Ludwig Wittgenstein: Sein Leben in Bildern und Texten

Ludwig Wittgenstein: Sein Leben in Bildern und Texten
Teutonic archive of many relevant biographical images, along with excerpts from letters, notebooks. I don't read German, so it's not as if I could parse the 2/3 of the text that was in  German. But the era when Wittgenstein was friends with Paul Ramsey, or exhorted Alan Turing to sit in his lectures, is abundantly documented with English notes.

Parallels: A Look at Twins

The essay at the start is not particularly trenchant, and since the book was published in the 1970s, there's scant likelihood that it's discussion isn't dated and ignorant of the field of behavioral genetics. What makes this book rewarding is the photos, with brief vignettes. I was reminded of Lonny Shavelson's classic, "I'm not crazy, I just lost my glasses." While the photos are not as memorable, this book still sheds light on the experience twins share.

Presence: Human Purpose and the Field of the Future

Presence: Human Purpose and the Field of the Future
(Peter Senge, 2 CDs)
I am vulnerable to tautologies wrapped up in a "systems" framework, so I'd never been sure whether the 5th Discipline was baloney or brilliant. Listening to (most of) these 2 CDs, where Senge just pulls things out of his butt, rambles about Heidegger, nature hikes, and all kinds of woo-woo now tilts the pinball machine. Whatever insight he had has been squandered by wealth and whatever publisher indulged in releasing this vacuity.

Zakhor: Jewish History and Jewish Memory (The Samuel and Althea Stroum Lectures in Jewish Studies)

Zakhor: Jewish History and Jewish Memory
(Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi, 4:49)
A rewarding set of lectures, which advance the claim that Jews, from the rabbinic period until well into modernity, had no particular interest in history, since they devoted themselves primarily to remembering the Torah and Talmud, rather than the incidentals of daily political life. Harold Bloom's introduction is typically inflated, but still manages to set the stage for this wonderful little book.

Beyond Good & Evil

Beyond Good & Evil
(Friedrich Nietzsche, 8:29)
Although I've almost unalloyedly favorable memories of this book, I didn't find the version of the text, with editorial commentary, to be anything but a hindrance. It was still possible to enjoy Friedrich's points. but I strongly disliked the interpolation of a commentator between each chapter.

Fire: The Spark That Ignited Human Evolution

Fire: The Spark That Ignited Human Evolution
(Frances Burton, 7;14)
Fairly interesting, although nowhere near as valuable as Wrangham's study of how cooking transformed hominids. Perhaps because it wasn't capable of riveting my attention, I found the book's organization rather haphazard. The final chapter recaps almost every major point made before. I did enjoy the concept of calling the crucial link between humans and near humans "the Ancestor."

The Crisis of Zionism

(Peter Beinart, 7:40)

This is a love letter to Israel, strained through the deep disappointment caused by Israel's post-1967 occupation of the West Bank. I agree with a great deal of the thinking, and definitely believe that Israel's current path fails to develop a promise for liberal democracy within Israel. It's a dark topic, and even though Beinart struggles intently to hold out a way forward, it's not an actual solution, so much as an ethically defensible vision. The author's deep connection to Judaism illuminates many of the topics. His best-scenario for overthrowing the Orthodox-dominated Israel lobby in the US depends fatally on removing barriers to school subsidies for religious schools. Beinart argues that since the Orthodox already fully participate in private schooling, the new supply liberated by state subsidies would of necessity be more liberal/open minded. I'm still not persuaded that the solution isn't worse than the problem.