Philosophical Dictionary
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Philosophy for Beginners: It’s Dangerous to Go Alone, Take This Reading List
By Markus Uehleke
The philosophy meme is blunt: open Kant or Hegel with no background and the book bites. Kant knew readers found the Critique dry and obscure, and Hume disowned his first book as juvenile work. So should beginners start with primary texts or secondary literature, and which books should a beginner read first? -
Agent Smith Meme Explained: “Yet You Participate in the Matrix” and the Philosophy of the Status Quo
By Markus Uehleke
The Agent Smith meme borrows the punchline of a 2016 comic: anyone who criticises a system while living inside it must be a hypocrite. Economists have measured the urge to keep things as they are since 1988, and the theorist whose book appears in the film found it embarrassing. Is the gotcha clever, or loss aversion?
