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Philosophy. At some point, we all start wondering about things like "Is it better to be a good person or to really be a bad person but seem like a good person?" "Does the structure of langauge really determine how we conceptualize reality?" "What do 'good' and 'evil' even mean?" "What system of morality and ethics determines what is right and wrong?" Seeing all the hard thinking people have done trying to answer these timeless questions is very rewarding, even if their answers are usually woefully inadequate. You could easily get really caught up in this stuff: I'll just suggest a few possible places to start. Just don't spend too much time worrying about the difference between the number two and "twoness", lest you go prematurely insane.
The Republic of Plato
One of the true classics in philosophy, in which Plato (via Socratic dialogues) tries to describe an ideal state, with numerous linkages to what is good in life, for individuals as well as states. Pay particular attention to the "Allegory of the Cave", a concept not far from that in The Matrix over two-thousand years before The Matrix.![]()
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Utilitarianism
John Stuart Mill's classic theory: it is "right" to do that which brings the greatest happiness (utility) to the greatest number. Maximizing social utility continues to be a very robust theory today, but it has problems as well. For instance, is it really just to severely disadvantage a small group of people to increase the good of lots and lots of people by a tiny amount each? (for instance, if the unhappiness caused by enslaving a few causes an overall increase in happiness, is that just?)
A Theory of Justice
Rawls' theory of "contractualism" is an example of imporatant advances in philosophy and ethics in our own time. Furthermore, it presents an alternative ethical framework to Mill's Utilitarianism, saving us all a lot of trouble.![]()
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On the Genealogy of Morals
Nietzche at his most straightforward, this book should be read well before the more obfuscated Thus Spake Zarathustra. Don't make the same mistake I did.![]()
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