# Currently Reading

**URL:** <https://www.thephilosophyforum.com/t/currently-reading/59>\
**Category:** The Learning Zone\
**Created:** [February 17, 2026, 10:47am UTC](https://www.thephilosophyforum.com/t/currently-reading/59 "2026-02-17T10:47:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 5

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Count\_Timothy\_von\_Icarus](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex007/user_avatar/www.thephilosophyforum.com/count_timothy_von_icarus/32/675_2.png) [@Count\_Timothy\_von\_Icarus](https://www.thephilosophyforum.com/u/Count_Timothy_von_Icarus)\
**Post date:** [May 12, 2026, 11:06pm UTC](https://www.thephilosophyforum.com/t/currently-reading/59/82 "2026-05-12T23:06:34Z")

</div>

I began re-reading _Truth and Method_ and am reminded that I really like Gadamer and only dislike those who later used (abused) what he wrote. Great stuff.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Jamal](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex007/user_avatar/www.thephilosophyforum.com/jamal/32/95_2.png) [@Jamal](https://www.thephilosophyforum.com/u/Jamal)\
**Post date:** [May 13, 2026, 4:49am UTC](https://www.thephilosophyforum.com/t/currently-reading/59/83 "2026-05-13T04:49:45Z")

</div>

I sometimes wonder if I’d like to read that. But what I find when I look at summaries is that I already agree with him, that there’s nothing surprising or weird enough to catch my attention.

This is obviously a superficial impression; I’d be interested in seeing what you like about it.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Count\_Timothy\_von\_Icarus](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex007/user_avatar/www.thephilosophyforum.com/count_timothy_von_icarus/32/675_2.png) [@Count\_Timothy\_von\_Icarus](https://www.thephilosophyforum.com/u/Count_Timothy_von_Icarus)\
**Post date:** [May 14, 2026, 6:57pm UTC](https://www.thephilosophyforum.com/t/currently-reading/59/84 "2026-05-14T18:57:12Z")

</div>

Well, his main points have been so thoroughly absorbed that they might indeed not be that surprising. I think the position he is taking on is still very much alive in some corners though, so it remains important. The journey is enjoyable as well, and there are a lot of undeveloped paths, like the relationship between formation and the human sciences, that are good food for thought, even if they don’t lead anywhere in the work itself. For me, since I think the answer Gadamer gives is inadequate, these less developed paths offer a set of ideas for fixing what is incomplete.

I think the key points have also been “corrupted” in a way though, in that they get turned towards a sort of relativism grounded in the idea that we can never “escape” interpretation, tradition, etc. So, in that respect, a return to the source itself is also nice. Although, to be fair, arguably Gadamer lacks the resources to escape this sort of reading, and falls into his own sort of dogmatism—but that only helps to highlight the shape of the problems. So for me, the interest is: “this is good, how can it be fixed?”

MacIntyre exhibits this same problem in his later work on traditions. It’s ironic, because getting hung up on the fear that saying anything about what is onticaly prior to all tradition requires “stepping outside” of any particular view point is itself to have failed to fully transcend the very Enlightenment presuppositions that are being critiqued (and indeed, to unwittingly keep asserting them as a global precondition on all rational thought and metaphysics). You need a _particular_ metaphysics of appearances, language, culture, etc. for this to even become a concern in the first place.

I thought of a geometric analogy here. From the inside, the hermeneutic circle is going to look like an endlessly repeating straight line. Keep expanding it, and the line just looks more and more straight, and repetition becomes less common, giving the illusion of linear progress.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Paine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5daacb/32.png) [@Paine](https://www.thephilosophyforum.com/u/Paine)\
**Post date:** [May 15, 2026, 1:17am UTC](https://www.thephilosophyforum.com/t/currently-reading/59/85 "2026-05-15T01:17:43Z")

</div>

I am going to give Emily Watson’s translation of the Iliad a go.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Jamal](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex007/user_avatar/www.thephilosophyforum.com/jamal/32/95_2.png) [@Jamal](https://www.thephilosophyforum.com/u/Jamal)\
**Post date:** [May 15, 2026, 1:44am UTC](https://www.thephilosophyforum.com/t/currently-reading/59/86 "2026-05-15T01:44:18Z")

</div>

Thanks, that is quite interesting.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Arne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de053/32.png) [@Arne](https://www.thephilosophyforum.com/u/Arne)\
**Post date:** [May 15, 2026, 2:02pm UTC](https://www.thephilosophyforum.com/t/currently-reading/59/87 "2026-05-15T14:02:36Z")

</div>

J.Young (2010) Friedrich Nietzscdhe - A Philosophical Biography, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK 683 p.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![BitterCrank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/dfb087/32.png) [@BitterCrank](https://www.thephilosophyforum.com/u/BitterCrank)\
**Post date:** [May 15, 2026, 7:24pm UTC](https://www.thephilosophyforum.com/t/currently-reading/59/88 "2026-05-15T19:24:31Z")

</div>

My current book is “Why The Allies Won” by Richard Overy. He asserts that allied victory was not at all certain even well into WWII. At the beginning of 1943 the future looked bleak for the UK, the US, and the USSR.

Stalingrad was the first ‘turn around’ battle. For once, Stalin had an excellent general in charge (Zhukov) and actually followed his advice. Winter certainly helped, but the next battle was Kursk (July, '43). Here industrial mobilization in the USSR, deep planning, and thorough preparation resulted in the huge Soviet victory.

German submarine warfare in the Atlantic took a huge toll on the US supply line to the UK. If a solution wasn’t found, a land invasion of continental Europe by the US and UK would not be possible. Technology (like 10 cm. radar) helped, but again it was organization, attention to detail, and systematic effort that resulted in minimizing of the U-Boat threat.

Very readable and insightful.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Arne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de053/32.png) [@Arne](https://www.thephilosophyforum.com/u/Arne)\
**Post date:** [May 17, 2026, 4:19am UTC](https://www.thephilosophyforum.com/t/currently-reading/59/89 "2026-05-17T04:19:08Z")

</div>

R.Safranski (1998) Martin Heidegger - Between Good and Evil, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA 496 p.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Javi](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex007/user_avatar/www.thephilosophyforum.com/javi/32/933_2.png) [@Javi](https://www.thephilosophyforum.com/u/Javi)\
**Post date:** [May 22, 2026, 4:46am UTC](https://www.thephilosophyforum.com/t/currently-reading/59/90 "2026-05-22T04:46:05Z")

</div>

_The Physics of Sorrow_ by Georgi Gospodinov.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Maw](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex007/user_avatar/www.thephilosophyforum.com/maw/32/444_2.png) [@Maw](https://www.thephilosophyforum.com/u/Maw)\
**Post date:** [May 29, 2026, 2:47am UTC](https://www.thephilosophyforum.com/t/currently-reading/59/91 "2026-05-29T02:47:28Z")

</div>

_The Confidence-Man_ by Herman Melville

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Banno](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex007/user_avatar/www.thephilosophyforum.com/banno/32/55_2.png) [@Banno](https://www.thephilosophyforum.com/u/Banno)\
**Post date:** [May 30, 2026, 2:39am UTC](https://www.thephilosophyforum.com/t/currently-reading/59/92 "2026-05-30T02:39:50Z")

</div>

_Feline Philosophy_, John Gray.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Banno](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex007/user_avatar/www.thephilosophyforum.com/banno/32/55_2.png) [@Banno](https://www.thephilosophyforum.com/u/Banno)\
**Post date:** [June 3, 2026, 7:04am UTC](https://www.thephilosophyforum.com/t/currently-reading/59/93 "2026-06-03T07:04:15Z")

</div>

_The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns and Fairies_, Robert Kirk, 1692.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Javi](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex007/user_avatar/www.thephilosophyforum.com/javi/32/933_2.png) [@Javi](https://www.thephilosophyforum.com/u/Javi)\
**Post date:** [June 4, 2026, 4:21pm UTC](https://www.thephilosophyforum.com/t/currently-reading/59/94 "2026-06-04T16:21:00Z")

</div>

_Chocolate Blood_ by Radka Denemarková.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Arne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de053/32.png) [@Arne](https://www.thephilosophyforum.com/u/Arne)\
**Post date:** [June 5, 2026, 12:23am UTC](https://www.thephilosophyforum.com/t/currently-reading/59/95 "2026-06-05T00:23:37Z")

</div>

N.J.Holland (2018) Heidegger and the Problem of Consciousness, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN 134 p.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Pantagruel](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex007/user_avatar/www.thephilosophyforum.com/pantagruel/32/472_2.png) [@Pantagruel](https://www.thephilosophyforum.com/u/Pantagruel)\
**Post date:** [June 7, 2026, 10:33am UTC](https://www.thephilosophyforum.com/t/currently-reading/59/96 "2026-06-07T10:33:29Z")

</div>

_Phenomenology and the Crisis of Philosophy_  
by Edmund Husserl

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Maw](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex007/user_avatar/www.thephilosophyforum.com/maw/32/444_2.png) [@Maw](https://www.thephilosophyforum.com/u/Maw)\
**Post date:** [June 9, 2026, 2:20pm UTC](https://www.thephilosophyforum.com/t/currently-reading/59/97 "2026-06-09T14:20:59Z")

</div>

Heading to my honeymoon, bringing:

_Tsurezuregusa_ by Yoshida Kenkō  
_The Rings of Saturn_ by W. G. Sebald

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Wayfarer](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex007/user_avatar/www.thephilosophyforum.com/wayfarer/32/123_2.png) [@Wayfarer](https://www.thephilosophyforum.com/u/Wayfarer)\
**Post date:** [June 15, 2026, 5:43am UTC](https://www.thephilosophyforum.com/t/currently-reading/59/98 "2026-06-15T05:43:34Z")

</div>

I’ve discovered a terrific open access (i.e. free!) MIT book called [Evolution “On Purpose”: Teleonomy in Living Systems,](https://direct.mit.edu/books/oa-edited-volume/5634/Evolution-On-Purpose-Teleonomy-in-Living-Systems) edited by Peter A. Corning, Stuart A. Kauffman, Denis Noble, James A. Shapiro, Richard I. Vane-Wright, Addy Pross.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Arne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de053/32.png) [@Arne](https://www.thephilosophyforum.com/u/Arne)\
**Post date:** [June 17, 2026, 4:12pm UTC](https://www.thephilosophyforum.com/t/currently-reading/59/99 "2026-06-17T16:12:54Z")

</div>

F. Nietzsche (2015) On the Future of Our Educational Institutions, in Complete Works of Friedrich Nietzsche. Delphi Classics, Hastings, U.K. 4406 p.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Jamal](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex007/user_avatar/www.thephilosophyforum.com/jamal/32/95_2.png) [@Jamal](https://www.thephilosophyforum.com/u/Jamal)\
**Post date:** [June 17, 2026, 4:19pm UTC](https://www.thephilosophyforum.com/t/currently-reading/59/100 "2026-06-17T16:19:40Z")

</div>

_The Only Cure: Freud and the Neuroscience of Mental Healing_ by Mark Solms

_What Freud Really Meant: A Chronological Reconstruction of His Theory of the Mind_ by Susan Sugarman

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Arne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de053/32.png) [@Arne](https://www.thephilosophyforum.com/u/Arne)\
**Post date:** [June 18, 2026, 2:33pm UTC](https://www.thephilosophyforum.com/t/currently-reading/59/101 "2026-06-18T14:33:38Z")

</div>

G.Bataille (1945) On Nietzsche, Paragon House, St. Paul, MN 180 p.

[Previous page](https://www.thephilosophyforum.com/t/currently-reading/59.md?page=4)

[Next page](https://www.thephilosophyforum.com/t/currently-reading/59.md?page=6)
