Book Reviews

When it comes to accumulating knowledge - and by extension, wisdom, discipline, fortitude and aptitude - no pastime is so conducive as reading. Reading is the means by which the mind is liberated and the tempers checked. If you have a tendency to extremism, reading opposing viewpoints with an open mind can effect some remedy. Reading bestows a certain presence of mind upon all men and women, and, provided that one is guided by genuine curiosity rather than fascistic parochialism, can provide the raw material for engaging with a modern and complex world. The objective is to strive to understand what one does not know - about the world and oneself - and to mould oneself into the ultimate person.


- A.C. Grayling's The God Argument
- N.N. Taleb's The Black Swan
- Noam Chomsky's Who Rules the World? 
- Michael Lewis', The Undoing Project

Do support Ideology of Power by purchasing some books from BookDepository.com through this link.


Comments

Post a Comment

MOST POPULAR

Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi and the Sufi Path of Annihilation: Multiplicity and Convolution

Image
Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī   was a Persian poet who lived during the 13th Century AD, whose philosophy of transcendence of the Self (a transcendence through annihilation, according to the practice of Itlaq Yolu : (i) zikr , (ii) fasting, (iii) mental suffering and (iv) discussion, (iv) being of least importance) holds some depth. Much has been said about his mysticism, but to my mind his poetic explorations of the meandering human spirit and its capacity to travel through and ultimately transcend the unlimited layers of limited perception (as Nevit O. Ergin puts it in "The Sufi Path of Annihilation") are bound to one direction: the submersion of faculty in multiplicity and convolution. A deep consideration of these ideas is certain to deepen any philosophy; a shallow consideration of these ideas is certain to delude.
Read more

The Limits of Judicial Review in Singapore

Image
For some time I have been interested in the way Singaporean courts construe of the role of judges. Singapore is a common law country, that is, a country which, inter alia , applies the doctrine of binding precedent (in Latin, the doctrine of s tare decisis ), as opposed to civil law countries (say, of the Franco-German variety) which do not follow the same doctrine. Of course, it is another argument altogether as to whether precedent in civil law countries are in fact accorded de facto authority.
Read more

Masculinity - Competition, Conflict, Catastrophe

Image
Modern society has over many generations feminised large proportions of men and put them into bonded servitude to the State. An epidemic of mind-poisons rages amongst the dilapidated tenements of civilisation, turning people (to a large extent men: hikikomori, incel, NEET, karyu shakai) victims of their Selves . Many mechanisms work together to create this outcome, and not all of them are coordinated by a centralised authority - thus, the 'matrix' narrative propounded by would-be Andrew Tates have to be mercilessly critiqued. But instead of being critiqued, Tate himself has been strong-armed into oblivion, a mis-step than can only serve to propound his ideology further. What critiques there exist tend to be tawdry misrepresentations of the pressing need which Tate has come to service. Much that Tate says has ancient pedigree, and is reasonably wise; much that Tate says also, is a function of a cynical politics that should be recognised as-such  (this particular critique will ...
Read more