What are you reading at the moment?

Barry Giddens said:
'Anatomy of a Soldier' Harry Parker. Another kind gift from Iain AKA @Digimonkey.
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B. - For me 'Homo Deus' by Yuval Noah Harari. The strap line - 'a brief history of tomorrow.' I read 'Sapiens' last year and it was one of the best books of the year for me. Harari is a proper polymath - in a similar vein - if you have about four or five weeks at your disposal I couldn't recommend Steven Pinker's - 'The Better Angels of our Nature,' too highly. In some considerable detail - 700 odd pages, thankfully including citations - it proves that is has never been safer to be a human. Obviously - you'll get the reference to Lincoln - Gettysburg. Yours - I.
 
Digimonkey said:
B. - For me 'Homo Deus' by Yuval Noah Harari. The strap line - 'a brief history of tomorrow.' I read 'Sapiens' last year and it was one of the best books of the year for me. Harari is a proper polymath - in a similar vein - if you have about four or five weeks at your disposal I couldn't recommend Steven Pinker's - 'The Better Angels of our Nature,' too highly. In some considerable detail - 700 odd pages, thankfully including citations - it proves that is has never been safer to be a human. Obviously - you'll get the reference to Lincoln - Gettysburg. Yours - I.
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Evening Iain. I have never read anything by Pinker but I'm aware of his work, and the debate surrounding his work. Evolutionary psychology? My problem is....so little time, so many books. Bloody work! Further to our discussion of Bruce Chatwin the other day, have you read his work of fiction 'On The Black Hill'? I somehow overlooked it when I went through my Chatwin period.
 
Barry Giddens said:
Evening Iain. I have never read anything by Pinker but I'm aware of his work, and the debate surrounding his work. Evolutionary psychology? My problem is....so little time, so many books. Bloody work! Further to our discussion of Bruce Chatwin the other day, have you read his work of fiction 'On The Black Hill'? I somehow overlooked it when I went through my Chatwin period.
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Afternoon B - I enjoyed the Pinker book. I thought his argument was sound - to be honest you are not given much choice, it's relentless. I bought it after reading a review - 'a history of human violence,' - that sounds right up my street. What I didn't realise was that he uses statistical modelling as evidence. I'm not good with mathematics but he has the good grace to walk you through the methods he uses and what all the squiggly lines laid out on graphs mean. It wasn't that hard to get a grip on it. I passed a copy onto a friend who was trained to PHD level in statistics and data set modelling - I await her comments on his method with interest. Basically - he proposes that all rights - not just human - are a progression, once a former 'out group' is assimilated the process moves on to the next 'cause.' I read it last year and it timed well with the coming into the mainstream of a veritable rainbow of types of sexual self-identification. LGBT - was no longer a clumsy enough acronym - it needed more letters! For me - culture was kind of proving his argument. The book is heavily Euro culture centric but I don't think this indicates a bias on the author's part - just that he needs numbers to crunch. For that reason I was most disappointed by the content on pre-modern societies - I'm fascinated by human evolution and the human experience pre Neolithic, the problem being they didn't write anything down. Scant evidence for Pinker to work with. He realises this and the book really doesn't get going until the medieval period. As I say - I enjoyed it - if nothing else there is a great sense of achievement when you finish a book that's thicker than a whale omelette.

No - I didn't know that Chatwin did fiction.

Yours - I.
 
Very interesting Iain. It made me think of the Structual Marxists who were all the rage when I was at uni. Does Pinker talk about class at all? In the Structual Marxist model the working class could almost be seen as an 'out group' with regards to capitalism. In this model the state doesn't act as the 'instrument' of capitalism, as it does in traditional Marxist theory, but rather as a scientific certainty that naturally develops organically as a result of capitalism. The working class are 'assimilated' through the 'alturistic' giving of rights such as housing, health, and education. Of course, there is nothing alturistic about the giving of such rights. Just capitalism evolving and 'structurally' controlling the economy and culture (hegemony). Naturally, the leading Structual Marxist, Althusser, went mad and strangled his wife. Cheers, Barry.
 
Barry Giddens said:
Very interesting Iain. It made me think of the Structual Marxists who were all the rage when I was at uni. Does Pinker talk about class at all? In the Structual Marxist model the working class could almost be seen as an 'out group' with regards to capitalism. In this model the state doesn't act as the 'instrument' of capitalism, as it does in traditional Marxist theory, but rather as a scientific certainty that naturally develops organically as a result of capitalism. The working class are 'assimilated' through the 'alturistic' giving of rights such as housing, health, and education. Of course, there is nothing alturistic about the giving of such rights. Just capitalism evolving and 'structurally' controlling the economy and culture (hegemony). Naturally, the leading Structual Marxist, Althusser, went mad and strangled his wife. Cheers, Barry.
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B. - Pinker doesn't talk of class - he's American. They obviously do have classes but I don't think they codify it in the way we Brits do? I cited Marxist theory once in an essay about the Peasant's Revolt - late 14c. The question asked was - ' Were peasant revolts in the late medieval period entirely motivated by economics?' Bang on for a bit of Marxist theory I would have thought? Yours - I.
 
Digimonkey said:
B. - Pinker doesn't talk of class - he's American. They obviously do have classes but I don't think they codify it in the way we Brits do? I cited Marxist theory once in an essay about the Peasant's Revolt - late 14c. The question asked was - ' Were peasant revolts in the late medieval period entirely motivated by economics?' Bang on for a bit of Marxist theory I would have thought? Yours - I.
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Absolutely Iain. But the answer to the question would vary according to whichever Marxist theory one decided to adopt. So does Pinker argue that the assimilation of 'out groups' is 'structual'? In that it isn't a conscious, or planned, outcome.
 
Just finished reading Ikigai by Hector Garcia, a book about the secrets to a longer, happier life. Some interesting ideas but no substance to the book beyond quotes and relaying ideas of other people. Disappointing book but made me curious about exercises like Yoga as well as to look into logotherapy.

Started Origin by Dan Brown this morning, can't beat a bit of Robert Langdon, a visit to Bilbao will be on the horizon I feel.
 
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