learn about 43 major philosophers

Pythagoras was a mathematician and a mystic. At Croton, in southern Italy, he founded and led a community of scholars who were his disciples. A pupil of Aristotle named Dicaerchus wrote:
“What [Pythagoras] used to teach his associates, no one can tell with certainty; for they observed no ordinary silence. His most universally celebrated opinions, however, were that the soul is immortal; then that it migrates into other sorts of living creature; and in addition that after certain periods what has happened once happens again, and nothing is absolutely new; and that one should consider all animate things as akin.”

‘Metempsychosis’ is the term for the doctrine of the transmigration of souls. Within the Pythagorean community there were some prohibitions designed to establish and maintain the purity of the soul. Fore example:

• Abstain from beans.
• Do not look in a mirror beside a light.
• When rising from bed, rollt he bedclothes together and smooth out the impress of your body.
• Be not possessed by irrepressible mirth.

Number, for Pythagoras, is both matter and the meaning of the cosmos. He held that odd and even together produce unity and that unity produces number, the source of all things.

when the time is right. At the moment, I`ve got way too much on my mind, so many things I need to do, or want to do, and just no extra energy. And I don`t want to be focusing on a goal like this just because it`s on my list and I think I ought to do it.

It will be much better to put it back on my list when I`m inspired to do it again.

I have a quite bad cold these days, really frustrating. But the upside is that I have a lot of time for reading. So I`ve started the introduction to philosophy book I bought a couple of weeks ago. It seems interresting so far. However, I am a bit provoked by it as well. First of all, the first chapter is an introduction to what philosophy means. And the author refers to all philosophers, scientists and artists as “he” or “him”. Without a single reflection on the fact that this might be somewhat alienating to female readers. I`m not impressed, I mean, when you write a book on philosophy, shouldn`t you reflect a little bit about the words used?
Also, it seems to se “philosophy” and “western philosophy” as synonymes. What about thinkers from other parts of the world? Still, I am looking forward to getting into the different philosophers.

a sale in a bookstore yesterday, oh joy! I love book sales! Books in Norway are generally incredibly expensive, so I usually can`t afford to buy nearly as many interresting books as I would like. (I buy a lot from amazon though, when I pay for post and package to have them sent to Norway, they still cost less than half of what they cost here). Anyway, I went nuts ofcourse, and one of the books I found was one on philosophy that looks very interresting. It`s just an overwiev of the main thinkers, topics and discussions on some of their major works. So just a little taste of it really, but it might be a good startingpoint, while waiting for my Paolo-recommended (thanks!) books to arrive from amazon. ;) So, I`m off to start reading! (well, pretty soon anyway, must just read some more entries first) ;)

I found on Jenny`s list, and I just had to make room for it on my list. I`ve been meaning to read an introduction to philosophy for some time, but I just haven`t gotten around to it. I did study philosophy for half a year once (everyone in Norway does that before we can start university studies) but I seem to have forgotten most of it. So the plan is, get my introduction to philosophy books out again, read up on 43 of the major ones, and hopefully in time get to go more in depth on some of my favorites. For instance, I remember that Kierkegaard was one of my favorites back when I studied it, but I simply can`t remember why! Must find out!

I have decided to start with a simple introduction. I ordered The Story Of Philosophy by Bryan Magee. I chose this book after reading the customer reviews. A few things people said:

“It opens up learning of the subject to a broader audience. Magee’s book seems almost perfect as an introduction, overview, and rough history of philosophy. It should make an excellent introduction and light reference book to the non-expert reader.”

“This is quite simply the easiest and best one volume introduction to philosophy there is.”

The book was criticized for being more like a coffee table book due to illustrations, but I have nothing against pictures. :)