Philosophy Book Club

Anyone interested in doing a philosophy book club?

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

Great! Any others?

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

I'd be interested.

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

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?

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.

Count me in

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.

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

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 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.

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

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

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!

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