Recommended Books on Philosophy
on Jun.23, 2009, under Announcements
I’ve added a new section to the recommended books page linked at the top of the site, check it out!
If any recommendations or feedback please comment here.
5 comments for this entry:
Leave a Reply
-
Welcome
You've made it to Lost Liberty Café, where true freedom begins. Click the about page for more information, or begin imbibing my latest soul liberating content to your satisfaction. I hope you enjoy your stay.
Many articles available in audio!
Become A Contributor
Lost Liberty Café is looking for more great writers!
Have an article, picture, poetry or video you would like to submit? Would you like to become a regular columnist or guest editor at Lost Liberty Café?
Click here for details.
Loading ...
June 23rd, 2009 on 15:58
Goleman’s book is criticized a lot. See for yourself: http://eqi.org/gole.htm.
June 23rd, 2009 on 17:21
Interesting criticisms for sure, though I’m not sure as to the degree of their validity, I’m sure there is some. I do have my own criticisms of the criticism, as well as my own criticisms of the book – some of which is noted in these criticisms.
There is a lot about motive which is irrelevant considering the motive of the critics may have been the lack of credit they received which I agree was unjust. I’m not sure why it matters why he wrote the book, what he wanted to succeed at (consulting) or what his original intent was. They seem more concerned with that and the lack of credit he gave than anything else.
Other criticisms involved concern with the use of specific terms deemed “manipulative” due to the emotions they may invoke, something I would not consider to be anything more than artistic license and a means of keeping the reader from dozing off.
There are other vague criticisms which were equally as vague as that which was being criticized. The definition of the term Emotional Intelligence for instance. I think I can figure out for myself what it meant in general and I did not feel confused by the term.
There were also concerns about the disturbing stories used, which I think are necessary to illustrate his point. They criticize his use of the terms emotional hijacking and becoming a slave to passions, but I think this is out of context as later he shows that this is preventable.
I do think some concerns were quite valid, especially those involving the claims made about percentages of success as well as the integrity of the test he uses, but those numbers were not what I got out of this book.
I do appreciate being pointed to these criticisms and while I did not agree with some of the assumptions that were made, I do think there is still plenty of value to get from the book. I may provide that link next to the book so that people do not take it all on faith. Though I have plenty of criticisms about Branden, Rand, Plato, Nietzsche, Aristotle and Socrates and could link them to that relevant data, but still recommend and find a lot of value in their books
June 23rd, 2009 on 19:44
Well said
June 24th, 2009 on 12:26
Right. What you write makes sense. I think the criticisms about unsubstantiated claims (pulling numbers out of thin air) were the most damning of the book.
I had this book on my reading list for quite some time and your list reminded me of it, so I looked it up and noticed that there is quite a controversy around it. (which is not a bad thing by itself
) It discouraged me from keeping it on my list. I just wanted to point out there are some valid criticisms.
Thanks for your response.
June 24th, 2009 on 12:28
BTW, the website I posted contains quite a lot of free and useful information on EI. I know this is the books list, but if you’ll be putting together recomended websites list, you may consider it for inclusion.