Recommended philosophical reading

hibernal_dream

A Mind Forever Voyaging
Jul 10, 2001
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Grave with a view
I think it would be great to have a list of some of the texts in philosophy people on this forum have found interesting or useful. Ideally, it would be helpful if you could list them in the order they should be read and what subject matter they deal with.

Many thanks :worship:
 
Probably best to ask Final Product, he seems to know about philosophy. Alls i can help you with is the classics, 'The Republic' and so on
 
Danallica said:
Probably best to ask Final Product, he seems to know about philosophy. Alls i can help you with is the classics, 'The Republic' and so on

Thank you, but I politley decline.

Speed, Cythraul, Infoterror, ARC_150, Demiurge...those are the kinda fellows who can help with this sort of thing.

My own approach is to read whatever I feel interested in. David Hume attracts me back each time, and he covers a wealth of subjects. Although I tend to prefer to see him in action speaking out against religion and the related topics (his "On Suicide" is one my my favourite essays).
 
I first offer these two quotes: Right in the middle of serious studies, I discovered that one day I would die…; my modesty was shaken. Convinced that I had nothing left to learn, I abandoned my studies to inform the world of such a remarkable discovery. All Gall Is Divided 76-77.

The public hurls itself upon the authors called “human”; the public knows it has nothing to fear from them: halted like their readers, halfway down the road, these authors propose compromises with the Impossible, a coherent version of Chaos. All Gall Is Divided 9

By posting these quotes, I am merely pointing out the ridiculousness of philosophy, as well as the need to rethink those systematic thinkers who create systems out of Chaos.

Well if you want to run the whole gamut, you could do worse than Bertrand Russell's The History of Western Thought. Its a rather massive three volume work that suffers when he reaches the modern philosophy section. Also, he is deeply critical of any philosopher he doesnt agree with.

Other than that, I'll recommend Epictetus' The Discourses.
 
Birkenau said:

I do like his anti-modernist stance and the history, symbolism and philosophy behind it; however his desire for some sort of higher aristocratic hierarchy is problematic, as are his ideas about these Hyboreans or people from the north that created Western thought and society and then were wiped out. This is ridiculous nonsense.
 
Well I don't know how much philosophy you've read so I'm not really sure if I should recommend anything difficult or just stick to easier stuff. I guess I'll just try to mix it up.

The Philosopher's Toolkit by Julian Baggini and Peter S. Fosl: This is a very readable and easy introduction to many of the abstract concepts used by philosophers in argumentation and critique.

The Blackwell Guide to Epistemology by John Greco & Ernest Sosa: This is a good introductory text to the various arguments and ideas in epistemology (theory of knowledge). If you're interested in that subject check it out. The only bad thing is that the book gets a bit dense and complicated as it goes on because it includes articles written by contemporary philosophers who probably assume that the reader already has some background in the subject.

An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding by David Hume: This is pretty much a seminal text that I think anyone genuinely interested in philosophy should read. The influence of the ideas found in this book have been pretty widespread. Not only philosophy but the scientific, empiricist understanding of the world owe a lot to Hume's ideas. And it's pretty readable for an 18th century text.

Rationality in Action by John Searle: Searle is probably one of the most clear and accessible writers in contemporary philosophy. The book deals with practical rationality and free will. He makes some pretty good arguments against traditional ideas in this one.

Walking the Tightrope of Reason by Robert Fogelin: This one deals with issues of skepticism, knowledge, reason, etc. It's a pretty interesting read but I think some of the guy's conclusions are kind of weak. Anyway, I'm recommending this because it's a decent introduction to the issues I mentioned and it's understandable.

Principia Ethica by G.E. Moore: Pretty much a classic. The book deals with metaethical and normative ethics issues. This is where Moore made a lot of strong arguments against prevailing ethical theories.

Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mind by Wilfrid Sellars: Another classic. This is basically Sellars arguing against sense-datum theories. Don't read this unless you've familiarized yourself with the whole sense-datum concept and writers like Hume and the logical positivists.

The Conscious Mind by David Chalmers: Apparently this has been all the rage in the philosophical community for the past few years. The book deals with consciousness and argues against materialist views of consciousness. I'm a little skeptical about the whole thing but whatever... Anyway, it's very interesting if you're fascinated by consciousness and if you find yourself utterly baffled by the fact that lumps of grey matter can produce experience. The book gets quite technical in a lot of parts so be warned.
 
Although perhaps not philosophical, some regular novels do pose and attempt to answer some of the bigger questions in life;
George Orwell - Animal Farm is a true classic
as is 'The Reader' by Berhnard Schlink

I prefer reading these kind of novels because i find philisophical books hard to follow
 
Cythraul said:
Well I don't know how much philosophy you've read so I'm not really sure if I should recommend anything difficult or just stick to easier stuff. I guess I'll just try to mix it up.

The Philosopher's Toolkit by Julian Baggini and Peter S. Fosl: This is a very readable and easy introduction to many of the abstract concepts used by philosophers in argumentation and critique.

The Blackwell Guide to Epistemology by John Greco & Ernest Sosa: This is a good introductory text to the various arguments and ideas in epistemology (theory of knowledge). If you're interested in that subject check it out. The only bad thing is that the book gets a bit dense and complicated as it goes on because it includes articles written by contemporary philosophers who probably assume that the reader already has some background in the subject.

An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding by David Hume: This is pretty much a seminal text that I think anyone genuinely interested in philosophy should read. The influence of the ideas found in this book have been pretty widespread. Not only philosophy but the scientific, empiricist understanding of the world owe a lot to Hume's ideas. And it's pretty readable for an 18th century text.

Rationality in Action by John Searle: Searle is probably one of the most clear and accessible writers in contemporary philosophy. The book deals with practical rationality and free will. He makes some pretty good arguments against traditional ideas in this one.

Walking the Tightrope of Reason by Robert Fogelin: This one deals with issues of skepticism, knowledge, reason, etc. It's a pretty interesting read but I think some of the guy's conclusions are kind of weak. Anyway, I'm recommending this because it's a decent introduction to the issues I mentioned and it's understandable.

Principia Ethica by G.E. Moore: Pretty much a classic. The book deals with metaethical and normative ethics issues. This is where Moore made a lot of strong arguments against prevailing ethical theories.

Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mind by Wilfrid Sellars: Another classic. This is basically Sellars arguing against sense-datum theories. Don't read this unless you've familiarized yourself with the whole sense-datum concept and writers like Hume and the logical positivists.

The Conscious Mind by David Chalmers: Apparently this has been all the rage in the philosophical community for the past few years. The book deals with consciousness and argues against materialist views of consciousness. I'm a little skeptical about the whole thing but whatever... Anyway, it's very interesting if you're fascinated by consciousness and if you find yourself utterly baffled by the fact that lumps of grey matter can produce experience. The book gets quite technical in a lot of parts so be warned.

Well I am glad you have mentioned so many contemporary works. My recs would all be ancient or literary.

Another good intro guide is The Adventure of Philosophy by Luis Navia--but again, more or less centered around ancient thought.

I really should read the Searle book. This Fogelin sounds interesting as well.
 
Danallica said:
Although perhaps not philosophical, some regular novels do pose and attempt to answer some of the bigger questions in life;
George Orwell - Animal Farm is a true classic
as is 'The Reader' by Berhnard Schlink

I prefer reading these kind of novels because i find philisophical books hard to follow
Animal Farm is leftist garbage, get Brave New World instead.
 
Cythraul said:
The Conscious Mind by David Chalmers: Apparently this has been all the rage in the philosophical community for the past few years. The book deals with consciousness and argues against materialist views of consciousness. I'm a little skeptical about the whole thing but whatever... Anyway, it's very interesting if you're fascinated by consciousness and if you find yourself utterly baffled by the fact that lumps of grey matter can produce experience. The book gets quite technical in a lot of parts so be warned.

Maybe this would interest you: http://ase.tufts.edu/cogstud/papers/chalmers.htm

I have been following this discourse, but not too closely.
 
Birkenau said:
Animal Farm is leftist garbage, get Brave New World instead.

ahhhh - i can assure you that it is not leftist garbage - it is a parody for the russian revolution and is hight critical of people like lenin who had a different set of rules for himself and his officials as opposed to the people. Trust me, i would not read leftist bullshit - i am as right as fuck
 
hibernal_dream said:
I think it would be great to have a list of some of the texts in philosophy people on this forum have found interesting or useful. Ideally, it would be helpful if you could list them in the order they should be read and what subject matter they deal with.

Many thanks :worship:
anything about chaos theory/nihilism
anything written by Richard Dawkins (spell?)

the Spiderman comic books
a lot of people don't notice the psychological element which is basically Peter Parker's life sucks because he has these superpowers and he has to be Spiderman and save the world. Peter's boss is a jack-ass and Peter's getting crap wages, but even when Peter and Mary-jane can't pay their rent, he can't quit and get a higher-paying job because he doesn't have the free time of being able to do a "9-to-5" job because he's got to be Spider man and save the world. When Peter originally became Harry Osborne's room-mate for the first time, Harry was originally a really heavy drug user but even though Peter's job was paying crap wages Peter couldn't become a drug dealer to make money because he couldn't risk getting arrested because he couldn't spend any time in jail because he had to be Spiderman and save the world. There was an issue where Spiderman has been fighting crime for 18 or 19 hours and when Harry Osborne passed out from uppers wearing off (or maybe downers kicking in, i don't really remember) and when Harry was unconsious, Spiderman used some of Harry's uppers so that he could stay awake longer to fight supervillians (this was the issue that made the comics code athority put a ban on characters using drugs subsequently creating the running gag of Spiderman/Peter Parker safely drinking so much coffee that it would be lethal to a normal person) Peter broke up with Peggy Brant (Peter's boss's secratary) and Felicia Harding (the rich woman who becomes the "Black Cat") because he kept not showing up to dates with(out being able to explain where he was when he was being Spiderman. Gwen Stacy was dating Peter till she died because Spiderman had to choose between saving her life and saving the lives of a large number of people in a "classic" issue that was parodied in a scene in the 1st Spiderman movie. Mary-Jane Watson gets pissed at Peter for not showing up to their dates till she figures out he's Spiderman and marries him, then in the short-lived comic "Spidergirl" Peter only has one daughter (who inherited his super-powers) instead of several children because even though he's married, Peter still doesn't have the free time of being able to have sex because he's got to be Spiderman and save the world.

also the Batman and Punisher comics because the psychological element is way more obvious: their both clearly suffering from post-traumatic-stress-disorder
 
Danallica said:
ahhhh - i can assure you that it is not leftist garbage - it is a parody for the russian revolution and is hight critical of people like lenin who had a different set of rules for himself and his officials as opposed to the people. Trust me, i would not read leftist bullshit - i am as right as fuck
George Orwell was an open leftist, and that book is highly critical of the Nazis aswell. Leftism =/= Communism
 
Birkenau said:
George Orwell was an open leftist, and that book is highly critical of the Nazis aswell. Leftism =/= Communism

Yeh fair enough he was an open leftist. But i hate communism and Nazism, just because it is critical of NAZI doesnt make him commy, just the same way i hate commy doesnt make me a NAZI. I dont know if you have read the book but i find it hard to see how it is not beign highly critical and satirical of the communist regime in Soviet Union and of its Gods (mass murderers) such as Lenin.
 
Birkenau said:
George Orwell was an open leftist, and that book is highly critical of the Nazis aswell. Leftism =/= Communism

So what's your point anyway? Surely one can take one of his books for what it's worth regardless of what one may think of his politics.