Ever read a philosophical work that made you go half mad?

Answer 1

no, and i am curious if you are thinking of a particular work,,,,,,,, but like most things, you must take it into your mind, reflect on it,,,,,, not be totally absorbed in it,,,,, and finally come to conclusions as to what within the work seems true to you,,,,,

Answer 2

I had a Western philosophy book that had excerpts of everyone from Plato to... don't remember, some guy born in the 20s perhaps. & the ONLY philosopher who I could not even derive an idea from his own writing was Sartre. I would say that what I read made me go in circles, but I wasn't even sure he was saying what I was understanding, so I didn't know if it was indeed circular or something else completely different, albeit incomprehensible, that he intended. Unclear writing AND ugly as sin. He seems to have had nothing to recommend himself to people.

Answer 3

YES!!! I read something about "Old McDonald had a farm..." in a big-sized Rhyme-of-All-Time book when I was a little kid, I went 3/4 mad because the thing I know was that old McDonald on the opposite street only sells Happy Meal.

Do you consider that as something philosophical? XD

Answer 4

Most of Heidegger. There are others (Plato, for his desire to escape what he was given [a complete body and world] not just rationality). But Heidegger because his thinking often led me in circles, and because many see him as an existentialist, something he denied, and because he didn't denounce Nazi's in the beginning, which is a contradiction of his own philosophy, and finally, because I still love his work anyway. He has a LOT to say about poetry and language, art and beauty, which was how I was introduced to Heidegger.

See: http://www.tameri.com/csw/exist/heidegger.shtml

I also loved Sartre's trilogy (JPS was a student of Heidegger) but I was only in my late teens when I read it and it was very depressing and made me want to kill myself (that would be at least half-mad, right?) I think my relative youth and lack of life experience caused me to over-react and not read his trilogy as critically as I would today.

Answer 5

No, I've never read anything which I wasn't capable of comprehending and/or perceiving. Not sure if its a matter of my being intelligent or everything I've read being less than I'm capable of understanding, or both? Going "mad" over anything is a perception thing, something allowed.... If you come across something and don't understand it, disect it and figure it out and work from the end of it to the beginning, its much easier to grasp things that way!

Answer 6

One should read philosophy to appreciate human thinking and wisdom and at the same time to enjoy and laugh at the foolishness of so called wise.

It is not worth going mad about someone’s madness. If you are mad about some kind of madness, there is no way out. So, don’t be mad to be mad at some kind of madness.

Answer 7

Before reading I was steeped in the madness of the world. After reading the book, i improved and half of my madness has gone.

Answer 8

Wittgenstein is pretty dense, I'm reading him now, and I think I'll have to re-read a few times before I really grasp it properly. Ayn Rand also makes me crazy, but that's because I vehemently disagree with her, not because her work is difficult to read. Same goes for Nietzsche.

Answer 9

Charles Sanders Peirce. Try following that bad boy's logic!

Answer 10

trying to get through Kant right now, and it seems to be working as you stated. Next is Nietzsche, and I have been told that he just might finish the job!