I suggest reading Dostoevsky’s The Idiot and The Brothers Karamazov. Steinbeck often has characters I tie to people in my real life (e.g. Cathy from East of Eden I once attributed to a manager of mine named Cathy, a real bitch with a power trip). I personally got attached to Chris McCandless in Into the Wild. His main conflicts weren’t with other characters, but with situations in life, and the observance of others; not unlike Alyosha Karamazov. I wish I could go on, but time is limited.
I’d recommend William Gaddis, The Recognitions. And I think you’d enjoy it for more than just the well-drawn characters.
From Wikipedia:
“The story loosely follows the life of Wyatt Gwyon, a Calvinist minister’s son…”
Good suggestion.
I forgot a good one. Paul Atreides.
Ok, so there are books that cover the practical side of anarcho-capitalism from one end to the other. I’m referring to a books like For a New Liberty by Murray Rothbard. What do you think is the best book in this category? My question is pointed towards everybody.
Morris and Linda Tannehills’ Market for Liberty is probably a good start.
I review W.H. Hutt’s The Theory of Idle Resources: “Hutt’s Classical Theory of Unemployment.” Great monograph, but I argue that while Hutt’s criticisms of Keynes are on the mark, he completely ignores a more fundamental theory put forth by Keynes.
Man economy and the state just arrived at my doorstep today.
Is that sincere or snark? I guess I miss your reference…
I’m finishing up a book on Casanova, then I am going to read Egalitarianism as a revolt against Nature.
The reference is to Clayton’s religious upbringing.
Ah! Had no idea. Yeah, I hope he reads it then.
I don’t have anything better to do, so I might just ask this, quite useless question here: How many books do you read in year on average? How many books have you read during this year?
I agree with you. Especially your remarks about Jim and his co helped me unravel this myth , Eh…I told him to write my essay. Will you do me a favour? I can tell you why I did not go to that blog and when it happened.
Finished ethics of liberty last night along with rand’s anthem.
finishing mises liberalism and starting for a new liberty this weekend.
I’m reading The Essays of Michel, Lord of Montaigne. In 17-th century King’s English (lol). He’s witty and profound. A very rare combination.
Clayton -
Precis of Bayesian Rationality: The Probabilistic Approach to Human Reasoning
I am currenty exploring various theories explaining human action under uncertainty (which means always). Most of them turn out rather shallow conceptually, quickly switching to mathematical encoding and symbolic manipulation.
That’s something that interests me too. Are you finding that they are reaching correct conclusions though? Can you explain a little on how they are applying the mathematics or how they justify switching to math? Also have you read anything in particular worth reading yet?
I hate the quick switch to symbolic formalisms exactly because the theorems they provide are of dubious value. Otherwise I would not have issues with math (not all Austrians hate math). The switch to formal treatment is usually not explicitly justified, but I think that’s ok - there are a lot of standard self-evident reasons for using formal treatments.
I’ve just started reading the Precis, so it’s hard to tell, but so far it looks much better that the other papers at least in its structure - there seems to be enough explanation of the background and related work. Will see what is their actual result.
I finished reading After the Welfare State (recommend it), and I’m reading Anatomy of the State.