I get notifications for a lot of different things. Some of them are way off base (e.g., I think at some point a publicist sent me the contact information of a client who had written a book on homoepathy?). But some of them are spot on. I drink a lot of coffee. On the order of two to six large cups a day probably. So I was curious when I got a notification of a new KickStarter, Cultured Coffee: Reinventing Coffee. Of course for many people Folgers instant coffee will do, but that’s probably not most people who have the marginal income to engage in discretionary spending on coffee made from recently ground whole beans. Definitely curious where this will all go in the long run, though unlike the horrible “cupcake craze” it seems that coffee is here to stay.
The author of A New History of Western Philosophy admits a fondness for medieval thought, which he believes has been undervalued. There is something of a backlash to the Renaissance way of thinking about the “Middle Ages” recently, but it can get a little out of control. I have to be honest and admit that for whatever reason, many, though not all, medieval philosophers and their thoughts seem to be no more than hilarious language games. Much of this has to do with the fact that their metaphysics were different from what take for granted today. Or, perhaps more accurately they took metaphysics seriously, so their linguistic analyses of terms were a very serious affair for them.
But I’m taking a break to check out Michael Cook’s Ancient Religions, Modern Politics: The Islamic Case in Comparative Perspective. I got this on the recommendation of T Greer, and he is correct that I disagree with some of the premises. But, it’s pretty interesting and detailed on facts. I doubt I’ll finish it before getting back to A New History of Western Philosophy, but it will probably be a quick read once I have time.
Comments are closed.