I have just recently been very interested in philosophical literature, and have been looking for some good books to get started with. I'm definitely a deep thinker, I'm just afraid that if I try to pick up Plato or Aristotle from the beginning I might get a little overwhelmed. So I'd love to know from anyone some good philosophical books to start off with. Thank you.
Last edited by CasperMartinez; 06-29-2012 at 01:19 PM.
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.
I think Plato and Aristotle are the best places to start, particularly Plato. Aristotle is good, but dry. Plato's Republic is not overly demanding as far as understanding goes, and unlike the philosophers of, say, the Enlightenment, Romantic, or Modern periods, Plato does not demand a solid philosophic background.
But if the moderns speak to you more, I recommend Thus Spoke Zarathustra
I wrote a poem on a leaf and it blew away...
Hey thank you that's actually really helpful. Sometimes I just get ahead of myself and realize later I'm biting off a little more than I can chew.
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.
why Thus Spoke Zarathustra? seems like a very unphilosophical reccomendation.
How so? It may not be written in the academic treatis style you find elsewhere, but it presents ideas common to many philosophers. I think it is a great book to create interest about philosophy
I wrote a poem on a leaf and it blew away...
I read a book called The Metaphysical Club once. It was mainly about four American philosophers from the 19th and early 20th centuries. it won a Pulitzer prize, though personally, I did not understand one word in ten.
I was lent another book called Sophie's World which went through just about every major philosopher in history, although I did not like that neither.
After reading Sophie's World, I went from "philosophy, what does that even mean?" to "yeah, I understand the Hegelian dialectic, no big deal." I recommend it to people who have no idea what philosophy is but wants to know. For someone with a bit more familiar with the subject, it can be a bit boring.Originally Posted by kev67
I wrote a poem on a leaf and it blew away...
The Problems of Philosophy by Bertrand Russell
Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche
De omnibus dubitandum.
My consideration was not its unacademic writing, far from it. I think that nietzche has to be read in light of philosophy not as an introduction. he was trying to dismantle the philosophical tradition, and if you haven't got a basic understanding of philosophy, you'll see it as a merely a polemical book or even worse, a self-help book (albiet very well-written).
I understand that philosophy seems like a daunting subject. It might be easier if you tell us what interests you have; the reason I came originally to philosophy was my interest in popular physics books like The Elegant Universe, which lead to me epistemology. When you start with a philosophical subject it will always lead back to plato or aristotle in some way. Some people come to philosophy from literature, through Critical Theaory (though I wouldn't recomend it), Some people come through maths, some through films. if you are just interested in an overview, though, the Bertrand Russell one mentioned above is an excellent choice, and sophia's world, though it's demographic is a teenage audience, the philosphical concepts are explained with a lot of clarity, and the fact that they are embedded in a narrative helps comprehension, because some philosophy can be downright opaque, like hegel.
"Practical Ethics" by Peter Singer. May well be the most important book you'll ever read. And even if you disagree and if people will say it's a crazy book, it'll be interesting to read, as opposed to lots of other philosophical books. (And it really isn't crazy.)
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Web of Belief by W.V.O. Quine is short. Not that I liked it, but it is to the point.
Godel, Escher, Bach -Hofstadter (spelling?) is distinctive.
48 Laws of Power - by Greene is fun reading. Machiavelli-like.
I guess when I see "philosophical literature," I'm thinking fiction; not philosophical tracts. Chesterton's The Man Who Was Thursday is a great example of such literature, altho I find it a bit dense @times.
Aldous Huxley. The Doors of Perception is a very thought provoking essay. If you live in this world you can understand Huxley. And isn't that a writers job to be both profound and understandable?
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Content wise I agree.
Practically, I could never start with anything Neitzsche. You just want to get a few ideas down and meanwhile the text mocks you, says the opposite of what it means, rants and raves in certain parts, and leaves you feeling like you're too dumb to understand these very words, and dumber for wanting to.
Neitzche takes building up to.
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