Autodidactic Erudition - Ideas about an Optimal Learning Plan for an Aspiring Intellectual

[Lucas88]

Modern education in the state school system is next to useless, especially for the philosophically minded. Its purpose is not to produce erudite individuals who can think for themselves or express their ideas about a number of intellectual topics in a coherent manner but rather simply to churn out another generation of compliant slaves just intelligent enough to carry out the roles which society has assigned to it. God knows how much time I wasted stumbling around in the darkness not knowing how to educate myself. Like many others, I could have done with a much more structured and efficient learning plan recommended by established erudites before me.

Here in this thread I would like for us to discuss ideas for a basic outline of areas of study and key materials for an autodidactic erudite. The goal is to produce a well-rounded intellectual capable of meaningful discourse on important philosophical topics and with a firm basis for future intellectual and creative endeavors. I would like for us to begin with the more academic or theoretical side of things but as the thread progresses we can expand the discussion to include more practical skills as well, although in some cases there will be a significant degree of overlap.

I am particularly interested in knowing @gsjackson's thoughts on this topic. From what I understand he has earned a PhD in an academic field, has extensive experience working as a teacher, and always displays an exceptionally high level of erudition in all of his posts on the forum. I also want to hear about @WilliamSmith's ideas about an optimal autodidactic erudition plan since William is the type to research things in depth and organize his research material in a systematic way and seems to be far ahead of the curve than most people at this skill. I think that this topic will be of interest to him. I would also like to tag @Pixel--Dude and @Tsar in this thread. I've had conversations about this same topic with Pixel--Dude in real life and I think that Tsar will like this topic too.

Here are my own general ideas for key subjects and areas of study for an autodidactic erudite:


Philosophy

A basic grounding in philosophy is essential for any serious intellectual. I would even go as far as to say that if you don't know philosophy you don't know how to think. In my view the autodidactic erudite should begin with an exploration of philosophy's fundamental branches such as metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, aesthetics, and politics (i.e., forms of governance). He should get to grips with the key issues within each area and develop enough understanding of each to be able to formulate a coherent argument. I believe that knowledge of philosophy is invaluable because it allows the student to behold the bigger picture of all hotly discussed issues, consider all possibilities, and see beyond simplistic dichotomies and received notions which populate popular topics of discussion. Far from being some abstract useless subject, philosophy really is an indispensable basis for higher thinking.

When it comes to the topic of individual philosophers and their contributions to philosophy, I especially recommend Aristotle and Nietzsche. I believe that these two offer insights which are grounded in reality and therefore serve to ground the student. Aristotle outlines the most grounded conception of human flourishing with his theory of eudaimonia and virtues and therefore gives the student a concrete approach on how to live a good life. Nietzsche identifies the Will to Power as the fundamental driving force of all life and reintroduces an aristocratic conception of life in contrast to the various popular forms of Slave Morality. I personally feel that reading the works of these two philosophers will help the student to prepare himself for life in the real world.

I'm also considering the inclusion of two more individuals as key thinkers to study: Machiavelli and Sun Tsu. Both of these favor realism at the time of action as opposed to abstract ideals. They likewise prepare the student for dealing with the amoral real world.


Intellectual History

Building upon his grounding in philosophy, the student should also become intimately acquainted with the history of human thought. He should strive to gain a solid understanding of all of the major philosophical, political and economic currents and movements since at least the time of the Enlightenment (although it may also be useful to learn about pre-Enlightenment and non-European currents of thought as well) and how they have shaped history. This avenue of study will allow one to form a deeper understanding of the world in which we find ourselves today and also allow us to conceive possibilities for a better future.


Art and Aesthetics

In addition to learning basic drawing and painting techniques and concepts, the student should also learn about the various artistic movements, their characteristics and their representative works throughout history. It should also include styles of architecture.


Musical Theory

The student should aim to learn the basics of musical theory in conjunction with practice in at least one instrument and, just like with art and architecture, become familiarized with all of the major genres of music including classical and popular. A basic knowledge of music technology should also be taught along with an understanding of vibrations and sound frequencies and how they affect consciousness and emotions.


Language and Linguistics

The student should study at least one foreign language - preferably one that is useful for his own goals and even better if it is a language that is grammatically conservative.

Studying a grammatically conservative language is useful. It allows the student to better understand the grammatical structures of his own relatively simpler language and therefore become a better writer and orator. That's the reason why until relatively recently educated people in Anglophone countries still studied Latin. Of course, today one could choose a modern language with greater practical application. But generally speaking learning a foreign language will also help one to improve their grammar, writing and oration in their native language.

The basics of linguistics should also be studied in conjunction with the foreign language. The student should formally study the parts of speech and how they relate to one another in a sentence.


World Literature

The student should become acquainted with the representative classics of various countries as well as the various literary movements throughout history. I'm not sure which books in particular should be read and analyzed. I read some of the so-called classics of English literature in school but wasn't particularly impressed. I'd be more than happy for someone else to recommend a good list of classical titles from English, German, French, Spanish, Italian and maybe even Russian and Ancient Greek literature.


Religion and Esotericism

The student should learn about the fundamental doctrines and beliefs of the major world religions and esoteric movements from the Abrahamic to the Eastern ones such as Hinduism and Buddhism as well as the likes of Hermeticism, Neo-Platonism and even Gnosticism. The reason for this is simple: one wishes to open oneself up to many different possibilities and be able to see beyond the simplistic Western dichotomy of Christianity vs. atheism.


Social Sciences

The student should study the basic sociological theories about how society operates as well as the various psychological models of human behavior. Sociological thinkers to study include Compte, Durkheim, Weber and even Marx (it is always good to understand one's enemy). Psychological models of behavior to study include cognitive, behavioral, social and evolutionary approaches rather than any perverted Jewish Freudian claptrap. Specific areas of psychology which might be interesting to study could include Big 5 personality traits and things such as the Dark Triad.



The above are my ideas so far. I would appreciate further suggestions from others pertaining to areas of study and particular materials.

[galii]

What's up Lukashenko? Still hating?

The word that you are looking for is the Renaissance Man. Most of the things you list are very good but I think you have to stay longer with Greek Philosophy. My man is Epicurus. He is the man who showed how to escape the matrix and not to be a sheep. He later was honored by Arthur Schopenhauer who inspired Nietzsche. Christians destroyed Epicurus' philosophy because humans are basically monkeys they needed that weirdo shit. That is why Christianity created so many weirdos who are traumatized. Still in a dialectical sense that is needed for humans' evolution I guess.

Humans are very bad at dealing with cognitive dissonance. So that is why we need an operating system that can deal with that. That is why I like to preach self improvement. Without it it is hard not to get overwhelmed by life itself.

The basic problem with humans' monkey mind is when they get vegetables to eat they are happy. When they get bananas after that they are even more happy. If you give them vegetables again they go full bananas I mean they get angry. That is the thing that we have to overcome or we stay monkeys. Though that is ok too if it is your destiny.

Because the world is full of retarded monkeys the only thing that has some objectivity is science. If you do not respect it you will be a romantic weirdo.

So what is needed to start self improvement? Actually one can start with the internet and collect what people who are invested in the topic say about it. One will find out that the start is actually meditation. Then come the usual suspects. You might have heard the list and are tired of hearing it so I will not write it.

Another point worth mentioning is being able to deal with other opinions and even search for them. You should know the other side otherwise you do not know your side. The pain you feel is the weakness leaving your body and mind.

Another thing when you go abroad is to use the internet for intellectual evolution. Many countries where the cheap girls are have low IQ. So account for that.

Another point is ego death. Especially for younger folks. Our opinions are hard to change so sometimes we have to die mentally that is the ego has to die. The ego will come back but it will be different and more adapted to reality or to the matrix. Yes we are always in a matrix.

Btw a classic example for a Renaissance Man is Leonardo da Vinci

Again Epicurus and Schopenhauer are a good starting point to remember.

Btw nothing of this is the way. Worth mentioning is we do not have free will. So in the end destiny that is determinism probably does not need free will. So in the end it makes sense to be humble and maybe go full Buddha.

[galii]

If you do not like this something is wrong with you intellectually:

“To do evil a human being must first of all believe that what he's doing is good... Ideology - that is what gives devildoing its long-sought justification and gives the evildoer the necessary steadfastness and determination. That is the social theory which helps to make his acts seem good instead of bad in his own and others' eyes, so that he won't hear reproaches and curses but will receive praise and honors.”

Being able to talk about psychedelics in a rational way

[gsjackson]

It's something I thought about in my twenties, and even put together an extensive reading list. Two things put a bit of a damper on the project, though I still like to think of myself as an autodidact despite not reading anywhere near as many books as I should now that I'm online. One is, of course, the Jewish appropriation of erudition and the life of the mind, to the extent it takes place in academia. It's their game, they own all the venues where you can express erudition (why acquire it if you can't express it?) -- colleges, publishing houses, etc.

The second reason is the sterility of the project, if it takes place without a clear purpose in the real world we live in. One of my contemporaries -- Ken Wilber -- dropped out of the college we both attended and set himself the project of acquiring all useful knowledge throughout history and synthesizing it into a grand thesis. Some people seem to think he succeeded; to me he's kind of a crashing bore.

I'd find an entry point into intellection through something that really interests you. In my case, I got into conservative political theory in 1977 through the writing of George Gilder and George Will -- the former because he's a bloody genius, the latter because he writes so well (though I now regard him as a lying whore). So I closed down the local university library every night going through a bibliography William Buckley put together in a book titled Did You Ever See a Dream Walking. This project took over my life for the next decade. I became all too familiar with political Washington, got to know several of the writers I'd admired, including Gilder, and made a living in that world for a while. I've moved on -- obviously you can't stay within any mainstream political movement and honestly address the JQ, as one of those writers I got to know, Joe Sobran, had his career destroyed by the (((neocons))) for getting curious about them -- but that's where my intellectual curiosity took me for several years, and I'm glad it did.

Along these lines I'd recommend Emerson's essay The American Scholar, which is sort of a personal credo. In the 19th century he recommended nature, books and public affairs for a proper education. But if you are game for a rigorous and extensive reading program, I can't really improve on your curriculum.

[Lucas88]

It's something I thought about in my twenties, and even put together an extensive reading list. Two things put a bit of a damper on the project, though I still like to think of myself as an autodidact despite not reading anywhere near as many books as I should now that I'm online. One is, of course, the Jewish appropriation of erudition and the life of the mind, to the extent it takes place in academia. It's their game, they own all the venues where you can express erudition (why acquire it if you can't express it?) -- colleges, publishing houses, etc.

The second reason is the sterility of the project, if it takes place without a clear purpose in the real world we live in. One of my contemporaries -- Ken Wilber -- dropped out of the college we both attended and set himself the project of acquiring all useful knowledge throughout history and synthesizing it into a grand thesis. Some people seem to think he succeeded; to me he's kind of a crashing bore.

I'd find an entry point into intellection through something that really interests you. In my case, I got into conservative political theory in 1977 through the writing of George Gilder and George Will -- the former because he's a bloody genius, the latter because he writes so well (though I now regard him as a lying whore). So I closed down the local university library every night going through a bibliography William Buckley put together in a book titled Did You Ever See a Dream Walking. This project took over my life for the next decade. I became all too familiar with political Washington, got to know several of the writers I'd admired, including Gilder, and made a living in that world for a while. I've moved on -- obviously you can't stay within any mainstream political movement and honestly address the JQ, as one of those writers I got to know, Joe Sobran, had his career destroyed by the (((neocons))) for getting curious about them -- but that's where my intellectual curiosity took me for several years, and I'm glad it did.

Along these lines I'd recommend Emerson's essay The American Scholar, which is sort of a personal credo. In the 19th century he recommended nature, books and public affairs for a proper education. But if you are game for a rigorous and extensive reading program, I can't really improve on your curriculum.

I know that you say that you can't improve on my curriculum but thank you for your reply nevertheless.

The way I see it is that in this day and age if one doesn't take charge of his own education then he will simply be carried along by the popular trends of the world in which he finds himself. I regard autodidactic erudition as the first necessary step to be in a position to exercise one's own judgment and forge one's own individual identity in a social landscape characterized by intellectual passivity. In retrospect there are philosophical ideas and modes of thought that I wish that I had discovered much earlier like in my late teens or early 20s at the latest. Among these I include Nietzsche's concept of the Will to Power and his aristocratic conception of life. Our philosophical outlook usually influences our actions.

I was going to say that independent philosophical projects can still be published and disseminated through the internet but I think it's clear that that once free avenue too is rapidly coming to an end. Censorship is being cranked up across the entire world wide web and materials that don't conform to the standard mainstream narrative are increasingly being taken down. This is only going to get worse.

Ah, Emerson! I also enjoy Emerson and will certainly check out the essay which you recommended. I notice that you've quoted him before. He's one of the Anglophone thinkers who's always stood out to me.

I also know who Ken Wilber is and I also found his work quite insipid in spite of its far-reaching scope.

I completely understand your sentiment with regard to academia as an already irreparably subverted and therefore meaningless endeavor but at the same time I'm curious to know which authors and works (in addition to Emerson and the political authors which you've mentioned) you still regard as worthwhile even amidst the utter darkness of today -- kinda like rare oases of refreshing sanity in a vast desert of insanity.

[galii]

Here is a thread about it

https://www.actualized.org/forum/topic/ ... npolymath/

I am in the business of minimizing arguments - PBD

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HaYUsNykzs&t=465ss[/youtube]

[gsjackson]

As far as writers who have more or less passed along to me a philosophy and world view -- none really at this point. They all turn out to have clay feet. Tom Wolfe was my favorite writer, until he proclaimed himself a "patriot" who supported W Bush's invasion of Iraq, But Electric Kool Aid Acid Test is still the best book you can read about the '60s, and a lot of his other stuff is good. Noam Chomsky did some good work critiquing the West's imperialism, but then he staunchly defended the indefensible 9/11 narrative, and, far worse, a few months ago called for the unjabbed to be jailed. So f*ck the brain-dead old yid.

Gilder's a legit genius, if a bit rhapsodic about capitalism and tech. His all-out assault on the feminists back in '73 -- Sexual Suicide (it might have a different title now) -- influenced me hugely. If you want a first-rate prose stylist who destroys American pols with withering sarcasm, check out Lewis Lapham. His essay on The Contract With America and Newt Gingrich cast as Italian opera is absolutely the funniest thing I've ever read.

You can't go wrong with Emerson's essays. Nietzsche was actually a big fan of Emerson. I think Nietzsche is worth reading, though I got kicked out of a Nietzsche seminar by the Jewish professor for accusing poor Friedrich of penis envy. Don't ever let PAG see you cast aspersions on FN. He regards himself as the reincarnation of Nietzsche. For real -- it was on his website. He likes to engage in Nietzschean theater here (in most of his personas), challenging the untermenschen to rise up and transcend their pathetic little lives. I thought I was engaged in Nietzschean theater in the seminar, but the old yid didn't see it that way.

In any case, as far as reading other people goes, I now subscribe to the "if you see the Buddha in the road kill him" viewpoint. Don't take on any of these guys as gurus. Take what you can from them -- stylistically, substantively, whatever -- and put it in your bag, with the understanding that you're the best bet for understanding the truths that you need to acquire.

And by the way, if Shakespeare is on your reading list, keep in mind my friend Joe Sobran's opinion that those plays were written by Edward de Vere, the Earl of Oxford. He wrote a book on it titled Alias Shakespeare, which more or less convinced me. Supposedly, Emerson, Mark Twain and Freud all believed this as well.

[WilliamSmith]

@Lucas88 wow man, I was just thinking about this topic and contemplating making a thread on something very similar myself.
I like this, but I was going to focus more on "bare bones" fundamentals starting from scratch that would provide the fastest and most efficient path toward empowered self-sufficiency, as opposed to your deeper philosophical take getting us in the direction of erudition. I'm looking forward to what you guys come up with here, but I'm going to make some kind of outline of how I'd do it my way to start as a parallel thread:

My idea is to streamline what it would take if I had a kid (or more than one) and was completely responsible for their education and teaching them all the life skills they'd need to be empowered to succeed, with minimal time and resources, and zero outside help. (Then how much they'd want to delve into deeper learning and erudition would be up to them, maybe with some inspiration taken from whatever discussion we end up having in here.)

And that's hardly far-fetched, either: In the jewnited states, we now have kindergartens featuring drag queen story hour, indoctrinating kindergartners about non-binary gender, masturbation assignments, and from what I can see almost nothing that's actually personally empowering or of practical value, while further up from high school levels onward we have the ongoing cancellation of STEM requirements on the grounds that both STEM and objectivity itself are "rooted in white supremacist patriarchy," so if we think the educational standards were dysfunctional in our cases as Millennials or Gen Z, imagine what "Generation Alpha" and beyond will be getting.

Also, my goal will be to make it so streamlined, so that my own children (or anyone else who found it useful) could use it and follow it like a guidebook (if they chose to accept my help) even if I died. I'm in the game of life to win and have no intention of being bumped off earlier if there's any way I can defy any/all enemies and death itself, but even with an empowered attitude, you never know for sure what might cut your earthly time short, and I'm starting to get REALLY into single-handed ocean cruising, which means I'm opening up even more possible ways I might die, LOL. So I've been planning on coming up with this plan. Perhaps it'll shed some light on other areas where I'm personally lacking as well, and help me tighten up some areas where I've passed but could use improvement.

I am going to be ambitious and take a shot at how it'd be done even if they started out illiterate.
Obviously if I'm around, I'd teach them to read, but if I'm not that's also not far-fetched, since "woke" education engineers new generations to be more and more helpless and incompetent with the cover story they're being compassionate by letting them learn at their own pace or according to their own ability, but while that's great in theory if they helped the slower learnings achieve their goals in some unconventional way, the end result more often is they're churning out graduates who are close to illiterate in a lot of cases since they don't actually do anything to teach them and test their ability.

I'd also teach them to do basic practical math applied to practical goals that actually have an obvious purpose (since learning math in the abstract is infamously unappealing and frustrating to a lot of kids), and also all the personal financial topics that the ABC of ZOG agencies deliberately eliminated from US public education back in the days of infamy. (I was thinking of FDR days, though the real infamy started even earlier even back to the 1800s, but really broke out with ZOG getting the USA into the first World War.)

Anyway, I'll need to put some thought into this, but thanks for starting this thread, and thanks to @gsjackson for what he's contributed so far.

[galii]

Hey Pixeldude read more world literature classics if you want to be more mature.

[galii]

[galii]

[WilliamSmith]

Hey @Lucas88 I was wondering about expanding this topic to include physical activities and practical things as well.

MMA - Everyone should have some knowledge of martial arts for self defence. Pacifism is a weak ideology and learning to fight in order to protect both yourself and those you love is important. We should definitely get a few of the guys together and get back on the mats soon!

Survival - Things like learning to swim, how to make a fire in the wild. Basically teach ourselves to become self sufficient again in the event that electricity, which we've become totally dependent on, were to ever disappear. This also includes things like growing your own food etc.

Do you have anything else you could add or anything to elaborate on these? If I think of anything else I will update the topic.

@Pixel--Dude and @Lucas88 I'm still working on my own version of this too, but I agree with:

Learning some basic martial arts and survival skills is really good. That'll help a lot with confidence, which is the #1 thing you need in as many key areas of your life as possible.

An even bigger deal is that father's should learn and teach their sons how to go get the women (which you could politely just call "dating skills" I suppose).
No blame on men who don't know how to do it very well since no one teaches it to us (except the lucky few who get brought under the wing of a more experienced guy, though sometimes they have somewhat iffy ideas even if they've hit on a formula for getting the women, so it's a good idea to study many systems IMO). But the situation is so bad a lot of times there's even a taboo against the idea of learning to get good with women, which makes no f-ing sense, and causes all sorts of unnecessary drama and misery. So that's another one that'll be on my list.

At the even more base level, I've been thinking about how to refine logic and critical thinking down into a concise system that's easy to teach to kids by applying it to various applied examples they'd like. I'll come back to this again too, after I've worked on it more...

[Lucas88]

If we expand the discussion to include more practical subjects, survival skills and combat training are good choices. Also horticulture and cooking.

Then there are all of the new things that have emerged in the 21st century high-tech age such as programming, digital forms of art creation (e.g., Blender), virtual reality creation (e.g., Unity and Unreal Engine), etc. Gen Z kids seem to know a lot about this kind of stuff. I admit that I'm a bit retro and tend to be somewhat behind with current trends. I'm not much of a nerd or a techy either. A lot of this stuff is quite new to me and I have a lot to learn but I think that it would be useful to learn in this day and age. If I remember correctly, @WilliamSmith mentioned that he has some knowledge of programming and videogame creation. Maybe he could shed some light on what nerdy computer shit is good to learn.

Dating skills and female sexual psychology are also indispensable too. My dad is a boomer and a bumbling beta and so I never had anybody to teach me about how to be successful with women. I was totally clueless about this too for the longest time. I'm sure that I would have benefited greatly from some autodidactic study with the right materials or better yet instruction from a more experienced mentor.

Financial literacy is also a very useful area of knowledge. Most people know very little about financial matters even though it's a central part of our society.