I'm a brainlet, and I have literally 0 (zero) knowledge of philosophy

I'm a brainlet, and I have literally 0 (zero) knowledge of philosophy.

Is Plato's The Republic a good start?

Other urls found in this thread:

docs.google.com/document/d/1y8_RRaZW5X3xwztjZ4p0XeRplqebYwpmuNNpaN_TkgM/mobilebasic?pli=1
twitter.com/SFWRedditVideos

No. If you want to start with Plato, read: The Apology, Euthyphro, Crito and Phaedo. After that look up the division between early-middle-late Platonic dialogues.

You should probably read a basic overview of philosophy if you're completely clueless, they give you plenty of ideas where to go next. My favorite is Kenny's Brief History of Western Philosophy, but Sophie's World is also acceptable, it's a novel about a teenage girl being taught philosophy by a creepy old guy.

Greek Mythology -> Thales -> Anaximander -> Anaximenes -> Heraclitus -> Xenophanes -> Parmenides -> Melissos -> Zeno of Elea -> Gorgias -> Euclid -> Empedocles -> Anaxagoras -> Democritus -> Pitagoras -> Protagoras -> Socrates -> Antisthenes -> Aristippus -> Plato -> Aristotle

It's fine.

Why are you all so worried about reading above your weight? The best books are the ones you struggle with. Subsequent rereads are much more rewarding.

Reading easy books is for babies.

No, it's likely too esoteric for you to understand. Before you read any source material, read interpretations and arguments/context about that material. It'll make understand much easier. I'd also start with more modern philosophers as they are easier to understand. Ethics (for example, utilitarianism) or existentialism would be a good place to start.

docs.google.com/document/d/1y8_RRaZW5X3xwztjZ4p0XeRplqebYwpmuNNpaN_TkgM/mobilebasic?pli=1

The Republic is a great place to start.

OP don't listen to this tryhard. I started with the republic and though I probably missed a lot of subtleties in the poetry/dialogue, I definitely grasped most of it and am better off. Hell, Plato's republic is easier to understand than Aristotle's ethics.

Just fucking read it if you're interested and don't be a pseud afterward who thinks he knows everything.

I majored in philosophy, so yeah, maybe I take it a bit more seriously than others. The method I mentioned is one of the best ways to learn.

Now, if we're talking the "ironic" tryhard, I think you might be the posterboy for that.

>just go harddddd, a methodology to understanding raw and difficult texts is not necessary

>I probably missed a lot of subtleties in the poetry/dialogue

Case in point. t. fucking retard

Plato's The Republic is not even worth reading at all, ever.

This. Meta-books are like reading the contents page, helps you position things relative to one another. There's a reason Phil degrees alway have something like this in the first year.

Otherwise I guarantee you will give up. The republic seems bizarre to modern eyes without context.

...

>I majored in philosophy
really, and your philosophy major involved starting with 20th century thinkers because they're easier? what kind of bullshit are you trying to sell here, exactly?

I started with Mill and utilitarianism in an Ethics course. I'm not trying to sell anything.

You don't necessarily need the Greeks to understand any of that.

oh no, dumb fashion choices, society is doomed

the fucking greeks would consider you a degenerate because you wear pants and wearing pants makes men into women. you tranny

>implying I'm wearing pants right now.

are you saying you ARE wearing pants right now? HE GET A LOAD OF THIS FAGGOT WEARING PANTS WHILE BROWSING Veeky Forums

Yeah I'm doing a PhD in philosophy right now and you can literally start from anywhere. But Plato is probably the best and undoubtedly most important/influential of all time, and the Republic is noy particularly difficult.

Although if you are scared of difficulty and don't trust your capacity to understand arguments then you should probably not read philosophy at all and kill yourself, because, you know, thinking rationally is what differentiates us from animals (or the plebs).

Me again, now that I think of it Plato's republic was fun because it addreses the plebs who aren't any more philosophical than dogs, as in they can recognise who is a friend and who is a stranger, and should therefore be soldiers/police/guardians and leave ruling to the philosophers.

>But Plato is probably the best and undoubtedly most important/influential of all time

Whys is he the most influential of all time?

>Americans

Aristotle > Plato in pretty much everything desu.
Plato was a good writer of prose and this is his best legacy. The dialogues are very readable. But regarding actual philosophical content, Aristotle is so above his level that most people still don't understand him at all. The intellectual rigor he was able to achieve with no tradition backing him up is simply amazing.

>fucking retard

I majored in finance instead of philosophy and am an active participant in effective and just distribution of semi-scarce resources. We can agree that I'm stupider than you.

Surely, with your philosophy education, you can convince me that your wisdom and intelligence are superior to my material compensation and that you are therefore living a happier life.

The best answer

Cool, but very weak, strawman.

Anyway, since I did major in philosophy, there is probably a good chance I know better than you regarding its topics.

Start with Parmenides instead.
Plato ripped him off.

are sophists really necessary?

>all of these brainlets giving you bad advice
start with the socratic dialogues, read the later ones where soc becomes a puppet of Plato’s imagination, ease into the Republic, try to find fragments of Heraclitus and translations of what we know of Thales, read about Pythagoras and maybe consider checking out the Iliad and Odyssey so you understand who Soc is mocking constantly in Homer. Do not under any circumstances read more than a few pages about Philosophy from secondary texts ever. This is a waste of your time and an insult to your learning aptitude. Greek phil is incedibly simplistic, nothing about their thought was subtle or detailed despite all neo-platonic faggotry and phil scholars who salivate over their writings. Get away from the Greeks as soon as possible (read Sophocles too) and then pass over the Romans and into the Englightenment as quickly as possible to understand phil. Never read Aquinas or Augustine or any christian philosophers except Liebnitz. You’ll want to stop with Heidegger and Wittgenstein after getting through whitehead and Schopenhauer. Don’t read anqlytical philosophy, just look up and study texts on mathematical logic, set theory etc if that interests you. Philosophy is a small field, it encompasses 10-15 authors of merit and maybe 25-40 works worth your time. An enormous number of smelly pseuds waste their time on one particular mind or work and they will be happy to fill your head with trivialities and irrelevant axioms, principles that have long been abandoned. You’re mostly reading for historical perspective, almost none of these works have any value for the real world and will do nothing to inform you of what exists. There’s a catch, you will begin wanting to imitate your favorite philosophers and become obsessed with their words, just remember they are wrong about everything and have nothing to offer 21st century humans. Have fun :))))))

possibly worst post in this thread

6/10 I got a little upset

Yes. Plato in general is the best way to start, and The Republic is the best start to Plato.

Not American.
Because even Aristotle is responding to him and much of his dialogues have foreshadowed (or are probably explicit references to) ideas we find in contemporary philosophy.

>Anglos

You could also start with stoicism or other philosophies that have to do with living a purposeful, meaningful life. Life philosophies are always interesting.

I don't think you're allowed to question life choices when you're shitposting on /pol/ lite my friend.

Hi, I started my philosophy study with The Secret Teaching of All Ages. I'm only interested in occult philosophy. Do you have any recommendations for this type of esoteric material?

I found Sophie's world to be really underwhelming once he gets past the greeks. And don't get me started on the fanfiction-level plot...

>(wrong) assumptions

lol a 5 yo can read that but it is a waste of time
t. read it 2 weeks ago

only worth it if you are retarded and didnt yet realize aristocracy is the best of governments

watch something to get the general idea of it and then start reading if you really have that 0 knowledge

Kybalion for sure

Read The a Republic alongside Leo Strauss’s ‘City and Man’ also get the Alan Bloom Translation of The Republic, it has a great Essay on it included with it.

fuck you nigga that book was my childhood

I had read 0 philosophy too when I suddenly decided to get into it.
I did that by reading Bertrand Russell's History Of Western Philosophy.
I think it's pretty good, although with benefit of hindsight, I would say he is very unfair to some people e.g. The Mustache Man, Friedrich Nietzsche.

i am a different brainlet

that book did something to my head i dont like it

Can you tell me why you read it?

The Secret Doctrine by HP Blavatsky

The Corpus Hermeticum w/Commentary by GRS Mead