I've seen the infographs, but they always list a hundred books with no help where to start. I've always found subjects like metaphysics, subjectivity/perspectivity, existentialism etc. interesting. I've heard a lot of conjecture but I'd like to man up and read the important works myself.
Where should I start? Kant, Nietzsche, Plato, Aristotle? Which works? Name 5 books you'd recommend for a beginner as a starting point to philosophical research, pretty please and thank you.
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Read the sticky and SWTG, dumb faggot.
docs.google.com
it seems very overwhelming but u can do it user!!!!!!!!!!!!! perhaps u shouldstart with one of them history of western philosophy books, the bryan magee one is pretty good.
History of philosophy podcasts are a nice way to introduce yourself
historyofphilosophy.net
SWTG - move through major thinkers chronologically. Then go back and study what you feel is most important to read after you've done so.
Try to do the biggest thinkers from the Greeks all the way to the existentialists and Wittgenstein. Brief overview of all. Then go back and focus more narrowly.
Start and end with Diogenes
Nietzsche's genealogy of morality
First section of The Leviathan
JS Mill on utilitarianism/free speech
Kant Groundworks on metaphysics of morality
Plato: One of the shorter socratic dialogues
would be ideal and very babby
youtube.com
Try this out. It's pretty dry. You can pirate (or library) the text collections he's using and they are pretty useful, as well.
He's a Christian and a traditional philosopher, scholastically trained, so he has a huge focus on the classical way of doing metaphysics and ethics as first philosophy. This is a bad thing in a certain sense, because it's likely that you won't have much interest in the HUGE amount of time he devotes to medieval philosophy, or even (maybe) to some of the ways he handles the Greeks. But overall, he'll give you a very classical picture of Greek philosophy, which is vital as a base, and then you can skip to around Descartes.
Descartes is the beginning of modern philosophy. Scholastic philosophy melts away when modern thinkers begin asking the question of foundations. Descartes is the ur-foundationalist, trying to found "first philosophy" on a completely certain basis of reason. From there, you can read Locke, Hume, if you want - try the website earlymoderntexts - and read a lot ABOUT Kant. Read lots about Kant before reading Kant.
At that point you have the launching points necessary to sort of know where you want to go. You'll know the metaphysical and ethical bases of ancient philosophy to the point that you can explore more aspects of it, if that interests you. You'll know enough about the modern crises of metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics that you will be able to see their "threads" leading from thinkers like Kant/Hume/Descartes on through Hegel into Heidegger etc.
It will take you a long time until you can comfortable read anything complex. Don't try to master anything. Go into it expecting that you're going to have to retread the same ground a dozen times, not with the sense that you have to memorise everything. That frees you from that obligation.
A History of Western Philosophy - Bertrand Russel.
An exceptional book by an exceptional author. You can easily find your way around western thought after reading it.
>Brief overview of all.
Are you saying I should read the abridged editions or some other "interpretations"? Because I've tried to avoid those in general (when reading about history or societal theories) and figured it's the same with philosophy, read the real thing and not some 3rd party's version of it. Do you consider the original works to be too cryptic to be worth the hassle?
Thanks
Whoops
Also what is SWTG? I don't see it explained in the sticky wiki or google.