Unpopular Essays

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1. fiforpgDec 2023
   I like what Bertrand Russell had to say to that very question, in one of Unpopular essays (quoting approximately from memory):

   Philosophy is science in the circumstances of insufficient knowledge. That is, given insufficient data it may still be beneficial to ponder possible future directions of research, contemplate lines of attack on long-standing questions, or even determine beforehand how these big questions should be posed. All of these circumscientific activities and thinking together constitute philosophy.

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2. yesenadamJul 2022
   Essays of GK Chesterton, Hazlitt, Emerson, Robert Louis Stevenson, Santayana, Bertrand Russell, HL Mencken, Oscar Wilde, William James

   Almost everything they wrote, but some good starting points:

   Chesterton - Heretics, Varied Types

   Hazlitt - The Plain Speaker, Table-Talk

   Emerson - Essays: First and Second Series

   Stevenson - Virginibus Puerisque, Across the Plains

   Santayana - Little Essays ed. Logan Pearsall Smith

   Russell - Unpopular Essays, Sceptical Essays

   Mencken - Selected Prejudices

   Wilde - Intentions

   James - Talks to Students, Memories and Studies

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3. heresie-dabordOct 2020
   Mr Gates is immensely wealthy and I am the working poor. I'm pleased to see these recommendations -- insofar as they are "selected" works -- showing a practical concern for the good of modern society.

   I'll recommend Sceptical Essays, Unpopular Essays, and The Conquest of Happiness (all by Bertrand Russell).

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4. kthejoker2Aug 2019
   Or Unpopular Essays by Bertrand Russell.

   Or almost anything by Orwell; his crankiness knows no limits.

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5. yesenadamNov 2018
   Some random things that come to mind: game theory, Nietzsche, Goffman's Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, Chomsky's political works, GK Chesterton (e.g. Heretics), Freakonomics, Cialdini's Influence, JR Saul (e.g. Voltaire's Bastards, The Doubter's Companion), Bertrand Russell (e.g. Unpopular Essays, Sceptical Essays, Freedom and Organization 1814-1914), Santayana (e.g. Egotism in German Philosophy), Scott Noble[0] and Adam Curtis' documentaries. The Devil's Dictionary, Metaphors We Live By, The Moral Animal

   If I had to pick just one for you - Voltaire's Bastards.

   edit: Also La Rochefoucauld's Maxims should be very high on a list of exposés - it's a savage exposé of oneself. La Bruyere's Characters is a milder but still at-times-scathing exposé of the world. As is Fable of the Bees..

   [0] http://metanoia-films.org/

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6. yesenadamJan 2018
   Too many to mention. A list of books I've read more times than any others - many times each:

   SARK's first 4-5 books, Robert Fulghum's books, Emerson's essays, Hazlitt's essays, Bertrand Russell's essays (e.g. Sceptical Essays, Unpopular Essays), GK Chesterton's essays and his book Heretics, Nietzsche's books, William James' essays, RL Stevenson's essays, La Rochefoucauld's Maxims, La Bruyere's Characters, Kurt Vonnegut's The Sirens of Titan, Ben Zander's The Art of Possibility...

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