Philosophy Book Club

[Drkshadow03]

Anyone interested in doing a philosophy book club?

[krishna_lit]

Yes. I'm interested in it. But I will have to be starting from scratch..

[Drkshadow03]

Great! Any others?

[JBI]

If you could pull a title from the Chinese canon, then yes.

[The Comedian]

I'd be interested.

[Volya]

Never read a philosophy book before (I think) but sure I'll give it a go as well.

[Drkshadow03]

Any others? So where would everyone like to start? Go in historical order? Pick randomly? Pick a culture?

Do you all want to start with Plato? Aristotle? Roman Philosophers? Nietzsche? Locke? Do Chinese Philosophy like JBI wants? What does everyone want to do?

[spooky]

Hello, it's nice that I found this topic, I wasn't searching for something like this :)

A few days ago I was just going to start reading Bertrand Russell's 'History of Western Philosophy', then I thought, instead of reading a history filled with personal opinions, why not read the actual people's writings first, so I started reading The Republic..

Anyway, I am interested and would like to join no matter where you start from.

[TheFifthElement]

Count me in

[The Comedian]

I'd be fine with either -- if we did Chinese philosophy, I wouldn't mind reading the Analects (I have it and have been itchin' to read it). But I'm not married to that. Personally, I think we should start with something short and fairly accessible. This should help to establish the group and keep people involved.

How about Kierkegaard's "The Present Age" -- I haven't read it, but I'd like to, and Kierkegaard is a decent writer.

I bet if we get some nominations together, we could then just run a poll and the most votes gets first read.

[chrisvia]

I'm in! I'd be interesting in discussing Heidegger or Schopenhauer.

[Weather&I]

I'd be fine with either -- if we did Chinese philosophy, I wouldn't mind reading the Analects (I have it and have been itchin' to read it). But I'm not married to that. Personally, I think we should start with something short and fairly accessible. This should help to establish the group and keep people involved.

How about Kierkegaard's "The Present Age" -- I haven't read it, but I'd like to, and Kierkegaard is a decent writer.

I bet if we get some nominations together, we could then just run a poll and the most votes gets first read.

"The Present Age" has my vote. I love that book.

[Weather&I]

I'm in. Where to start? I'm new here, but I think this is an awesome idea.

[ShoutGrace]

I am in.

I think some chronological order would be advisable, but there should be plenty of flexibility; different cultures advanced different thoughts at different times. There are plenty of ways to navigate via themes or topics too (justice, beauty, contingency, being).

I'd rather not start in the middle. The progression found in a book like "Sophie's World" for example was beneficial for me personally.

I'll try to stay engaged!

[mal4mac]

Why not start with the first Socratic dialogue, "The Apology"?

[Drkshadow03]

I'm nominating "Categories" by Aristotle.

Alright, the nominees so far are:
The Apology by Socrates
Categories by Aristotle
The Present Age by Kierkegaard

Any others?

[TheFifthElement]

I'd like to nominate The Analects (as mentioned by Comedian). It'd be nice to read something from the Eastern philosophical tradition.

[krishna_lit]

I'm nominating "Categories" by Aristotle.

Alright, the nominees so far are:
The Apology by Socrates
Categories by Aristotle
The Present Age by Kierkegaard

Any others?

I would like to nominate 'Tao Te Ching' by Lao Tzu.. It's fairly small in quantity and I think majority of Chinese philosophy is based on it. I once read it and has some (many actually) doubts that I would love to discuss and resolve with other fellow members!

[krishna_lit]

Also I would like to nominate, Swami Vivekananda and Jiddu Krishnamurthy... for Indian Philosophy!

[Drkshadow03]

I'm going to change my vote to The Consolations of Philosophy by Boethius actually. So we have:

The Apology by Socrates
The Consolations of Philosophy by Boethius
The Present Age by Kierkegaard
The Analects by Confucius
Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu

That is five nominees. I am going to say we should keep it to one nominee per a person.* I also think if the philosophy club takes off we should only allow people who participated in the previous discussion to nominate.

Let's vote on Saturday! I'll create a separate poll thread, voting will last for one week, and then we'll read and discuss whatever wins. Sound good to everyone?

*Krishna, if you would prefer one of those Indian philosophers as your nominees instead Lao Tzu, just let me know, and I will replace your one nominee with one of the other ones. But let's keep it to one per a person.

[krishna_lit]

I also think if the philosophy club takes off we should only allow people who participated in the previous discussion to nominate.

Hmm.. That doesn't sound very good, I mean, may be we would inspire new people with our discussions, but then if we don't allow them to participate, that would completely oppose the prime motto of Philosophy itself, the freedom!


Let's vote on Saturday! I'll create a separate poll thread, voting will last for one week, and then we'll read and discuss whatever wins. Sound good to everyone?

Yes voting is fine.. Sound good to me!


*Krishna, if you would prefer one of those Indian philosophers as your nominees instead Lao Tzu, just let me know, and I will replace your one nominee with one of the other ones. But let's keep it to one per a person.

I'm completely fine with Lao Tzu as my nomination.. Thanks :)

[chrisvia]

I also think if the philosophy club takes off we should only allow people who participated in the previous discussion to nominate.

Which previous discussion? Does this mean I'm disqualified? I would certainly enjoy joining a philosophy book club, beginning with any of the 5 nominations you've listed!

[Drkshadow03]

I was thinking more like once we get started, if you want to nominate for the NEXT book you would have to have participated in the most recent discussion (which doesn't exist yet since we haven't had any discussions yet). That way if people want to nominate the next book they will be required to have participated in the previous discussion. We don't have to do this if people are opposed.

I've just been in a lot of book clubs on this forum where the discussion fizzled out and the club died. Bible book club/the poetry book club (where like only two of us ended up participating). I would really like there to be a philosophy book club that has genuine discussion with in depth discussion with multiple people who actually read the book.

[krishna_lit]

It's Saturday today, so let's have take the voting, then??

[chrisvia]

I was thinking more like once we get started, if you want to nominate for the NEXT book you would have to have participated in the most recent discussion (which doesn't exist yet since we haven't had any discussions yet). That way if people want to nominate the next book they will be required to have participated in the previous discussion. We don't have to do this if people are opposed.

I've just been in a lot of book clubs on this forum where the discussion fizzled out and the club died. Bible book club/the poetry book club (where like only two of us ended up participating). I would really like there to be a philosophy book club that has genuine discussion with in depth discussion with multiple people who actually read the book.

Ah, gotcha! I will typically only vote if I really plan to commit to it (same with the general literature forum).

Thanks!