Literate Scientist

This is a little book that I bought in local bookshop adjacent to Costa and quickly read from cover to cover while commuting. I was interested in this title because my relative studies kindness (and benevolence) as a topic in Russian literature so I thought by reading that book I could better discuss it. Approx. one third of the book narrates the evolution of the meaning of kindness from Classical Greece and Rome to earlier Christianity, Augustine, then to Hobbes (Leviathan), Enlightenment, and finally, Rousseau (Émile).  The second third is a lengthy treatise on the interpretation of kindness from psychoanalytical perspective (Freud, Winnicott). The final third is about the role of kindness in the modern Western society. Interesting read (although a bit repetitive sometimes) that prompted me to buy Leviathan: With Selected Variants from the Latin Edition of 1668 and to reconsider the role kindness in a modern corporation workplace.

On Kindness

This is a cover of the book that I bought (published by Penguin):

- Dmitry Vostokov @ LiterateScientist.com -

OpenTask plans to publish the extended and edited version of this blog as a book:

Literate Scientists and Their Books: An Independent Guide to Understanding Reality (ISBN: 978-1906717520)

- Dmitry Vostokov @ LiterateScientist.com -

I’m the father of two and very interested in understanding what kind of parenting my children need. What amount of pressure do they need? What is the difference between the Soviet-type school I attended in 1977 - 1987 and the modern school? This is why I bought this book in a local bookshop a few months ago, started reading this month and already halfway through. Very interesting read. Even applicable to work as well. More pressure - less creativity. I really liked debunking the myth of multitasking.

Under Pressure: Rescuing Our Children from the Culture of Hyper-Parenting

- Dmitry Vostokov @ LiterateScientist.com -