Recommended!

Next to our Plato project, I just want to update you guys on other books I am reading. Most of them did I read for my philosophical reading club Winfried, others relating to my studies or random books. There we go...

1. Our Culture, What's Left of It: The Mandarins and the Masses

Theodore Dalrymple
The author is a English writer and psychiatrist, who wrote on the European culture, our society. A couple of critical, though interesting essays on the building blocks of our culture, problems in the underclass, the role of personal responsibility and inflation of cultural values. Although he work is known as conservative, his work and personality (I met him at a Winfried meeting) absolutely impressed me.

2. Atheistic Manifesto

Herman Philipse
Herman Philipse is a professor philosophy at Oxford and Utrecht university and wrote about a rational explanation the non-existence of god. A defense of atheism. Opponents are Richard Swinnburne, who 'proved' the existence of god via Bayesian statistics. A very challenging and interesting topic for further reading.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existence_of_god

3. The twenty years' crisis

E.H.Carr
Practice and study of politics require an appreciation of realism as well as utopianism, power as well as moralityCarr was a international relations professor and was important for the liberal as well as realist theoretical tradition in IR. Easy to read for non-IR student and absolutely a classic

4. America at the Crossroads: Democracy, Power, and the Neoconservative Legacy

Francis Fukuyama

The author of The end of history and the last man criticises in his new book the neoconservative foreign policy strategy of the Bush administration. Interesting for who are interested in contemporary politics.

Enjoy reading! I am looking forward to your top ten!