Summer is here, so it's time to put together our summer reading lists. Summer reading should be light, but big enough to cast a large shadow, protecting sensitive skin from the sun's unforgiving rays. I once made the mistake of taking only Madden's Concise History of the Crusades to the beach, and I was red for days! In general, thin atlases are a good bet as are large coloring books. For the more adventurous, the most important rule of thumb is to be practical. There are few things more embarassing than being caught poolside with a copy of Neitzsche's Thus Spake Zarathustra that doesn't quite fit.
One of my goals this summer is to read some of the classics in philosophy, since unfortunately I have made it to my wizened old age reading far too few of the philosophy books everyone talks about so much. My fairly short philosophy reading list is built on advice from a philosophy grad student friend of mine. I'm not reading a lot; just hitting the high points and trying to make myself just a little more prepared to lead an examined life.
Starting off with the classical classics, I'm reading Plato's Republic, even though I have a feeling I'd be one of the ones Plato kicked out of his utopia, perhaps for having too short an attention span or beating the philosopher at one-too-many games of handstand darts. Regardless, having been expelled from Plato's perfect polis, I'll try to make sense of it all via Aristotle's Nichomachean Ethics.
From there, it's on to Descartes' Meditations, Hume's Treatise on Human Nature, Kant's Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals (Gulp), Nietszche's Geneology of Morals, and Wittgenstien's Philosophical Investigations. Phew. So that's what it takes to be a wise man these days. If I'm especially courageous, I might try to get into Copleston's massive synthesis of all philosophy, A History of Philosophy. Copleston does some annoying things though, like quoting in about eight different languages with no translations. We'll see about him...
a couple of highly recommmended works in philosophy of law: HLA Hart's The Concept of Law and Dworkin, Law's Empire. And then, just for fun, I'm reading 1L, an account of first-year life at HLS.
If you're not psyched by now, you should have your pulse checked. Have a great summer.
new in law philosophy