Getting Grounded in Philosophy - Where Should I Start?

[SmileyEH]

I've never taken a philosphy course, and I'm taking a year off from school so I figured actually learning something while I'm away would be a good idea. What are some good books to start with to get down some philosophical fundamentals (stuff I'd learn in the first few college courses I suppose)? I'm a phsyics major and reasonably intelligent - I imagine I should pick stuff up pretty quickly but I just don't know where to start.

-SmileyEH

[Cerril]

You've probably got it covered already, but pick up some books on logic and critical thinking (writing). Probably the most accessible text I've read is 'how to think about weird things' (Schick and Vaughn) [another interesting book in the same vein is 'Logic and Mr. Limbaugh' (Perkins)]. A genuine textbook might give you some value as well, but I don't have any of them at hand. Something newer though, some older texts seem to be written just to be arcane.

Once you're comfortable interpreting arguments, just decide on an area of philosophy that you're interested in (religion, ethics, metaphysics [knowledge], formal logic, and aesthetics were some of my favorites) and pick up some books in that area. Start with what you like and work your way through opinions that vary. Usually you'll be well served picking up an 'intro to philosophy' text from a college. Often these are selections from a variety of sources put together by the instructor (in fact, for good surveys of areas, look for photocopied or college-published course materials, if you can manage to buy them without being a student).

The main difficulty you'll have trying to learn philosophers on your own until you've read a lot of what people have to say is separating the reasonable stuff from the complete junk. Some stuff will just sit wrong but other things (especially if you already share the viewpoint) will seem well-argued when really there's a lot to be desired. So finding sources that expose you to several viewpoints can help alleviate that, you have the opportunity to play them off each other.

Finding people to discuss philosophy with is another key. Friends, relatives... anyone who has an opinion and doesn't mind hearing yours is worth discussing these new views and arguments with.

Good luck!

[RicktheRuler]

1. Develop a timeline of the most important phil. works.

2. Purchase these books.

3. Read them, starting with the first one chronologically.

[raisins]

I don't think it is necessary to read philosophy in chronological order. The song remains the same. Stick with the philosophers who have the strongest writing style. This means Kant and Hegel are out. Both of them are important thinkers but you can get a fair idea of what they're about from commentaries and summaries and you can read them later if you get a hankering. The best writers among the philosophers are Plato - start with the elenchic dialogues plus Apology and Symposium, Nietzsche - Birth of Tragedy and Genealogy of Morals or any and Kierkegaard - get an anthology. A great philosopher to read in contrast to Plato and the theory of forms is Wittgenstein in the Philosophical Investigations and his idea of family resemblances. Wittgenstein is not the easiest read and that might be best approached in a class. A more modern philosopher who is also a great writer is Bernard Williams - Shame and Necessity and Truth and Truthfulness. All of the above are philosophers concerned with human nature and the question, how should one live? Stay away from the more academic philosophers until you develop an interest in their specialty, e.g. intentionality, science etc. Some other thinkers (not necessarily philosophers) who also write on human nature but are not in the same rank as the above: Marcus Aurelius, Heraclitus, Thucydides, Montaigne, Pascal, Machiavelli ...

There are lots of distinctions in philosophy, free will vs determinism, essentialism vs nominalism, etc. the most important one in my opinion is philosophy vs. rhetoric. The Closing of the American Mind might be a good entrance; he has a good sense of this distinction and why Plato was so focused on rhetoric.

regards,

raisins

[AleoMagus]

A couple excellent, and very small, easy to read books are:

'Think' by Simon Blackburn
'What does it all mean' by Thomas Nagel

I prefer these kinds of books (especially Nagel's) as introductions to philosophy, as I don't think that your first priority should be actually reading the classics themselves. Just dig into the issues in today's language and get a grounding in the subject matter before you decide to read the classics.

The next step then, is reading the classics. For this, I'd just pick up an anthology of some kind.

'Ten great works of philosophy' edited by Robet Paul Wolff. this is not nearly the best anthology, but it is nice because it is the size of a novel and can be read just about anywhere.

'Philosophic Classics: From Plato to Derrida' edited by Kauffmann and Baird. This is a really nice big anthology and pretty much has every major work that you'd want to read right away. It's missing a couple things I'd like, but for one volume it is the best there is.

You will also want a good book on logic and reasoning. For this, my favorite is:

'Argument: Critical Thinking, Logic and the Fallacies' by John Woods, Andrew Irvine and Douglas Walton

Finally, you will want a good philosophy/logic reference book, like an encyclopedia of philosophy, or a good dictionary of philosophy. I own most of them, and the best are:

The Oxford Companion to Philosophy
The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy

Regards
Brad S

[FredJones888]

I agree. Read the oldest stuff first.

Philosophers "stand on the shoulders of giants" just like scientists do. Go back to the beginning.

[Jake (The Snake)]

Figure out a topic you are interested in reading about before anything else.

Philosophers write about so many different topics that it will become a waste of time if you just start reading one guy then another guy. Pick a topic and then read the different arguments about it.

[Cerril]

There are some exceptions. Russell's 'History of Western Philosophy' is considered an excellent book, but if you don't latch onto the style it can get very dry very quickly. But yeah, for the most part pick a topic and read within it.

[Cerril]

I'm hesitant to suggest something like that, in large part because I've never had an easy time reading the greeks or for that matter even medieval philosophers. I'd tend to suggest reading someone who can summarize what's gone before well. Some writers, though, are terrible about that and assume you've read more than you have (or, worse, give misinformation about previous philosophers' views to support their own claims).

There are two traps I worry about in anyone studying philosophy. First, trying to get to everything... you just can't. Even if you pick a very narrow range there's just too much to get to (I've found myself drawing a blank about even some major views of major philosophers just because I couldn't get to all of, say, Kant's works). The other concern is that if you don't work at broadening your views you can easily get attached to one philosopher or another. No writer is right about everything, but it's not always easy to see what's good and what's bad without being well read. A friend of mine I gave some of Bertrand Russell's books to showed me that, since he had limited interest in philosophy and so took the material in those books as Truth.

That's the thing about philosophy though, too many people approach it as something other than a method for clear thinking, and so you end up with a lot of 'camps' of devotees of one philosopher or another. The greeks are big targets, along with just about any big name since.

[Zeno]

Some good advice has been given but I feel the need to add a few comments. I think Bertrand Russell's 'History of Western Philiosophy' is a very good start to anyone tackling the subject of philosophy. Just take to heart what other posters have said about giving too much credence to any one persons views etc, Russell included. That said, it is a excellent book, in my opinion.

Another book that is good to pique your interest or to give a good overview and flavor of the large variety of thoughts and ideas in philosophy is A Dictionary of Philosophical Quotations, edited by A. J. Ayer and Jane O'Grady. I highly recommend this book. It gives a good read of all the views and sense, and nonsense, philosopher's have blubbered out over the years. It covers a wide range of ideas and time - ancient Greeks to the present.

For reference:

A Dictionary of Philosophy, by Antony Flew is a good reference that is also inexpensive but very well done.

The Oxford Companion to Philosophy, edited by Ted Honderich is also an excellent book. It is very comprehensive and covers almost all philosophical terms and schools and important individuals. It is almost an encyclopaedia of philosophy. It is a bit more expensive and runs about 1,000 pages but it is worth it.

-Zeno