When I studied Nietzsche it was more or less “Read Zarathustra, then read all the ‘Viking Portable Nietzsche’ then read all of the ‘Basic Writings of Nietzche’” all translates by Hollingdale or, preferably, Kauffman.
Among the jewels you’ll find in such a reading are things like the seed of Nietzsche’s thought being placed, imo, in The Birth of Tragedy, with the line:
> It is only as an aesthetic phenomenon that existence and the world are eternally justified
Other Nietzsche related recommendations:
Pre-Nietzsche: Plato, Schopenhauer
Post-Nietzsche: Camus - maybe?
I'm on the back end of Zarathustra at the moment, hence moving onto something a bit stronger. I tend to flick between different books by any given author in order to assimilate their ideas, so I might add Birth of Tragedy at the same time - thank for the recommendation. I'd like to get through all of Nietzsche's key writing in the next couple of years.
I've thought about reading Schopenhauer as I understand he's a great complement to Nietzsche's work - I'll see where I get to with Nietzsche first. Camus is somewhat related as an absurdist compared to Nietzsche/Schopenhauer's existentialism, but a bit more optimistic about the possibility of meaning.
I'm tempted to dig into Plato as the problem of universals is a philosophical topic that I value greatly, and his theory of forms is basically its origin story.
I heavily recommend the Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Republic, and Phaedrus (in particular) - it’s said all of philosophy is a footnote on Plato until Nietzsche. I think only a summary of Schopenhauer (like a penguin selection or something) is all that’s needed - he moves past Schopenhauer pretty quickly.
I enjoyed Camus due to it being an attempt to move beyond Nietzsche and offer something more digestible, but I never moved past the Nietzsche/Plato combo for my personal philosophies (with a heavy dash of stoicism)
Re forms: I find that Plato’s forms are one of the most used mental models I engage with - especially working with software.
Thanks for the suggestion - I'll add Plato's works to my list. I tried to get into Republic when I was a bit younger but couldn't digest it at the time, but I wasn't very familiar with philosophy (or reading dry books in general) at the time so it would be worth another go round.
I'm roughly familiar with Camus' ideas as presented in the Myth of Sisyphus, and I like the idea that one can make the fight against suffering the source of meaning - it resonates with my understanding of the role of dukkha in the four noble truths in Buddhism. I personally use a mix of Zen Buddhism and stoicism, which seems very similar to you.
The main mental models I use day-to-day are those derived from systems theory, and I believe that patterns of emergence and recursion described by systems theory are the underlying mechanism that brings about abstract properties. I believe I have a copy of "The Human Use of Human Beings" by Norbert Wiener on the way for Christmas, which is meant to be a great book on the topic of cybernetics which is essentially a sub-category of systems theory.
That does sound very similar. I know that in my interpretation Camus is one of the possible outcomes of Nietzsche's thoughts, and that his thoughts afford for many... I think that is something that resonated with me - that _my_ philosophy does not need to be yours, but that we can still find some common ground to survive with one another.
Do you have good recommendations for Zen Buddhism and systems theories?
I have touched on both, but never got deep enough to know what are the main works I should be working off of.
> in my interpretation Camus is one of the possible outcomes of Nietzsche's thoughts, and that his thoughts afford for many
Yeah that makes total sense. How do you respond to a meaningless universe? By imagining up our own meaning and putting value in that.
> I think that is something that resonated with me - that _my_ philosophy does not need to be yours, but that we can still find some common ground to survive with one another.
Yeah I totally agree, and I think we could benefit from more people who viewed our existence in that way.
> Do you have good recommendations for Zen Buddhism and systems theories?
Unfortunately I'm not generally that bookish - a lot of the knowledge I have on these subjects, I've picked up from thinking and practicing the ideas within, odd sources on the internet and in conversations rather than reading books. However, I can recommend Alan Watts' "The Way of Zen" and Donella Meadows' "Thinking in Systems", which I have read and both of which are fantastic.
Unfortunately sometimes systems theorists get caught up in the fine grained details such as "stock and flow" and "causal loop" diagrams and specific types of loop structure, which happens in Donella Meadows' book - the wiki page for complex systems (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complex_system) is a good entry point for the high level concerns in systems theory.
[edit] I'm also told that Godel Escher Bach is an interesting book for approaching systems concepts like self-reference and emergence in a more esoteric, example-driven way.
You're not helping your recommendation by starting it with a condemnation.
What makes you think I want to read this book at all? Or that I'm reading Nietzsche for practical ethical advice? I have no idea who would do such a thing.
I wonder if we both agree on our dislike of Ayn Rand. She presents a world view that is nicely convenient to people who don't want to care about others. Having a model of how the world is based on her writing would make one a callous person.
That's a poor comparison - just because the universe is amoral, doesn't mean we have to be. There's two parallel paths that I see people confuse all the time, that of how the world is (truth) and how we should be (good). Nietzsche is interesting for talking about truth, not necessarily good. Practical philosophy is just telling you what is good, and so far I haven't seen a moral framework that is competent at that. Especially utilitarianism. Partly because I think the idea of a moral framework is reductionist, but this isn't the right place, nor perhaps you the right counterparty, for me to lay out my issues with reductionism.
Tldr: yes I think Rand is a poor moral philosopher too.
- On the Genealogy of Morality, Nietzsche
- Simulcra and Simulations, Jean Baudrillard
- The Ruling Class, Gaetano Mosca
- Finish off the Enchiridion and Shobogenzo
For work:
- Envisioning Information, Edward Tufte
- Antifragile, Nassim Nicholas Taleb