if anyone else tells me zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance

[datasuspect]

is a philosophical work, i will strangle them.

[Midlodemocrat]

1. Ha Ha. It is and you can't reach me.

[datasuspect]

2. maybe in the popular sense . . .

cf. the celestine prophecies . . .

oy

[bowens43]

3. Of course it is.....or is it?

[Magrittes Pipe]

4. It's right up there with "Jonathan Livingston Seagull"

...and "The Prophet."

:7

[datasuspect]

5. what was i thinking

reading all that kant, hegel, wittgenstein, et al . . .

i could have been reading self-help books all along!

[Magrittes Pipe]

7. The Tractatus has nothing on "Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus."

Come on. "Der Ethik und der Esthetic sind eins?" How the fuck am I supposed to wrap my head around that? Now, "women and men are different" -- THAT I can understand.

[datasuspect]

9. or chicken soup for the soul

now there is some damn good rational analysis of what constitutes knowledge and existence.

[Magrittes Pipe]

11. Come on, now.

"Chicken Soup" was never intended as an epistemological or metaphysical work. "Free to Be You and Me," on the other hand....

[sui generis]

12. oh I get it - you're a snob

none of this populist nickel psychology drivel for you.

:evilgrin:

[datasuspect]

15. not a snob

c'mon that hurts!

[sui generis]

19. okay, you're not a shnob

but seriously,

what exactly do we call this genre? It's "conceptual" and most often written to make difficult subjects both digestible and intellectually stimulating without requiring a PhD in the topic, and it does have the beneficial effect of getting some people somewhat versant in the topics being discussed.

So it's not a life philosophy or a discourse on rationality, but I think they have merit just the same.

[Fridays Child]

6. I always thought of it as a psychopathological work.

[mark414]

8. how do we know WHAT it is? how do we know it IS?

:evilgrin:

[sui generis]

10. ever read The Dancing Wu Li Masters?

it was sorta there. Also Godel, Escher, Bach, remember?

[redqueen]

13. Godel Escher Bach was philosophical?

Guess I need to read that one again.

[DancingBear]

14. Well, what about "Lila" - the follow-up to Z/MM?

Hmmmmnnnnnnnnnnnnn.......

(horrible book, BTW)

[JitterbugPerfume]

16. I started reading it a couple years ago

and I could NOT finish it

no way

[crispini]

17. LOL. Ok, it's a philosophical work.

Come and get me! :evilgrin:

[Lone Pawn]

18. Not nearly as philisophitical as the MATRIX

Totally MIND-BLOWING, Man! I bet nobody NEVER thought of ANYTHING like in that MOVIE it was so TOTALLY MINDBLOWING and AWESOME THE MATRIX HAS J00 NOW LOL!!!!!

...sorry.