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PaperclipPerfector  3mo ago (text post)   2355 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for December 15, 2024

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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I have 0 philosophy background and have really struggled with Beyond Good and Evil. I think i must be missing some key context. Claude has helped a bit but i also have a difficult time trusting that it's giving me the right summaries.

Mind and Cosmos was another one that I just could not grok. I'll have to keep pressing on. But sometimes it feels like I'm reading a book on algebra when i never learned what addition and subtraction were or something

I can't speak for the current quality of Claude, but if you are struggling with the context of a philosophical work and would like a lucid, analytic-inflected explanation of how academic philosophers see it, your best bet is generally the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy - hope that is helpful.

(PS - SEP does reflect the mainstream academic interpretation of philosophers, which comes with its own biases, such as the ludicrous claim that Nietzsche did not have a political philosophy. Think of it as a good teacher's opinion rather than gospel truth)

Yeah that is super helpful

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