Drevik Posted February 12, 2015 Posted February 12, 2015 I was hoping to find a recommended reading list. Oh well. I want to start reading from the old philosophers. Steph recommended beginning with Socrates. Is there a particular book to look for that's good at breaking down all his teachings?
Pepin Posted February 12, 2015 Posted February 12, 2015 I'd read Plato and Aristotle. Plato was Socrates's student who wrote the Platonic dialogs. You won't actually find anything Socrates wrote himself because he didn't write anything down, but you can use Plato's second hand account well enough. Just be aware that in some of the later works, Socrates becomes more of a spokes person for Plato than anything else. You can find the total collection of his writings as well as Aristotle's here. It can get a bit confusing at times, but it tends towards being an easy read. A lecture series which covers the particular book helps a lot, as certain things need context. A really great podcast is "History of Philosophy without Gaps", which covers those detail very well and more. Another book I'd recommend is The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins. While it isn't philosophical per se, an understanding of evolution is quite critical in understanding philosophy. For the most part, I listened to lectures instead of reading the source material for most of my information. I have an easier time digesting the information, and plus I can listen to it while driving. I have read a lot of Plato and some Aristotle, as well as reading almost all of Rand, but most of my knowledge of the others is informed by lectures. I've tried reading a lot of other philosophers, but an issue I run into is that 90% of what I read is filler and context, while about 10% is actual content. The three I've read the most of are mostly all content. Oh yeah, read Rand, especially Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology.
Drevik Posted February 12, 2015 Author Posted February 12, 2015 Thanks. This looks like some good material to start on.
Kevin Beal Posted February 12, 2015 Posted February 12, 2015 Mind, Language and Society by John Searle is a most excellent introductory work. He also does a good job of teaching you about the history of philosophy, as well in his lecture series. He's an academic, but the kind other philosophers hate, because he's not shy about telling other people that their theories are terrible, and he's a funny, likeable guy. But before recommending anything else, there is so much crucial, vitally important material in the podcast stream for this show. There is a lot more current events, commentary type shows in recent years, and sunday shows with gems that aren't always easy to find, but if you go further back, there are a lot of fucking home runs (small taste here). And of course, the triple philosophical punch of On Truth, UPB and RTR are must reads. I tend to assume that people have listened to a comparable number of podcasts as I have, but that's not usually the case and other people are relatively new. Some people only know the shows from the shows from the last two years, but FDR classic has some freakin' awesome stuff in there. 1
shirgall Posted February 12, 2015 Posted February 12, 2015 Mind, Language and Society by John Searle is a most excellent introductory work. He also does a good job of teaching you about the history of philosophy, as well in his lecture series. He's an academic, but the kind other philosophers hate, because he's not shy about telling other people that their theories are terrible, and he's a funny, likeable guy. +1 on this one. I read it about a decade ago, maybe I should hit it again.
Drevik Posted February 12, 2015 Author Posted February 12, 2015 Mind, Language and Society by John Searle is a most excellent introductory work. He also does a good job of teaching you about the history of philosophy, as well in his lecture series. He's an academic, but the kind other philosophers hate, because he's not shy about telling other people that their theories are terrible, and he's a funny, likeable guy. But before recommending anything else, there is so much crucial, vitally important material in the podcast stream for this show. There is a lot more current events, commentary type shows in recent years, and sunday shows with gems that aren't always easy to find, but if you go further back, there are a lot of fucking home runs (small taste here). And of course, the triple philosophical punch of On Truth, UPB and RTR are must reads. I tend to assume that people have listened to a comparable number of podcasts as I have, but that's not usually the case and other people are relatively new. Some people only know the shows from the shows from the last two years, but FDR classic has some freakin' awesome stuff in there. I'll give that a try too. I've been trying to keep up with all the new FDR stuff as well as start listening from episode 1.
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