One of the challenges in attempting to face the world from a philosophical orientation is that you still exist in a world where the majority of humans you will meet and interact with are operating from an ideological orientation. As such, one needs tools for understanding ideological structures and assumptions without necessarily falling prey to them. While there is no ideal way of doing this, the Temple of Set’s Reading List offers a few key texts that can help prepare you for learning to think beyond ideology while familiarizing yourself with the major ideologies of the past and present.
0A. A Rulebook for Arguments, Third Edition by Anthony Weston. Patty A. Hardy IV°: “In 87 no-nonsense pages Weston covers all essential elements of rational argument. The first chapter introduces the ground rules; the next five lay out the strengths and pitfalls of various modes of argument and explain the classical forms of deductive reasoning. Weston next distills the art of writing argumentative essays into less than twenty pages, and ends with a concise tour of the classic fallacies.”
16A. Political Ideas and Ideologies: A History of Political Thought by Mulford Q. Sibley. NY: Harper & Row, 1970. [Deutschland: WU: 22a/11] (TOS-1) (LVT-1) MA: “Until you’ve read and digested this material, you really oughtn’t to talk about ‘political philosophy’ any more than someone who hasn’t read an anatomical textbook should try to hold forth on anatomy. I teach university courses surveying the history of political theory, and this is far and away the most lucid, objective, and comprehensive survey text I’ve yet found. It has two conspicuous omissions – Nietzsche and ancient Egypt – and it is oriented towards the political rather than the more abstract or conceptual branches of philosophy. So you won’t find Kant, Schopenhauer, Sartre, etc. here. The author [wonderful name!] was a very distinguished and a very controversial Professor of Political Science at the University of Minnesota. If you wonder why something like this is TOS-1, trust me. After you’ve absorbed the knowledge it contains, you’ll wonder on what basis you held political opinions before reading it.” J. Lewis VI°: “Go read a textbook? In this case, yes. Sibley’s book lacks dryness of text and contains doors opening onto the essence of politics. It is valuable for far more than explanations of sandbox politics.”
16F. Parapolitics by Raghavan Iyer. NY: Oxford University Press, 1979. (TOS-4) MA: “Anadmirable, beautifully orchestrated attempt to apply the political philosophy of Plato to the modern world. Iyer lays the groundwork with diagrams explaining the hierarchy of mental activity: Noesis (‘pure vision’ – apprehension of the Good [the Agathon]), Dianoia (logical ‘thinking’), Pistis (‘believing’ – dogmatic acceptance of ideology), and Eikasia (‘imagining’ – the lowest form of image-simplification and instinctive behavior). These forms of activity may be applied to society in a variety of political ‘dimensions’, governed by various syntheses of logos (speech), will (strength), and eros (sympathy). The resultant political forces may be generated towards the attainment of various goals: self-preservation, power, stability, reason, welfare, perfectability, and ultimately the parapolitics of transcendence. This book is a pearl of thought; its sole defect is that it was cast before a world of largely egalitarian readers [it was allowed to go out of print in 1985]. Do not attempt it until you have first mastered #12C, #16A, and #16G. Iyer was Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara. For information concerning other books by this RHP Magus, contact: Concord Grove Press; 1407 Chapala Street; Santa Barbara, CA 93101. Phone (805) 966-3941.”
16G. Political Thinking by Glenn Tinder. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1986 (4th Edition). (TOS-1) MA: “This marvelous little (228 pages) paperback is composed completely of questions to the reader concerning the great political/philosophical issues of history, together with information on how major political philosophers addressed those questions. The questions are left open- ended, the expectation being that the reader must think his own answers to them. This book is thus an active mental exercise, not a textbook for passive memorization or indoctrination. Tinder is Professor of Political Science at the University of Massachusetts.”
Setemheb 