The Deebian Brief

As I have been used to brief here about my readings, I send this to declare that for months I haven't found a readable novel. please whoever can help is welcome, my favorite genre is high fantasy, but I don't mind anything really good.

Anyway, I would nevertheless brief about my readings in the last few months.

In the last few months I read the Beautiful book "Sophie's World". Thanks to my friend Walaa.

The book is a great introduction to the history of philosophy in the form of a nice novel. Now I was already reading a great introduction to philosophy that can be found here. And of all the subjects of philosophy I was interested in Ethics (philosophy of rights), political philosophy, and rhetoric (which is not itself a subject of philosophy but is related).

Oh, ... and the fallacies, ... never forget the fallacies, this one was hit, ... I remember feeling thrilled while reading in the topic for the first time, ... you know the feeling, when you are reading something, and you can't stop, you have other things to do, but you can't stop, and you almost wish the topic goes on and on endlessly for you not to lose that feeling. It's a rare feeling, I feel it while reading GREAT novels or really mind-blowing ideas.

The fallacies, or more specifically the logical fallacies are some patterns in logic, that are logically incorrect (or at least most commonly used in a wrong way) and yet are usually and very often intentionally used in our conversations, political speeches, and almost everything that should be persuasive in nature.

I will not sum it up here for lack of capacity, but I assure you that understanding it will change the way you interpret words, change the way you think and rationalize, your capacity to retort, and to convince or persuade (or simply defeat) people in conversations.

Being a current big fan of the TV show Boston Legal, I was thrilled to notice how most fallacies are used in each and every closing or cross examinations, and the more brilliant the lawyer, the more seamless the fallacies will be incorporated in his speech. Magnificent.

By some way I do not remember I got from the fallacies to the biases. Cognitive Biases are inherent and socially induced biases in the human cognition (distortions in the way humans perceive reality), and I will not sum them up either, but I will simply testify that it is not a bit less fascinating than the fallacies. It gives you a clearer look into the conscious of people, especially yourself, or the ones disagreeing with you, gives you a better understanding of why they claim what they claim, stand for what they stand for, protect what they protect. Biases can be found at the very core of most human conflicts, understanding it might help lessen solve those conflicts, or at least have a better understanding of their origins. Being conscious of your own biases can help you significantly improving your thoughts and rectifying your beliefs.

I am merely scratching the surface, but I know a good part of my reading in the near future will be in these topics, rhetoric, fallacies, and biases.

Just until I find another nice novel of course :)