Top 5 of Books that Explain the World

category: residue [glöplog]

My Top 5 of Books that Explain the World:
1. A History of Western Philosophy (Bertrand Russell)
2. The Logic of Scientific Discovery (Karl Popper)
3. The Open Society and Its Enemies (Karl Popper)
4. Human Action (Ludwig von Mises)
5. The Prince (Nicolo Machiavelli)
And yours?

A quick Google search has provided sources where these books can be downloaded for free (they are not protected by copyright any more, so don't worry, it's legal). I have not checked whether the versions of the books available at these sites are correct but I hope so. In case you notice something that seems wrong, please inform me.

1. A History of Western Philosophy (Bertrand Russell)
http://cdn.preterhuman.net/texts/thought_and_writing/philosophy/A%20History%20of%20Western%20Philosophy%20-%20Bertrand%20Russell.pdf

2. The Logic of Scientific Discovery (Karl Popper)
http://s-f-walker.org.uk/pubsebooks/pdfs/popper-logic-scientific-discovery.pdf

3. The Open Society and Its Enemies (Karl Popper)
http://www.inf.fu-berlin.de/lehre/WS06/pmo/eng/Popper-OpenSociety.pdf

4. Human Action (Ludwig von Mises)
http://mises.org/books/humanaction.pdf

5. The Prince (Nicolo Machiavelli)
http://www.constitution.org/mac/prince.pdf

added on the 2013-08-23 11:38:20 by Adok

Neil Postman - Amusing Ourselves to Death
Adam Smith - The Wealth of Nations
Simone de Beauvoir - The Second Sex
Oswald Spengler - The Decline of the West
William Golding - The Lord of the Flies

added on the 2013-08-23 12:04:50 by Preacher

missing some george orwell and cory doctorow in those lists

added on the 2013-08-23 14:08:47 by psenough

I'd say Huxley was a lot closer to the mark than Orwell, thus I included Postman's brilliant analysis. As for Doctorow, yawn.

added on the 2013-08-23 14:17:10 by Preacher

Anyone here using goodreads?

added on the 2013-08-23 16:54:18 by Rob

Most important:
Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore

added on the 2013-08-23 17:05:57 by uncle_H

THIS
and
THAT

added on the 2013-08-23 21:54:42 by T$

It's not a top 5, but the Alice Miller books explain very well some "mechanisms" of the world, or life. Call it as you wish.

ALICE MILLER can also give you the path to the interior peace.

added on the 2013-12-05 23:28:40 by Romain337

Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica by Sir Isaac explains a lot of the world as we know it!

added on the 2013-12-05 23:35:07 by baah

added on the 2013-12-05 23:35:57 by ___

added on the 2013-12-05 23:42:46 by post malone

rob: i'm using goodreads atleast. same email as listed on my homepage, feel free to add me :) i know a few more sceners use it aswell.

added on the 2013-12-06 01:22:40 by psenough

added on the 2013-12-06 08:42:58 by w00t!

The Doors of Perception & Heaven and Hell by Aldous Huxley.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (short story) - Philip K Dick
Another Country - James Baldwin
The Dice Man - Luke Reinhart
Dune (series) - Frank Herbert.

Since Adok put in the "hard-to-read" ones -
Critique of Pure Reason - Immanuel Kant.

Lift your game guys (and girls).

added on the 2013-12-06 09:17:59 by ringofyre