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Thread: The Best (Sounding) Titles in Philosophy

  1. #1
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    The Best (Sounding) Titles in Philosophy

    Just for a bit of fun...

    Without any view to critiquing the quality of the ideas, arguments, or writing, I thought it might be fun to embark on the purely superficial task of listing some of the best-sounding titles of books in philosophy (and there are a LOT of really good ones)

    I thought I would kick it off with reference to Slavoj Žižek (pronounced "Slav-Oiy" and "Zhee-Zhek" (in the way the french say the 'Gi in the name 'Gigi', like the old movie), the Lacanian theorist and philosopher from Slovenia.

    Žižek has a real knack for catchy titles I think. Here are a few of the best examples:


    The Sublime Object of Ideology
    Enjoy Your Symptom!
    Tarrying with the Negative
    The Metastases of Enjoyment
    The Ticklish Subject
    Did Somebody Say Totalitarianism?
    Welcome to the Desert of the Real (this one courtesy of The Matrix film)
    Organs Without Bodies
    Iraq: The Borrowed Kettle
    .


    I look forward to seeing other people's contributions!

    Have a good one.

  2. #2
    still waiting to be found amanda_isabel's Avatar
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    i saw this book called,

    'how to fire your boss'.

    didn't read it though...
    ...don't need therapy to rehabilitate my smile...


    http://profiles.friendster.com/6239700

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    Yes! crazefest456's Avatar
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    how about
    The Parallax View
    Everything You Wanted to Know About Lacan...But were Afraid to Ask Hitchcock

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    Boll Weevil cuppajoe_9's Avatar
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    Beyond Good and Evil
    What is the use of a violent kind of delightfulness if there is no pleasure in not getting tired of it.
    - Gertrude Stein

    A washerwoman with her basket; a rook; a red-hot poker; th purples and grey-greens of flowers: some common feeling which held the whole together.
    - Virginia Woolf

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    Well since there haven't been too many responses... perhaps people don't want to play this game.

    So I will step back into the fray and try to stimulate activity by suggesting a ssome more candidates for 'sexiest' philosophy book titles. Surely other avid readers must have some philosophy books sitting on their shelves where they say, "Gee that book looks good sitting there. Just reading the title is exciting," etc etc. Maybe you haven't even read it but just like the title.

    To those who have contributed so far, thanks.
    amanda_isabel - "How to Fire Your Boss does sound an interesting title" - I haven't heard of it. I was just wondering, is it philosophy or management/career literature?
    cuppajoe_9, thanks for the Nietszche suggestion - "Beyond Good and Evil". I agree that is a great sounding title. I have my own Nietzche suggestion below.
    crazefest456 - yes those other Žižek titles are good ones too - I guess my original picks were just a general sample to illustrate his way with words (though I do think they are particularly good examples... heh heh).

    Does anyone have any other suggestions? Surely the ones currently listed so far cannot stand unchallenged as the only great-sounding book titles?

    There are literally thousands and thousands of great (and not-so-great) philisosophy books in existence, and I know that at least some of them sound kinda cool...

    Here are my new suggestions for some of the best ever:


    Tractatus Logico Philosophicus – Wittgenstein

    The Nicomachean Ethics – Aristotle

    Thus Spake Zarathustra – Nietzsche

    Being and Nothingness – Sartre
    The Respectful Prostitute – Sartre
    Who agrees/disagrees, has alternatives?

    Groovy.

    Let the battle of the book names rage! (well, not really, but alternate suggestions would be good!)

  6. #6
    Yes! crazefest456's Avatar
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    how about, On Bull**** - H.G. Frankfurt
    The respectful prostitute? funny..

  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by cuppajoe_9 View Post
    Beyond Good and Evil
    World as Will and Representation
    Wahnbriefe
    Tractus Logico-Philosophicus
    Gay Science

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    Fear and Trembling - Soren Kierkegaard

    A Brief History of Time - Stephen Hawking

    Ethics: Inventing Right and Wrong - J. L. Mackie

    The Anti-Christ - Friedrich Nietzsche

    Hell is Other People - Sartre

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    Registered User thegreenthing's Avatar
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    Thus Spoke Zarathustra and Twilight of the idols by Nietzsche
    Generaly, I consider writing a fine art, but sleping still is a little finer to me

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    Registered User mS_?'s Avatar
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    The Will to Power

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    Phenomenology of the Spirit, by the adorable Hegel. My 'favourite' which has been pushed down my throat for years, but it refused it every time I tried reading it

  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by Anastasija View Post
    Phenomenology of the Spirit, by the adorable Hegel. My 'favourite' which has been pushed down my throat for years, but it refused it every time I tried reading it
    just open yourself. my half-buddha bow to you for mentioning this.
    "He was nauseous with regret when he saw her face again, and when, as of yore, he pleaded and begged at her knees for the joy of her being. She understood Neal; she stroked his hair; she knew he was mad."
    ---Jack Kerouac, On The Road: The Original Scroll

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    Yes! crazefest456's Avatar
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    I was going through that for a year and a half, so I finally started reading it this year..It feels like a big thing, and you realize that it's bigger. I love saying the title to my friends because it sounds like I'm making it up...

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    Normal Madness - Santayana

    Fear and Trembling - Kierkegaard (again)

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