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Any suggestions for books on Philosophy?

ladypinkington

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I am wanting to start reading books on philosophy and am wondering if anyone has any suggestions.

Also I was wondering what people's favorite philosophers were and why.
 

reason

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I recommend Retreat to Commitment by W.W.Bartley III. It is a very good and important book. Unfortunately, few people have even heard of it.
 
S

Sniffles

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What exact areas of philosophy are you interested in? Are you looking to read the classics? Those are probably the best places to start any reading into philosophy.

But if not, here's a few suggestions of mine, and you should be to able to find these at many bookstores:
After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory - Alasdair MacIntyre
Irrational Man: A Study in Existential Philosophy - William Barrett
Democracy's Discontent: America in Search of a Public Philosophy - Michael J. Sandel
The Universal Exception - Slavoj Zizek
I haven't read it yet, but I would also suggest Zizek's In Defense of Lost Causes
God and the Philosophers: The Reconciliation of Faith and Reason edited by Thomas V. Morris
 

Mole

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Hannah Arendt and Martin Heidegger

I am wanting to start reading books on philosophy and am wondering if anyone has any suggestions.

Also I was wondering what people's favorite philosophers were and why.

I blew my mind on, "Time and Being", by Martin Heidegger in the library over four, sunny, Sydney days.

It was better than falling in love; it was better than becoming a hippie at the Aquarius Festival. It was almost as good as coming home to my mother's home cooked dinner.

No wonder Hannah fell in love with Martin.
 

GZA

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It maybe isn't a real philosophy book but I love the Art of War. It's not exactly a philosophy book, but if you want to read it as if it is one you could probably draw a lot from it.
 

animenagai

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i would always start with the classics, or at least stuff like 'discussions on philosopher x'. i'll just give you some names:

religion:

aquinas
paley
augustine
nietzsche?

social/political theory:

marx
locke
hobbes
machiavelli
mill

epistemology:

berkeley
descartes
kant
taylor
hagel
heidegger

ethics:

kant
mill
aristotle (derr)
locke/hobbes

misc.

hume
plato, aristotle

there's a lot more but these are the big names off the top of my head. i'll say your best bet is to find an area that interests you and work from there.
 

SolitaryWalker

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http://www.typologycentral.com/forums/philosophy-spirituality/8936-popularization-philosophy.html

You want to start with something very basic. These books give you a clear overview over most important philosophical ideas. At that point you should be ready to decide which of these ideas you want to pursue in greater depth.

1)Confessions of a Philosopher (By Bryan Magee)-Very general overview of major philosophical ideas.
2)The Great Philosophers (By Bryan Magee)-Another overview, though slightly less general and more rigorous.
3)Talking Philosophy-(Magee), An even less general but more rigorous inquiry into the field.
4)Problems of Philosophy (Bertrand Russell)-A very brief outline of philosophy as well as an inquiry into the subject. Hence, also could be called an overview, but even less general and more rigorous than the previous 3.
 

animenagai

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Giggly

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I just bought the Analects of Confucius.
 

Ivy

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My parents bought us a set of Great Books when I was 10 or so and when my mom homeschooled me her basic plan was "go read those books." I did, but I had no matrix in which to place them, so I don't think I got as much from the experience as I could have. So I would probably recommend what BW says- start with something broad and specialize as you go.
 

ajblaise

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There are a lot of texts and audio on philosophy over at archive.org. A lot of Kant material.
 

SolitaryWalker

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Those are not works of philosophy, they are works of philosophical literature. The definition of philosophy is an attempt to build a comprehensive view of the world based on logically valid arguments that are founded on premises that could be established based on observations that could be derived from our experiences. (Not faith).

Those books do not meet the standard of rigor.
 

reason

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Those are not works of philosophy, they are works of philosophical literature. The definition of philosophy is an attempt to build a comprehensive view of the world based on logically valid arguments that are founded on premises that could be established based on observations that could be derived from our experiences. (Not faith).
No, it's really not.
 
B

ByMySword

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Well, religious books are a good place to start.

The Bible and The Koran

And then there are some I read in college.

The Philosophical Journey by William F. Lawhead

The one above is a general overview of many different philosophies, so that would be a perfect beginning one to start with. Its great. Also:

The Art of War by Sun Tzu

The Prince by Machiavelli (Machiavelli also has a different book called The Art of War as well)

The Basic Political Writings by Rousseau

Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy by Descartes

The Geneology of Morals and Ecce Homo by Nietzche


Edit: And I almost forgot:

Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals by Kant
 

Owl

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I'm currently reading A Critical History of Western Philosophy, edited by D.J O'Connor. As the title suggests, this text is more critical than historical, but the authors give a good objective anaysis of whomever they are critiquing before they rip them apart. Thus far, the breadth and depth of this book, combined with its readability, is remarkable. I highly recommend it.

If you're more interested in understanding the discussions occuring in today's English speaking acadamies, then I'd recommend 100 Years of Philosophy, by John Passmore. This text is historical, not critical, and does a good job of tracing the problems that vexed the precursors of today's (mostly) analytical philosophers, and why and how these philosophers responded to the philosophical challenges of their day--setting up the problems and questions being dealt with now. Mr. Passmore also wrote an expansion covering "contemporary" philosophers, e.g. Carnap, Quine, Kripke, Dummett, etc., whose legacies are just starting to be felt.

Philosophical Foundation: A Critical Analysis of Basic Belief, by Surrendra Gangadean. This book is a critical examination of the assumptions in just about any popular worldview you can imagine. It's a great intro to both philosophy and religion. Everyone should read this book.


Finally, The Clarity of God's Existence: the Ethics of Belief after the Enlightenment, by Owen Anderson. This is a must read for all theists, particularly Christian theists. However, this book isn't just for theists: "“The audience for this is anyone who is interested in questions about religious belief in the modern world,” says the author, who has received a grant from the Harvard Pluralism Project to study the religious diversity of the greater Phoenix area. “Are authors like Harris, Dawkins and Hitchens correct in challenging the validity of one’s belief in God? Do they successfully show that there is an excuse for unbelief, or even that there is no excuse for belief? My book looks at the many ways the need for clarity has been avoided, and how excuses have built up. I then suggest ways this might be addressed. For this reason, it should be of interest to both the believer and the non-believer.”"
 

animenagai

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i think i agree more with BW on this one. i guess you can call 'thus spoke zarathustra' or the bible philosophy if you really wanted to, but honestly, if you talked to a philosophy lecturer/student what they're reading in terms of philosophy, it would not be that. when philosophy becomes preaching, it becomes uninteresting. topics such as religion are fine, but if we're using philosophy, we should be using strong arguments to argue toward religion. modern philosophy us more than just 'this is my opinion' or 'these are the scriptures', it is a very methodical and clinical approach to life's biggest questions. you ever start saying shit like "that's what my grandma told me" or "because the bible said so" during a formal philosophy meeting and you're guaranteed to get torn to pieces.
 

Synarch

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I tend toward the less systematic streams of philosophy. Seems more relevant to life.

Meditations - Marcus Aurelius.

I am also a fan of moral wisdom a la Balthasar Gracian and La Rochefoucauld. Concise and instantly applicable, though unlikely to be something regarded as philosophy in the academic sense.
 

Mole

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Hannah Arendt and Martin Heidegger (continued)

No wonder Hannah fell in love with Martin.

And although Martin was a NAZI and Hannah was a Jew, Hannah never repudiated Martin, even after the war.

It's inexplicable.

It's as though evil and love slept in the same bed.

Who would not want to be loved like that?

And who could possibly love such evil?

The love of philosophy is understanding, but the love of Martin passes all understanding.

Numbness is all that remains.
 
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