Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: What! You too? I thought I was the only one.

-C.S. Lewis

Monday, December 12, 2005

Teach Me Political Science

As some of you may have noticed, I write a lot about politics on this site. Most of my thoughts come from what I would consider to be a common sense way of looking at an issue. I try to gather as many facts about an issue as I can, consider the potential positive results of a certain policy and give it my support in proportion to how much the country is likely to benefit from it. The idea is to make our wonderful country even better, right?

Just one problem. I have absolutely no background in political science or public policy. It's high time I remedy this situation.

I already bought Leviathan at a used book store and I've started on my CPL copy of Aristotle's Politics. I need five or so more books that will help me lay down a good foundation for future cogitating. Perhaps someone's syllabus from their intro to poli sci class? That might work. I suppose such a syllabus wouldn't really get at public policy per se, but I'm going to take a wild guess and assume that it and poli sci share a foundation.

Recommend books. Help me learn.

Update: The Oversoul speaks. Via Invisible Library, Amazon.com has a new feature called "Grown-Up School" where experts in such-and-such a field create a reading list to help auto-didacts like myself get started. What an idea!

This blog is based on a true story.