Well, I have been reading. After realising that Times upcoming warehouse sale is on the 29th Dec 06 to 2 Jan 07 (which is this coming friday), decided to quickly buck up on my reading. Yeap… you’re absolutely right. I have still yet to finish those books I bought since the past warehouse sale… (check out the bright yellow sticker tag at the lower right end corner of the book….
Just wanted to read a little bit more before throwing good money into the next warehouse sale at expo…Â well, the books are just a bit too … err.. value for money to resists…Â (smiley)
Well, what caught my eye was the first chapter of the book. The author talked about how he taught philosophy and how he found out that more and more people were getting philosophical and asking the deep questions of the meaning of life….
It certainly brought me back to my army days when I was hungrily devouring Sophie’s world (an amazon 4 star book… how come huh? Only 4 stars? What were the readers thinking?)… and being utterly impressed about the different thoughts of philosophers on what life was about. In fact, Sophie’s World got me so interested in philosophy that I actually ran off to the MPH at Stamford Road to grab 2 introductory texts on philosophy.
Well, the books were so dry that I could not finish it. And with that…. my infatuation with philosophy died prematurely.
Anyway, the book is: If Aristotle Ran General Motors (An Amazon 4 star book). The author feels that in our chaotic world of terrorism and violent crimes (he lives in the states i guess), everybody is feeling lost and as such look to philosophy to “get our bearings and make sense of our lives in a time when the meaning of it all is not obvious”.
Well, personally, I believe that one of main reasons why these american are getting philosophical is simply because they have progressed economically to a stage whereby they no longer need to worry too much about food and shelter and so can spend time idling and thinking and getting their bearings….. Imagine the people in Phillipines who have to travel all the way from Phillipine to work day and night as maids in Singapore. Do you honestly think they give 2 hoots about the meaning of life?
The Economist once wrote in an article about how in the early twentieth or nineteenth century, over 70% of the Americans were involved in the agriculture industry. Today, less than 3% (or .3%… a result of getting old) of the American population are involved in agriculture and they produce enough to export to foreign countries. This effectively means that out of every hundred people, 67 people have been freed from their agriculture job. They have to find things to do… so they start doing new things (entrepeneurs call it pioneering a new concept)… some started acting, some started trading etc… and others… with a stable job and nothing to worry about… decided to philosophise.. and yet others started writing stupid blogs … like the one you are reading right now…
So in short… more people get interested in the abstract concept of the meaning of life….
Anyway… that got me kind of interested.. .and since it was only eight bucks, so what the heck. Thankfully, a quick check later at Amazon revealed that it was a 4 star book. (No worries… upcoming book fare… will get my laptop along to check out the title before buying… its not the money… but more the time…. )
After a brief period of reading, the book emphaized on 4 primary concepts which are applicable in both our business and personal life:
- Truth & Honesty
- Beauty
- Goodness
- Unity
Well, I have finished with Truth & Honesty and Beauty… guess that means I have devoured more than half of the book…Â Will let you guys know about it in my next article!