τι ?ν το?? λοιπο?? ?θνεσ?ν ε?σιν

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Laotzu's Tao and Wu Wei

Something happened around 400 to 500 BC in the west, the emergence of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotelian schools of thought. In the east, The Yellow Emperor, Li Er (Lao Tzu) and Confucius, later Buddha and Christ, appear almost at similar times.

What problem Lao Tzu tries to solve? The cruelty of the human condition.

Schopenhauer was right when he asked to observe how beautiful the hair of a lion is, how beautifully it stands and looks around and in a second, that beautiful hair can be covered with blood because no rational brain can resist hunger and the need for energy via consumption of something beyond ourselves.

Lao Tzu proposes The Way, Wu Wei and Taoism as the right path of life that comes through empathy for each other. To do nothing, ATARAXIA, for him, starts with controlling your inner thoughts and actions.?

It is not apathy but as the famous internet meme of Bruce Lee says: become water, my friend. Water flows around anything and dissolves all tension and suffering.

Wu Wei is also a manual for rulers to rule without involvement; only their presence or their idea should be sufficient for others to do what is right. Kind of like being the holy Ghost, that all know about it, but no one has seen it.

If you think about it, those ideas are embedded in western religion in one form or another.?

Who influenced first who is a big question because Pre Socratic period of Ionian scholars like Heraclitus kind he says the same things: "All things come into being by conflict of opposites, and the sum of things (τ? ?λα ta hola ("the whole")) flows like a stream."

On the question of who came first, I need to search more profound on the Yellow Emperor (Ξανθο?) myths.

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Studies in Pessimism: The Essays

by Arthur Schopenhauer

Schopenhauer was a favourite for Nietzsche for good reasons that will explain below. This book is something that I could have written if depressed living in some cloudy country with no sun. One day, someone should establish a correlation between weather and philosophy or how the Sun affects your mood and thinking. Recently weather correlation to voice has been found (if cold shorter words, etc.).

Nevertheless, I strongly disagree with Schopenhauer's attack on the Judaic/Abrahamic religion system and the old testament. Old testimony is a holy book because it is a genealogical tree with the attributes and traits of our ancestors, including the wisest among them or the worst of their kind (see Cain and Abel). He likes the Eastern philosophies of Buddhism more but seems to know only aspects of it and not the whole picture.

He is a secret Stoic, but he confuses the word indifference and accepts or, at times, encourages people to make suicide. Hence it is hard for me to understand his moral code, perhaps hidden in his book that I haven't read yet.

If you are a woman, the essays on your traits will probably make you furious; between some kind of flattering for their biological capacity to bring life comes an avalanche of accusations about manipulation and trickery. Was he right, and I'm just romantic? That strength of the muscle in men is in women hidden in the brain, and their manipulation tricks are their superpower? I need time to contemplate that.

All in all, I could have written such a melancholic and pessimistic book myself, probably suffering from way too much observation of the human condition. Sometimes ignorance is bliss indeed.

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Parmenides by Plato

Parmenides is not just a title of a Socratic dialogue; it is actually about the theories of Parmenides.

Before Wu Wei of Lao Tzu Tao, from the east, there was another great Pre-Socratic philosopher in the West. In Magna Grecia, what we call Sicily today, from the city of Elea. He wrote about "The Way of Truth" (Aletheia, ?λ?θεια).

Quite funny how Lao Tzu we don't know much about his place of birth nor much about his genealogical tree; he wrote about the same topic some years later.?

However, it does not mean that knowledge of the subject did not flow from east to West; that only shows that the West and Greece, in particular, valued the writings so much that they kept meticulous records about them.

This dialogue is about ZERO, nothing but that thing that does not exist. Greeks didn't have the concept of zero; there couldn't be a zero in life because the moment you think of it, there is a quantity of it. That non-existence of zero could prove the existence of god, but that's for another review in the future.

In this book, Socrates uses geometry applied in words to square the circle, or better the better form, as they believe that this word is: the sphere. He uses all rational and logical arguments and methods that you can imagine in mathematics, from reduction to reductio ad absurdum of Euclidean logic.

If you want to hear him speaking Geometry in plain words and use the mathematical side of your brain to analyse what he is talking about, then this book is a good challenge.

If you find an argument why zero should exist, please share it in the comments below; otherwise, please remember Descartes said: cogito ergo sum.