Scribbling

After my recent discovery that Barnes and Noble no longer maintains a separate category for philosophy in its bookstore at Friendly Shopping Center I mused about the likelihood of its competitor, Borders, following suit. Just yesterday I happened to stop off at Borders to pick up a few things while on my way to check out CompUSA’s going out of business sale. As I perused the larger category shelf markers in Borders, I thought my surmise regarding the demise of philosophy was indeed accurate; however, I persisted with a more thorough going search and was rewarded with a modest find: two minor shelf sections that were clearly marked “Philosophy”! Using a rough book count, Nietzsche was far and away the most popular philosopher represented. There was a smattering of James and one contemporary author whose book categorized James as the messenger of post modern philosophy. Locke’s presence was not out of place given the present state of our own governmental milieu, and more specifically, how that state is growing seemingly more contrary to Locke’s essential political philosophy, which the founding architects used as a template in establishing our own nascent republic. The unexpected treasure that I nearly overlooked hidden on the bottom shelf was Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations. It was a thick, well done, hard bound edition, with the heft and feel that one expects of a worthy tome; the typeface was easy to read, although meaning was another matter–I am certain the author would concur. While I had hoped for more, maybe four shelf sections instead of two, Plato’s Republic, a bit of Aristotle, or even St Thomas Aquinas, I would have left Borders decidedly more contented if the coterie of books by Sylvia Brown were not looming just a mere four books away in the next shelf section that was mystifyingly marked, “Metaphysical”!

Tags: books, ideas, Philosophy, reading, thought