Lastly by continuing to use myself as an illustrative example of my own ideas, I offer the following. To give even more background concerning myself and what has shaped me, I present a brief list of significant and formative books that have shaped my ideas or confirmed them. Listed in the order I encountered those books.
I: School and Junior High School
H. G. Wells: The Time Machine (1896), The War of the Worlds (1898), and The First Men in the Moon (1901)
Ray Bradbury: Martian Chronicles (1950), Fahrenheit 451 (1953), Dandelion Wine (1957), Something Wicked this Way Comes (1962)
Arthur Conan Doyle: The Sherlock Holmes Canon (1887 � 1927)
Isaac Asimov: I Robot (1950), Foundation (1951), Foundation and Empire (1952), and Second Foundation (1953)
A. E. Van Vogt: The World of Null-A (1948) and The Players of Null-A (1956)
Arthur C. Clarke: 2001 a Space Odyssey (1968) and Childhoods End (1953)
Dale Wasserman and Joe Darion, Lyrics & Mitch Leigh Music: Man of La Mancha (1965)
Viktor Frankl: Man�s Search for Meaning (1959, 1963)
II. High School
George Orwell: 1984 (1949 )
Ayn Rand: The Fountainhead (1943, 1968 29th printing) and Atlas Shrugged (1957, 1968 31st printing)
Ursula K. Le Guin: The Left Hand of Darkness (1969) and The Lathe of Heaven (1971)
Robert Heinlein: Stranger in a Strange Land (1961)
Frank Herbert: Dune (1965)
J. R. R. Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings (1954 & 1955)
James Mitchner: The Source (1965)
Viktor Frankl: The Doctor and The Soul (1955)
Jean Paul Sartre: Existentialism and Human Emotions (1957) [excerpts from Existentialism and Being and Nothingness]
Albert Camus: The Myth of Sisyphus and other essays (English ed. 1955)
Erich Fromm: The Art of Loving ( 1956), Man For Himself: An Inquiry into the Psychology of Ethics (1947) and The Revolution of Hope: Toward a Humanized Technology (1968)
Charles Fort: The Book of the Damned (1919)
Eric Hoffer: The True Believer (1951)
Alvin Toffler: Future Shock (1970)
Thomas S. Kuhn: The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962, 1970 2nd ed.)
III. College [Portland State Community College, California State at Northridge, and University of Washington in Seattle]
Robert L. Heilbroner: The Worldly Philosophers (1953, 1972 ed.) and An Inquiry into the Human Prospect (1974)
Jose Ortega Y� Gasset: The Revolt of the Masses (1930) and Meditations on Quixote (1914)
Gershom G. Scholem: On the Kabbalah and Its Symbolism (1960 German, Translated into English by Ralph Manheim 1965, 2nd printing 1970) and Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (1941, 1946, 1954, Translated into English by George Lichtheim [?] 1960, 7th printing 1973)
Elie Wiesel: Souls on Fire (1972 English Translation) and Night (1960 English Translation)
John Brunner: Stand on Zanzibar (1968), The Sheep Lookup (1972), and Shockwave Rider (1975)
Robert E. Ornstein: The Psychology of Consciousness (1972,1975)
Lawrence LeShan: The Medium, the Mystic and the Physicist: Towards a General Theory of the Paranormal (1966, 1975)
Benjamin Whorf: Language, Thought & Reality: Selected writings (1927 - 1941)
Noam Chomsky: Reflections on Language (1975)
Alfred Korzybski: Science and Sanity: An Introduction to Non-Aristotelian Systems and General Semantics (1933)
Arthur Koestler: The Act of Creation (1964), The Ghost in the Machine (1967) and Janus: A Summing Up (1978)
Peter Berger: The Sacred Canopy: Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion (1969) and The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge (1966)
Robert Pirsig: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values (1974)
Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching (240? BCE) [Translation & commentary by Wing-tsit Chan, The Way of Lao Tzu (1963)]
Holmes Welch: Taoism: The Parting of the Way (1957)
Ursula K. Le Guin: The Dispossessed (1974)
Julian Jaynes: The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind (1976)
Simone de Beauvoir: The Second Sex, (1949, translated from the French into English by H. M. Parshley, 1952)
Olaf Stapledon: Last and First Men (1930) and Star Maker (1937)
IV. After Graduating from the University of Washington
Robert G. Jahn and Brenda J. Dunne: Margins of Reality: The Role of Consciousness in the Physical World (1987)
Robert Pirsig: Lila: An Inquiry into Morals (1991)
Gershom Scholem: On The Mystical Shape of the Godhead: Basic Concepts in the Kabbalah (1962 German, 1976 Hebrew, 1991 English Translation by Jochaim Neugroschel)
Erich Harth: The Creative Loop: How the Brain Makes A Mind (1993)
Robert Ornstein and James Burke: The Axemaker�s Gift: Technology�s Capture and Control of Our Minds and Culture (1995)
Ken Wilber: A Brief History of Everything (1996), No Boundary: Eastern and Western Approaches to Personal Growth (1979), and Sex, Evolution, Spirituality: The Spirit of Evolution (1995, 2000).
Franklin Merrell-Wolff: Experience and Philosophy: A Personal Record of Transformation and a Discussion of Transcendental Consciousness (1994) [Containing his prior works Pathways Through To Space (1944) and Philosophy of Consciousness Without An Object (1973).]
Evelyn Underhill: Mysticism: A Study in the Nature and Development of Man�s Spiritual Consciousness (1910)
Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching (240? BCE) [Translation & commentary by Jonathan Star The Definitive Edition, (2000)]
Donald Harman Akenson: Surpassing Wonder: The Invention of The Bible and The Talmuds (1998)
Owen Barfield: Saving the Appearances: A Study in Idolatry (1957, 2nd ed. 1988)
Part V: Books encountered during and because of the process of writing this book
Hannah Arendt: The Life of the Mind: Thinking and Willing (1971,1978)
Sanford L. Drob: Symbols of the Kabbalah: Philosophical and Psychological Perspectives (2000).
Richard Tarnas: The Passion of the Western World: Understanding the Ideas That Have Shaped Our World View (1991)
Rabbi Tirzah Firestone: The Receiving: Reclaiming Jewish Women�s Wisdom (2003)
Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching (240? BCE) [Translation & commentary by Roger T. Ames and David Hall in their: �Dao De Jing: �Making This Life Significant�, A Philosophical Translation� (2003)]
George Lakoff & Mark Johnson: Metaphors We Live By (1980, New Afterword 2003)
Alfred North Whitehead: Science and the Modern World (1925, 1953)
I feel I need to explain the difference between Books of Facts at one end of a continuum which has at its other end, Books of Ideas.
Books of Facts are timely. Books of Facts are a recital of, and a recounting of, information concerning a specific endeavor or occurrence. A textbook on Physics, Astronomy, Psychology, or any other science, be it hard or soft, are examples of Books of Facts. They are a listing of what we as humans within the community of scientist know about a given topic at the time of the writing of the book. These books are timely in that they need to constantly be updated to keep up with current discovery�s, to continually be accurate in their presentation. They are stating what is known about the topic and what is currently understood about the topic. What currently is believed about the topic. This is of course the current ideas that frame the past and newly discovered facts. As science advances, as new techniques and equipment is made and used, this in itself leads to new facts being examined nd thus new information and insight into that topic is uncovered. As new ideas, new hypothesis and theories are proposed, new facts are searched for. Books such as these become outdated depending on the rapidity of the endeavor�s in that field of knowledge. The older book becomes almost useless in its purpose, the facts and understandings of the significance of those facts have changed with the passage of time and new efforts in that field. Old Books of Facts become of interest in the study of the history of that field.
On the other end of the continuum are Books of Ideas. Book of ideas are timeless. These books may have within them certain facts and understandings of those facts, but the information and facts in these books play a supportive role, not a primary role. The author uses facts to illustrate a point, an idea. The authors use facts as components of metaphors rather than as bits of data which can be considered true or false. The Book of Ideas presents a theory. The Book of Ideas presents a way of looking at our world, a worldview. The Book of Ideas puts our world into a perspective and context by which we can understand ourselves. The Book of Ideas shapes our human world, and could changes forever the nature of that world.
On the continuum of Static and Dynamic: Facts are the static end and Ideas are the Dynamic end. On the continuum of External and Internal: Facts are at the external end and Ideas are on the Internal end. On the Continuum of Timeless and Timely: Facts are at the Timeless end and Ideas are at the Timely end. On the continuum of Parts and Wholes: Facts are the parts out of which we build the Whole that is the Idea. Therefore a Fact once noticed will lie there forever in static certainty, a foundation upon which to build. Ideas will flit in and out. Ideas are in a seemingly constant state of flux. Ideas seemingly are in and out of fashion and usefulness. Ideas are the protean forge by which we discover the significance and meaning that lies hidden in those static timeless Facts.
Facts can be tested with A-Logic�s tool of 100% valid or invalid. Specific formulations presented as an hypothesis based upon an idea can also be tested with A-Logic�s tool of 100% valid or invalid. But an idea is a source of inspiration. It is a fountainhead. An idea once realized and conceptualized continues to bring forth new hypothesis which beg to be tested. Each new hypothesis needs to be tested by A-Logic. An idea which consistently brings forth invalid hypothesis may and should ultimately be judged. Such an idea can then be considered invalid or at least irrelevant. But, a failure of one formulated hypothesis does not demonstrated that the idea itself is false or useless. A parent can have many children and not all of them may turn out to make a monumental contribution to the greater good of society. But all children participate in society. One small act today can affect someone or something which creates a subtle small shift that lays the foundation for recognizing something new tomorrow. An idea as a source of inspiration is, in this way, forever serves a purpose and forever demonstrates its usefulness. Ideas can forever challenge us.
Ideas are not things that are quantitative. Ideas are not 100% anything. They are not 100% true or 100% false. Ideas are things which are qualitative. Ideas should be evaluated by the tools of more or less. The difference between a good idea or a bad idea is their relevance, their utility. Ideas come out of the nexus of goodness, truthfulness and beauty. Facts are neither good or beautiful. Facts, if carefully constructed can be found to be true or false.
But in reality facts can be said to exist because an idea points out a relationship that makes examining something important. Ideas determine importance and significance. Ideas create importance and significances. Facts are bits of information which are looked for because an idea says that the fact should be found. Facts are the result of an idea. Facts are created out of the stuff of life when an idea says: �Look at this.� Or �Look over there.� Ideas come first. Facts are the by product of how ideas operate. Facts are found by ideas.
Many facts are based on, or are, direct observations made by the senses, or by means of the extended senses using varying instruments that augment the senses. Facts are closest to sensory data. Ideas are farther from the grounding of the senses. Ideas are the realization of the interaction of sensory Facts. Ideas are constructed out of the linguistic model of metaphors and the artistic model of symbols. Both metaphors and symbols can be interpreted and re-interpreted by each individual and each generation for meaning and significance. Those metaphors and symbols themselves can be, and are, static and dynamic. At the dynamic end they are protean and in flux, a source of inspiration and newness. As they become more static, more formally formulated with words they become beliefs. And in becoming a belief they have a tendency to become driven into our unconscious and become the forging and shaping force of our �sunglasses�. If that belief becomes extremely static, if it becomes the defining construct for determining who or what belongs, then that idea has become a dogma.
The varying sacred texts upon which religions have been created are Books of Ideas. These texts contain ideas that were made into culturally fundamental ideas. Such insights are so fundamental that their relevance are timeless. Their ideas and insights are forever significant.
These books, like all Books of Ideas, are the product of a specific time, place and author but the ideas presented go beyond that time, place and author. These books, like the ideas they embody, never go out of date, but they can and do, go out of fashion. Or can become irrelevant. Then the idea sits in the cultural discard bin like a ticking bomb or a seed. Waiting to explode or be re-born. An idea always contains the ability to impact our thinking and our experience of the world.
There are some Books of Ideas that the people of a culture feel that the ideas so resonate with that culture�s beliefs concerning its place in the cosmos that the idea becomes taken up and integrated into the collection of ideas that determine and define that culture. These Books have become so important they can not be ignored or overlooked. Then there are other Books of Ideas which do not strike the same chord. Like a tune that was catchy, cute, or fun but had no depth. Such ideas, and the books that present them, become seemingly irrelevant. They become of interest to the historian of the culture but not significant in the shaping of that culture.
The books I have listed are Books of Ideas. The books that I have listed are books that I believe have shaped our culture or give a profound insight into the ideas that have shaped our culture. As such the publication dates are significant in when their insight was first encountered and for us to reflect on their impact on our world.
One last comment on this topic. I believe that this book you are reading should be classified and understood as a Book of Ideas and not a Book of Facts.