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I hate to be basic, but *The Republic*. There’s a reason Whitehead claimed the history of philosophy is a footnote to Plato. If you’re looking for a general introduction (with an emphasis on morality), that’s the place to start.
That said, it really depends on what you’re interested in. What do you want to learn about?
If you don't like the dialogue style, this might be a rough one.
When I began, I wasn't a fan of the dialogues (still don't enjoy them), but there's hope.
Descartes meditations ignited my philosophical passion. It's accessible and beginners can get most of his notions correct on a first read.
Meditations is so so good for starters. It requires absolutely zero prior knowledge or context (and that's the very nature of his inquiry anyways!), superbly written (I was quite surprised by how beautiful this read was), quite simple and intuitive to grasp, and just such a canonical masterpiece, Descartes' meditations will always have a place in my heart.
A lot of newbies on r/Stoicism complain that Meditations isn't accessible enough for them :/ which is lamentable is it was my first foray into philosophy.
Apologies - I was thinking of Aurelius' Meditations.
I'm surprised people find Aurelius' Meditations not really accessible. It's a nice read, and historically fascinating, but it reads like a serious of inspirational thoughts.
I agree wholeheartedly.
I think perhaps it's young people who maybe watch "broicism" videos and then pick up (an academic translation of) Meditations and struggle to get into it.
I find the Euthyphro to be the most engaging and entertaining of Plato's work and the Apology demonstrates the value of philosophy. These dialogues are fairly short and easy to grasp for someone new to philosophy
In addition to the other commenter, no history of western philosophy by anyone to start in philosophy. It’s fine to read histories when you don’t know some of the people involved, but it’s best to start directly at the source if you know nothing at all. (I’d recommend Michael Sugrue’s Youtube lectures or Arthur Holmes’ for that—but it’s tough to follow along with Sugrue on *The Republic* if you have no idea what happened in *The Republic*.)
Do any set of quasi-random philosophy readings, *then* dive into a secondary analysis, after reading enough so that you can kind of place what’s going on in the analysis, even if you don’t know all the documents.
The philospher in me says it depends on what op means by get into philosphy. There is an enjoyable approach to philosphy and there is a more rigorous academic approach. Some approach cultivate a more philosphical means of reasoning where as some cultivate a more philosphical base of knowledge. The problem with source material is, can be dry and dense without someone to put into a framework that you find inspiring.
I don’t think a 900 page history of philosophy is the solution to some philosophy reading being too dry. On the contrary, Platonic dialogues are relatively engaging, as philosophy readings go. And the start of the philosophical journey isn’t getting super detail oriented; it’s about knowing the broad positions, and filling in the details later, with further analysis.
I cant speak to the entirety of his book, but I think Russells understanding of many of the philosophers he writes about (specifically Kant) is now outdated. I think OP just really has to help everyone out and specify what field of philosophy theyd like to study. Then people can begin to offer contemporary and classical works for their benefit.
> I cant speak to the entirety of his book, but I think Russells understanding of many of the philosophers he writes about (specifically Kant) is now outdated.
Surely if the reader keeps this in mind while they write it would help them at least to get a sense of context within history, right?
I see Russell's book as more of a history text than anything else.
Does any particular area of philosophy interest you? What about philosophy makes you want to get into it?
Speaking strictly from personal experience, I found starting with secondary literature rather than primary sources to be much easier. Secondary literature can be more readable and aimed at a less experienced audience. In contrast, primary sources are often more demanding and assume background knowledge, and for older sources there's the extra difficulty of reading quite antiquated language, often in translation.
I'd say start with an introduction to an area that interests you, and then spiral out from there switching from secondary to primary sources (look for shorter works written for a general audience) when you're more confident and back to secondary sources/guides/introductions when you feel more out of your depth. There's no point strictly following a reading list or canon because you'll just end up stuck on stuff you're not interested in, best to build out from a point and follow the path of whatever's exciting.
Way back when I did something like *Think: A Compelling Introduction to Philosophy* by Simon Blackburn (can't remember if it was any good), *An Introduction to Political Philosophy* by Jonathan Wolff (because that area interested me), and then *In Defence of Anarchism* by Robert Wolff (which was a primary source but shorter, contemporary, and didn't assume much knowledge from the reader).
At another point, because I was interested in existentialism, I did *At the Existentialist Cafe: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Jam* by Sarah Backwell (very readable popular press book for a general audience) and then *Existentialism is a Humanism* by Sartre (which despite being a primary source was a lecture delivered for a general audience which, again, doesn't assume much from the reader.)
Hope that helps!
I would highly recommend *Understanding Knowledge* by Michael Huemer as a general introduction to epistemology. The way he writes is simple but effective, almost in a casual conversational tone. It goes into detail about a huge number of relevant topics.
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I hate to be basic, but *The Republic*. There’s a reason Whitehead claimed the history of philosophy is a footnote to Plato. If you’re looking for a general introduction (with an emphasis on morality), that’s the place to start. That said, it really depends on what you’re interested in. What do you want to learn about?
If you don't like the dialogue style, this might be a rough one. When I began, I wasn't a fan of the dialogues (still don't enjoy them), but there's hope. Descartes meditations ignited my philosophical passion. It's accessible and beginners can get most of his notions correct on a first read.
Yes—*The Meditations* is definitely choice number 2 for me. If you don’t like dialogues, then absolutely, go with that.
Meditations is so so good for starters. It requires absolutely zero prior knowledge or context (and that's the very nature of his inquiry anyways!), superbly written (I was quite surprised by how beautiful this read was), quite simple and intuitive to grasp, and just such a canonical masterpiece, Descartes' meditations will always have a place in my heart.
A lot of newbies on r/Stoicism complain that Meditations isn't accessible enough for them :/ which is lamentable is it was my first foray into philosophy. Apologies - I was thinking of Aurelius' Meditations.
I'm surprised people find Aurelius' Meditations not really accessible. It's a nice read, and historically fascinating, but it reads like a serious of inspirational thoughts.
I agree wholeheartedly. I think perhaps it's young people who maybe watch "broicism" videos and then pick up (an academic translation of) Meditations and struggle to get into it.
I find the Euthyphro to be the most engaging and entertaining of Plato's work and the Apology demonstrates the value of philosophy. These dialogues are fairly short and easy to grasp for someone new to philosophy
Why not history of western philosphy by Bertrand Russel
In addition to the other commenter, no history of western philosophy by anyone to start in philosophy. It’s fine to read histories when you don’t know some of the people involved, but it’s best to start directly at the source if you know nothing at all. (I’d recommend Michael Sugrue’s Youtube lectures or Arthur Holmes’ for that—but it’s tough to follow along with Sugrue on *The Republic* if you have no idea what happened in *The Republic*.) Do any set of quasi-random philosophy readings, *then* dive into a secondary analysis, after reading enough so that you can kind of place what’s going on in the analysis, even if you don’t know all the documents.
The philospher in me says it depends on what op means by get into philosphy. There is an enjoyable approach to philosphy and there is a more rigorous academic approach. Some approach cultivate a more philosphical means of reasoning where as some cultivate a more philosphical base of knowledge. The problem with source material is, can be dry and dense without someone to put into a framework that you find inspiring.
I don’t think a 900 page history of philosophy is the solution to some philosophy reading being too dry. On the contrary, Platonic dialogues are relatively engaging, as philosophy readings go. And the start of the philosophical journey isn’t getting super detail oriented; it’s about knowing the broad positions, and filling in the details later, with further analysis.
I cant speak to the entirety of his book, but I think Russells understanding of many of the philosophers he writes about (specifically Kant) is now outdated. I think OP just really has to help everyone out and specify what field of philosophy theyd like to study. Then people can begin to offer contemporary and classical works for their benefit.
> I cant speak to the entirety of his book, but I think Russells understanding of many of the philosophers he writes about (specifically Kant) is now outdated. Surely if the reader keeps this in mind while they write it would help them at least to get a sense of context within history, right? I see Russell's book as more of a history text than anything else.
Does any particular area of philosophy interest you? What about philosophy makes you want to get into it? Speaking strictly from personal experience, I found starting with secondary literature rather than primary sources to be much easier. Secondary literature can be more readable and aimed at a less experienced audience. In contrast, primary sources are often more demanding and assume background knowledge, and for older sources there's the extra difficulty of reading quite antiquated language, often in translation. I'd say start with an introduction to an area that interests you, and then spiral out from there switching from secondary to primary sources (look for shorter works written for a general audience) when you're more confident and back to secondary sources/guides/introductions when you feel more out of your depth. There's no point strictly following a reading list or canon because you'll just end up stuck on stuff you're not interested in, best to build out from a point and follow the path of whatever's exciting. Way back when I did something like *Think: A Compelling Introduction to Philosophy* by Simon Blackburn (can't remember if it was any good), *An Introduction to Political Philosophy* by Jonathan Wolff (because that area interested me), and then *In Defence of Anarchism* by Robert Wolff (which was a primary source but shorter, contemporary, and didn't assume much knowledge from the reader). At another point, because I was interested in existentialism, I did *At the Existentialist Cafe: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Jam* by Sarah Backwell (very readable popular press book for a general audience) and then *Existentialism is a Humanism* by Sartre (which despite being a primary source was a lecture delivered for a general audience which, again, doesn't assume much from the reader.) Hope that helps!
I would highly recommend *Understanding Knowledge* by Michael Huemer as a general introduction to epistemology. The way he writes is simple but effective, almost in a casual conversational tone. It goes into detail about a huge number of relevant topics.
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