What are the 7 most influential and educational philosophical or science books you would suggest anyone to read?

If you have the time then also explain in a small paragraph (for each book) why you believe why they are important to read.

Are we in college?

Flatland.

Its fun.

Many books influence many people for many different reasons. Some teach us about matter and energy, some about right and wrong. One of the most universal books would be Grimm s Fairy Tales. Every tale has moral. The book is also literature and a part of our culture and history.

the story of philosophy - will durant
(the book that launched Simon & Schuster)

it is a really wonderful introduction to philosophy and
philosophers.

Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica

A Study of History, Toynbee

Riverside Shakespeare

A Brief History of Time, Hawking


Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy

Logical...

Critique of Pure Reason - Kant

Extremely in depth... the name says it all!

On Certainty - Wittgenstein

The foundation which grounds belief and knowledge...

Theologico Political Treatise - Spinoza

The perfect definition of 'God' as is supported ny modern science, as long as one dismisses the use of the term 'substance', or expands it to include whatever it is that exists. His thoughts on 'love' are irrefutable, and may be 'cold' to some, but they hold true in all cases!

On The Way To Language - Heidegger

A beautifully written foreward dialogue between a Japanese man and a man of 'Western' style thinking concerning the distinction(s) between the styles. The content of the book itself identifies and further develops language as the 'House of Being'...

Discourse on Methods and Meditations - Descartes

Cartesian thought...




Mystical...

Signs of the Unseen - Jalaluddin Rumi

Rumi... does that not say it all? Poetic beauty!

Essential Sufism - edited by James Fadiman and Robert Frager

A collage of authors... emotionally invoking!

Tao Te Ching - Lao Tzu

The beauty of 'the thread that runs through the way!'

Bhagavad-Gita, As It Is - A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

Essential Hinduism



Pure Wisdom...

The Four Agreements - don Miguel Ruiz

This is so utterly and purely simple that it amazes me how many types of people can relate to it...

Want enlightenment? Read this book!

The Art of Intrusion by Kevin Mitnick

Ooops!... correction necessary, I cannot believe that I screwed this one up!

The Spinoza comments were completely incorrect! That particular book discusses other(biblical type) things.

Ethics by Spinoza... that is the one I meant!



:duh:

In college I suffered through the classics because I didn't really have time for Shakespeare, Milton, Chaucer, and Plato. I focused on my math and science homework. The classics are far more interesting now that I have time to think about them.

However, this thread is about developmental books that had a great impact on us. Since I was always "into" science and fiction, "hard" science fiction became a favorite. Hard science fiction uses real advanced science in innovative ways to project possible futures and scenarios. Issac Asimov, Author C. Clark and Philip K. Dikk all wrote award winning novels and stories about the transitional moment when machines began to think as well or better than man.

The master of hard science fiction, however, was Larry Niven who had college professors and high school science classes write him studies of some of the advanced concepts in his novels. "Ringworld" pushed forward engineering concepts on a level never seen before. "Neutron Star" pushed the limits of hard science fiction in the direction of "Flatland" and really has no equal today.

Larry Niven won the Hugo Award for "Neutron Star" in 1967; SciFi's top honor. The book portrays the life of a truly alien creature from a totally alien perspective.

Larry wrote "Ringworld" in 1970 and promptly won the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus awards for creating a world of even greater originality; an artificial world similar to Earth but with six million times the surface area. The strangest thing of all is that his concepts work, on paper at least. These concepts showed the infinite possibilities to man and pointed the way to possible scientific advances heretofore undreamed.

"So Long and Thanks for all the Fish" was better!

Ahhhh...

Pushing the boundaries of what we know.

On one more tangent was Harold McGee's book "On Food and Cooking". Harold was an English major as I recall, who had a great curiosity. He sat down and explored the rules and myths about cooking in a very scientific, logical, and practical manner. He disproved many commonly held beliefs about cooking and his book is considered a masterpiece. He, almost overnight, became a world renown expert in a field where he had no training and no experience. He simply used his mind. Personally, I think everyone should read his book because it teaches how humanity gets locked into preconceived notions and how common sense really works. It will also teach you a lot about the foods we eat.

I study the Universal Philosophy of Brutal Truth and Honesty

Mirror,

You chose a perfect screen name!

I second that one and also a much newer book (1994) by a current philosopher, John R. Searle "The Rediscovery of teh Mind" which I'm sure CreativeSoul would love (hating) this book. Actually I found myself arguing with the written word, since Searle himself was not avalilable. But very intersting, in fact I just got it out again, I'd like to re-read it since I've learned much since my last sitting with it.

Einstein "Ideas and Opinions"

And don't laught but I have this big book by David Macaulay called "The Way Things Work".

It includes very simple informative knowledge, say, about inclined planes and wedges and then goes on to show how this information was used to create machines. Everything from how different locks work, to zippers and pulleys, gears, turbines, communication, holographs, perpetual motion and even nuclear fusion.

This is not for real science buffs, but I found it gave me a heck of a lot of 'beginner' information on a ton of different topics.

There is so much information that I found I was more creative in solving problems, able to view mechanics more abstractly, and I even felt more confident when I had to attack some plumbing and electrical problems.

Word of Warning - when I learned how a zipper works, I was totally disillusioned and didn't pick the book up again for a long time. I liked the mystery of the zipper I didn't like the magic being dispelled.

The (perceived)implications of this statement are hilarious! If one views the statement as a metaphorical application for the possible results stemming from cognitive dissonance, it is quite telling. That is most likely just in my own mind though, and probably not the intent.

Thank you grasshopper.