/lit/ - Literature

After exploring the nature of the intuitions that I've laid out previously, I'm hoping to create a list of 15-30 books, in a variety of subjects for the purpose of expanding understanding. There is much to be said about the usefulness of books if one isn't capable of digesting them appropriately, but I'm not interesting that discussion. If it's necessary to tackle several books rigorously and thoroughly in order to acquire their value, then so be it.

This curriculum needs to be a solid survey of the basic units of understanding, the tools required to understand complex relationships, and for bonus points, the underlying purpose for investigating and the questions that inspired investigation in the first place.

Sure, somebody could be born with this kind of "know-how", and most of us learn a great deal of this understanding through education and problem-solving in our own lives, but why put ourselves at the mercy of fate when we can take matters into our own hands?

I want this curriculum to be a crash course on increasing clarity and depth of thought, leaving autodidacts with the mental faculties necessary to tackle future challenges, making the most out of somebody's native intelligence. After tackling this list, one should be equipped to explore the world with comfort in their abilities to make observations, understand relationships, and contribute to the conversation of wisdom.

If this is even possible, I would also like to have this list of books be sufficient to achieve a cursory education for people looking to improve their knowledge beyond the dregs of their high school or college education. However, I need to keep the scope limited to the fundamentals. There are far more than 20 worthwhile books, and this isn't a definitive guide to "the best books ever". Some fields like "economics" may already require proficiency in basic fields like history, mathematics, and philosophy, so it would be redundant to cover include them. Only the bare necessities should be maintained for brevity.