Philosophical Observations is on a hiatus for the summer but I am planning new posts to begin the new school year in August. See you then!

In her book The Renaissance Soul, Margaret Lobenstine has an interesting exercise designed to focus your attention on the values most important to you at any given moment. The point of doing this is so that you can design your life to best reflect and further those values. She is specifically addressing those she calls renaissance souls; people who have so many interests they find it difficult to focus on a few and pursue them. However, the exercise is useful for anyone looking to do a little self-reflection and life improvement. Are you living your life in such a way that the values most important to you are your primary focus? To find out, look at the list below and choose 5 that are the most important to you at this moment. Use this list of 5 to assess the activities in your life such as work, family, social life, hobbies. Are these activities furthering your values or hindering them? You can add other values to the list but you can only pick 5 to focus on.



achievement, affection, appearance, approval, arts, authority,
beauty,
career/employment, community, creativity,
environment, expertise,,
fame, family, freedom (personal), freedom (political),
generosity,
health (emotional), health (physical), home, honesty,
integrity,
learning, leisure, love, loyalty,
meaning, money,
openness,,
patriotism, personal growth, pleasure, popularity, power, privacy,
recognition, relationships, religion, reputation, respect, risk taking,
security, social acceptance, socializing, solitude, spiritual development, status,
winning, wisdom.

In conjunction with my post on the best of the 1000 books I've read, here is a list of authors I follow in various subjects. I have learned much from each of them and would recommend any of their books:

Michael Shermer
Richard Dawkins
Brian Greene
Oliver Sacks
Joe Schwarcz
Bart Ehrman
Daniel Dennett
Elliot Cohen
Mary Roach
Alain de Botton
Thomas Sowell
Michael Gelb
Lou Marinoff

Henry David Thoreau wrote in Walden "How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book." Books can have that effect. My own experiences have been varied and rewarding. The summer after my freshman year in college (having completed Introduction to Philosophy) I promptly purchased and read Rene Descartes' Meditations on First Philosophy, David Hume's A Treatise of Human Nature, and Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason. While I cannot claim to have understood them completely they did set me upon the course that ended with my becoming a philosophy professor. So, the inspiration was there in the books at least in part.

Having recently completed reading 1000 books, it's hard to narrow down any list to a few favorites but I'll try to provide some good examples of some of the best books I’ve read which have had a profound effect on me. Stipulating that I learn from every book I read (in most cases) and many books have had a profound effect on me here are my thoughts in no particular order:

Thomas Paine The Age of Reason: This book is difficult to read without having some reaction. Paine is very clear in his criticisms of religion and The Bible (a book many people no doubt claim has had an impact on their lives even though they have not read the entire work). While some try to dismiss Paine's criticisms by attacking him personally, his criticisms and insights must be dealt with in an honest fashion.

Epictetus The Discourses: My first in depth exposure to Stoic philosophy. The basic tenets of stoicism entail the idea that our attitude towards things causes us either to be happy or unhappy. As Epictetus once said "it is not things that disturb us but our attitude towards them." This work provided inspiration for further reading and exploring the ideas and applications of Stoicism to everyday life.

Ludwig Wittgenstein Philosophical Investigations: This work inspired me to stay in philosophy at a time when I was contemplating leaving it. This would certainly be high on the list of books to consider for the honor of my one book to read again and again. It is designed specifically to be read and re-read and reflected upon. The philosopher Anthony Kenny once calculated that there were 784 questions in the Investigations of which only 110 are answered and 70 of the answers are meant to be wrong. Clearly Wittgenstein left us much to think about on our own and you could easily spend a lifetime with this book.

Any of the Dalai Lama's books would qualify as my favorite religious book but to pick one I would have to say The Art of Happiness for both its insights and practical application. Very closely related to the Stoic philosophy, the Dalai Lama's insights about happiness are clear, concise, easy to apply and very useful.

Really good books motivate in many ways. Some by provoking thought, others by provoking action. In either case they are valuable. Some books motivate me to read other books! This is always true of the philosopher Dan Dennett's books. Some books motivate me to slow down; Carl Honore's In Praise of Slowness. Some books have an immediate motivational impact. Wikinomics motivated me to check out more of the internet than I had been doing. Other books have a delayed impact. This was true of Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations. On first reading it I got nothing of value (or so I thought). Subsequent thinking and reading of it and other works of his kept me in philosophy at a time when I was thinking of leaving it for good.

Good books motivate but you have to be open to their powerful effects. Some books require more effort to read but have more of an impact. We should continually challenge ourselves by reading challenging books and seeking inspiration there. It is well worth the effort!

With the growing popularity of Facebook and other social networking sites, the idea of making connections should already be familiar to most college students. But, have you ever thought about using this concept as a learning tool? In fact one of the best ways to learn any subject is to see how it connects with something you already know. This is the whole point behind the cultural literacy approach to education championed by E.D. Hirsch and others.

If you think about it and look closely enough you will discover that you can connect virtually any academic subject with every other academic subject. And not only that. You can connect virtually any non-academic interest you have to some academic subject. This renders the question of relevance entirely moot. Asking the question “What does this subject have to do with my life?” simply indicates that you haven’t taken the time to look and see.

Let’s look at a few easy examples to give you an idea of what making connections would look like. Say you’re main passion is football. You watch as many games on weekends as you can and follow the details of players on your favorite teams. On the surface there is very little you are studying in school that has anything to do with football. But, look closer. Are mathematics and statistics related to football? Think about all those player stats you follow. Think about the strategy used by the coaches which depends on knowing the probability that a given play will work. If you’re studying economics you may have run into game theory which is connected with any sport involving strategy and other players.

Physics? How can the quarterback get his pass to the receiver with such accuracy in high winds, cold weather, and other factors. Biology? How can players build up their muscles and endurance to perform at their peak? Chemistry? What affect do performance enhancing drugs have on player’s health? Or for that matter what diet and legal supplements are best to help enhance performance? You see how easy it is to find connections?

Given enough time I could enumerate how each subject in the curriculum is connected to football. Or any other subject of interest you have. If you approach your courses in this way you should be able to do the same.



On Facebook you can see how people are connected through mutual friends. What is interesting is how you can be connected with other person through several mutual friends and may not even know that person. In other words, connections in everyday life can be hidden. But as Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler point out in their book titled Connections, even such hidden connections can have profound effects on your health, wealth, and general well-being. Friends of friends of friends can have a profound effect on your life without you even knowing it!

If this is the case for social networks, imagine how connections among the academic subjects you’re studying can have effects as well. It’s certainly worth investigating and might even make your learning experience more meaningful and lasting.