(this is all from one hit, mind you, plus a bunch of stuff accumulated over decades right here in this stoned noggin)
An idea that keeps re-occuring to me as I get stoned and admire/examine my really nicely-stocked physical (and digital) library: One possible(-world) humorous subtitle for my in-development Better Living Through Philosophy book is something along the lines of:
or, 100 essential books condensed into one
First off, the value-added if this were pulled off as represented would be really high for one book...
So the monetary angle aside for the moment, and looking at this from a theoretical-philosophical-moral angle with all the implications involved . . .
It has a certain similarity to what the venerable 20th century philosopher-public-intellectual Mortimer J. Adler was doing with what is arguably his magnum opus, Great Ideas: A Lexicon of Western Thought, which is more or less a 960 page, double-column synthesis of the (Western) wisdom of the ages contained in the famous Great Books series of which he was the chief architect/curator/commentator. So at the very least I would like to approach something similar to what Adler is doing in just that one book. For the average reader/citizen, just that one book is arguably a godsend from the condensed-value-added standpoint. For yours truly, it was more or less an edification or beefing up of a bunch of stuff I had already integrated, book-smarts-wise plus lots of attentive cultural observation, over the course of decades. Also, if I could condense what Adler was doing down to something more like 420 single-column book, it would be that much more value-added-wise. Thing is, Adler's magnum opus is not even in print any more; you have to buy it in a used marketplace somewhere, or find it at a local library. It belongs in every learned person's personal library, anyway. I have it in mine; it's like a no-brainer, that one. Is it in yours?
If it's in mine and not yours, that's one distinct research-advantage I have over you. And I use it now as as source of inspiration for how to compose an epic, sprawling, magisterial and fun - above all, fun - book on the subject of Better Living Through Philosophy. And that's just the tippy top of the iceberg when it comes to books in my personal library to draw inspiration from. Now to induce whatever principle is involved here:
I have selected a few hundred of what I regard as essential books for Any Learned Person to Have on Hand, for my personal library. I've had to be somewhat selective in what I have been able to purchase and make room for, but I think I have developed a really strong sense, over decades of experience, for what is a promising, uh, lead when it comes to various things cultural and intellectual. It doesn't mean I know a ton of shit about a ton of shit. (One promising beginning lead here, though, might be the New York Times Guide to Essential Knowledge, which I have on hand. Do you? . . .) It does mean, though, that I am probably the very best researcher that I know of. I fucking love what I have in my personal library (paper and digital...) and I especially love how I have it so nicely organized. How do I have it organized, you ask? Well, isn't that something of a trade secret, if you will? Do I just wanna give it away, right here? I've told a few close friends about how I have it organized. If a Resurrected-Aristotle were to organize his library nowadays, on what sort of principle might he organize it? How are libraries proper organized, pray tell? What comes first?... (I've given this subject a lot of thought. Have you?)
Then I have about a dozen Oxford Handbooks (you know what those are, right?) in my physical library (they're kinda pricey...). Do I have any in my digital library? Well, do I? You tell me.
I really find Oxford Handbooks quite useful, most of the time. So I'm able to distinguish more useful Oxford Handbooks from less useful ones. How about you?
So I've got Adler's Lexicon and then I also have the (out-of-print as well) Adler-edited Great Treasury of Western Thought. A Resurrected-Aristotle would definitely have this one in his library, right? (In the Academy, Aristotle garnered the nickname of 'The Reader,' BTW. Books were definitely important to him.)
So one thing Aristotle (in a manner similar to Adler, but perhaps different) might do or consider doing in composing a treatise on the subject of Better Living Through Philosophy is to, more less, take the reader/audience on a guided tour of essential (Western-intellectual-tradition) books for a learned citizen.
So, what selection criteria would Aristotle use to narrow down his selection of essential titles through which to usefully take his audience on that guided tour? I don't know, actually; I'm not Aristotle, after all. I'm me. And I have some idea of either what my selection criteria are or of the product of my selection criteria. So in my list of top-100 essentials I would have those two big Adler books I've mentioned, probably a number of Oxford Handbooks (the more useful ones, anyway), and then, letsee, I have the Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy (both 1st and 2nd editions) on hand.
But maybe that's all the leads I'm gonna give on that subject in this post. I already have a shit-ton of promising leads already on this blog. I know where to go to find 'em just in case. I know when I "reviewed" Norton's Personal Destinies on this blog. I have quick recall of a lot of destructive-leftism-related links just in case the need to prove my point yet again about destructive leftism arises (yet again, sigh). (BTW, those losers-qua-leftists up on stage last night were going on and on about Better Living Through Big Government. They just don't get it, do they. Would Resurrected-Aristotle-in-Drill-Sergeant-Mode tear them a new one, or what? [Edit: How about this, which I'm not sure the leftists would ever figure out on their own in a million years: Better Social Capital Through Philosophy. Eh? Eh? {Edit: Is a warranted induction on the principle here expressed as follows: Better x Through Philosophy, where x could stand for any number of desirable things? Ya think?}])
So anyway, I think I know (about) a ton of promising leads on certain important End-of-History related subjects. (You know all about what 'End of History' refers to, right? I've given this subject more than a teensy bit of thought over the years, mind you.) That doesn't mean I know (about) a ton of leads on a ton of shit. I couldn't tell you who won the Kentucky Derby in 1963. I do know that Wilt Chamberlain was NBA MVP in his rookie season but not the season he averaged 50 points a game and scored 100 in one of them. Now who in the fuck would have beaten Wilt out for the MVP award that year? I know. Do you?)
So the one hit is starting to wear off, the magic inevitably to wear off as well. Now I've got the munchies.
[Addendum 10/16 (un-stoned): I'm sure getting a lot of emails from academia.edu with links to papers closely connected to the topic of Aristotle's intellectualist conception of eudaimonia lately; how about you? I don't know/remember how this turned out to be the case, but it's not a bad subject to get a lot of academia.edu emails about, is it? What would be more perfect a topic to get such emails/papers about?]
