Philosophy

[Rotty1021]

Lately I've been quite interested in philosophy, but don't know what to read. I read some of Plato's dialogues, which were great, but didn't finish up with those. Could someone recommend some books for a beginner? Thanks.

[AbdoRinbo]

Though I've never been able to finish it, Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari's Anti-Oedipus is pretty much everything you could ask for in a philosophy. It's Nihilism, but it's also a postmodern survey of Psychoanalysis (Deleuze introduces a new theory called 'Schizoanalysis', which has got to be the worst thing a psychoanalyst could ever possibly think of ;) ), Capitalism (Deleuze and Guattari are advocates of Marxism), Anthropology (taking some of the theories of Claude-Levi Strauss and applying them to Capitalism----showing how the Laissez-Faire Market is based on the same unstable foundations as Freud's Oedipal Family), and Literary Criticism (Deleuze's style is very much a stream-of-free-flowing-form, which is sometimes bone-crushingly dense, but other times hilarious). It's only for the truly dedicated reader.

Again, I've never been able to finish it; I've tried my hardest, but I'm not that ****ing dedicated :D . Personally, I like reading simple stuff like Aristotle, and I even thought the first volume of Marx's Das Kapital was pretty accessible (it's logical, it becomes purely scientific in the end). But not many people are familiar with Deleuze and Guattari, so I thought I'd go ahead and drop that name. There are better places to start if you're not part of the cult-following of Philosophy. :rolleyes:

[AbdoRinbo]

By the way, the reason it is called Anti-Oedipus is because it is the Psychoanalytic equivalent to Nietzsche's The Anti-Christ. In other words, Deleuze and Guattari do for psychology what Nietzsche did for religion: namely, annihilate it. :D

[Rotty1021]

Cool, thanks.

[Isagel]

Phenomenology of Perception, An Introduction by Merleau-Ponty.
This book is perhaps not a very easy read, but interesting.

[IWilKikU]

If you want to be entertained as well as enlightened, I suggest "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle maintainance." Also give "The Big Lebowski" a watch. If you want some strait up hard core Philosophy without the fun, try Descartes. He's generally thought of as the father of modern philosophy.

[AbdoRinbo]

Mark it eight, Dude.

[Sindhu]

If you want to be entertained as well as enlightened, I suggest "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle maintainance."
You couldn't possibly do better! Pirsig's Lilaisequally interesting.
I also think Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra and Carlyle'sSartor Resartus are worth trying out , though admittedly the latter takes some getting into!