Review: Henry David Thoreau Bundle: Walden, On the Duty of Civil Disobedience, and Walking

Henry David Thoreau Bundle: Walden, On the Duty of Civil Disobedience, and Walking by Henry David Thoreau
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Book: ****
Performance: ***

Great Bundle, Poorly Organized

A collection of classics that most Americans probable encountered at some point in their education (I certainly did) and it was interesting to come back to them many … many years later to contemplate how my perception and understanding of them may have changed. In this case, I definitely enjoyed them more, especially thanks to the excellent narration (I still think he was a loon). As might be expected, the bulk of the bundle is taken up by Walden, with several chapters devoted to certain aspects of Thoreau’s experience. The treatise on Civil Disobedience remains the most interesting IMHO, but it was all good and recommended. The only criticism I have is with the organization … there are no labels to the chapters and entire chapters are devoted to Title and the Words “The End” (You can tell these because they are only 3 seconds long). In light of that, I have tried to outline what is what below.

The chapters and sections in this work are:

Chapter 1 “Walden”
Chapter 2,3,4 - Economy (3:09)
Chapter 5 - Reading (22)
Chapter 6 - Sounds (35)
Chapter 7 - Solitude (20)
Chapter 8 - Visitors (27)
Chapter 9 - The Bean-field (24)
Chapter 10 - The Village (12)
Chapter 11 - The Ponds (54)
Chapter 12 - Baker Farm (15)
Chapter 13 - Higher Laws (25)
Chapter 14 - Brute Neighbors (27)
Chapter 15 - House Warming (33)
Chapter 16 - Former Inhabitants and Winter Visitors (28)
Chapter 17 - Winter Animals (21)
Chapter 18 - The End in Winter (31)
Chapter 19 - Spring
Chapter 20,21 - Conclusions, The End

Chapter 22,23,24 “On the Duty of Civil Disobedience” (53)

Chapter 25, 26, 27 “Walking” (1:12)

I was given this free advance review/listener copy (ARC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

#HenryDavidThoreau #FreeAudiobookCodes

View all my reviews

Review: David Hume Collection: A Treatise of Human Nature, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion.

David Hume Collection: A Treatise of Human Nature, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion. by David Hume
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Book: ****
Performance: ***

Audible Missing the Principles of Morals book

There really is not much to say about a collection of classic philosophy by such a famous personage. As a classic, it has already stood the test of time and is well worth the effort to explore the concepts and ideas within. It is, however, fairly typical of the genre, so if you struggle with the language typical of the genre, you will struggle here as will (it is not written for the plebeian audiences such as I). Normally that would leave the narration, which is perfectly fine for the task, as the determine factor for my rating; unfortunately, it appears that one of the four books advertised is missing from the audible edition (it is in the kindle edition, which suffers from formatting issues).

The chapters and sections in this work are:

“A Treatise of Human Nature” (21 hrs)
Book 1 - Of The Understanding
- Part 1: Of ideas, their origin, composition, connexion, abstraction, etc.
- Part 2: Of the ideas of space and time
- Part 3: Of knowledge and probability
- Part 4: Of the skeptical and other systems of philosophy
Book 2 - Of the Passions
- Part 1: Of pride and humility
- Part 2: Of love and hatred
- Part 3: Of the will and direct passions
Book 3 - Of Morals
- Part 1: Of virtue and vice in general
- Part 2: Of justice and injustice
- Part 3: Of the other virtues and vices

“An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding”
Section 1 - Of the different species of philosophy
Section 2 - Of the origin of ideas
Section 3 - Of the association of ideas
Section 4 - Skeptical doubts concerning the operations of the understanding (in two parts)
Section 5 - Skeptical solution of these doubts (in two parts)
Section 6 - Of probability
Section 7 - Of the idea of necessary connection (in two parts)
Section 8 - Of liberty and necessity (in two parts)
Section 9 - Of the reason of animals
Section 10 - Of miracles (in two parts)
Section 11 - Of a particular providence and of a future state
Section 12 - Of the academical or skeptical philosophy (in three parts)

“An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals”
** Seems to be missing from this collection **

“Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion”
Part 1 - After I joined the company …
Part 2 - I must own …
Part 3 - How the most absurd argument …
Part 4 - It seems strange to me …
Part 5 - But to show you still more inconveniences …
Part 6 - It must be a slight fabric …
Part 7 - But here …
Part 8 - What you ascribe to the fertility of my invention …
Part 9 - But if so many difficulties attend the argument a posteriori …
Part 10 - It is my opinion …
Part 11 - I scruple not to allow …
Part 12 - After DEMEA's departure …

I was given this free advance review/listener copy (ARC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

#DavidHumeCollection #FreeAudiobookCodes

View all my reviews

Review: Religious Appeals in Power Politics

Religious Appeals in Power Politics by Peter S. Henne
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Book: ***
Performance: ***

An Interesting Look at the Use of Religious Appeals for Political Persuasion

This is primarily an academic exercise that looks at the use of religious appeals in three (3) specific instances and draws a few inferences from that. As such, the material is fairly dry, but interesting if you actually enjoy political analysis in any form. Generally we are first given some context of the situation from which the religious appeal is used, followed by how the religious appeal was constructed and finally an analysis of how effective the religious appeal was. In some respects, the targeted view here makes it difficult to make any over arching generalization outside of sometimes it works as expected and sometimes it doesn’t, but such appeals can’t be ignored within the political process. There primary explanation for this is a combination of source credibility and target material gain … which seems somewhat intuitive to me where such things a proof texting is used to justify already existing inclinations … in other words, religious appeals are primarily used to allow people to do what they already wanted to do without any guilt or moral condemnation. As such it seems that such appeals are purely machiavellian.

The chapters and sections in this work are:

Preface (4:06)
Introduction (42:40)
Chapter 1 - Why, How, and When Religious Appeals Matter in Power Politics (1:09:15)
Chapter 2 - Religious Appeals in a Middle East Rivalry: Saudi Arabia and the Islamic Pact (1:33:37)
Chapter 3 - US Engagement in the Global War on Terrorism (1:29:27)
Chapter 4 - Russia: Undermining Western Opposition to the Russky Mir(1:19:10)
Chapter 5 - Expanding the Analysis (45:32)
Conclusion (1:11:09)

I was given this free advance review/listener copy (ARC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

#ReligiousAppealsinPowerPolitics #FreeAudiobookCodes

View all my reviews

Review: Hayden's World: Volume 2

Hayden's World: Volume 2 by S.D. Falchetti
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Janus 2: ***
Bernard’s Promise: ****

This is the second collection of of hard science shorts in the James Hayden Universe and it looks at First Contact. Over all it was better than Vol 1 with each story having more room to develop and become interesting (both novellas were slow starting up). It is obvious that a lot of thought went into the science for these stories and for the most part the author came across as knowledgable … but that also means that some of the extensive descriptions and explanations slowed down the narrative a bit and I am sure that experts in these science and tech fields could find plenty wrong with the details, but for the casual reader it was an entertaining mind exercise that I enjoyed.

I was given this free advance review/listener copy (ARC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

#HaydendWorldVol2 #FreeAudiobookCodes #KindleUnlimited

View all my reviews