I want to learn philosophy, help a newbie of how to start

Start with Descartes

Yeah, go read all the many works Socrates has written

Philosophy is distraction. Just take the redpill

Is this actually good advice?

I'll give you some points of what I've read:

FIRST, math is important as fuck, but not vital. More math, more knowledge. This goes for logic, physics and shit. But philosophy as such. If you understand physics, get acquainted with the eleven dimentions, quantum physics (Hawking's The Grand Design gives you a fairly simple rundown of why the fuck do we exist in this universe out of the endless possibilities there are)

Nietzsche is "Be the UBER YOU FUCK YES." A lone motherfucker but a MOTHERFUCKER nontheless. Its one of my favorite authors. The other one would be Hermann Hesse, but he's not THAT of a philosopher. He is more of the artsy kind. If you like magical realism check Hesse.

But Nietzsche is awesome. Read how to philososomething with a hammer (Im a spanish speaker) or Aurora for starters. Zarathustra is too dense, I haven't finished it yet, but it is his "bible".

THE GREEKS. Check out Plato's dialogues. Fedon, Fedro and the Death of Socrates. Fundamental if you want to learn philosophy.

Those are my main boys. Ive read some Personalism, which is something that Pope John Paul II worked on, alongside other important French and German authors.

It all depends on how do you feel with your environment really. I believe that we need more Nietzsche, more of "we must be better than the best of ourselves"

Oh, and if you're frustrated with religion, Nietzsche will be your boy. He basically says "christianism/any sort of higher belief other than the belief in human superation is shit" which I believe is true to some extent. It all depends.

EXISTENTIALISM is for "I exist, therefore, I am whatever". Approach this one carefully, but it is cool nontheless. Sartre for this one.

POLITICS, is important to understand philosophy at a certain age in time. Many say that Marx, Freud and Nietzsche created the ideas of the 20th century. It is useful to understand Marx's ideas (not necessarily reading him, its a burden). Freud is fucking awesome. Even if modern psychologists say that he was wrong, he did spot some crazy shit.

SPIRIT is important as well. One's beliefs are different from one's philosophy. Most follow a mainstream religion, but there are many religions and gurus whose teachings are very fulfilling for what one may want out of life. Ive read Gurdjieff, who told people to "wake the fuck up, stop being a machine". Hesse is very spiritual too, he is my fave ;3

If you comment your interests I can point you in some direction.

Stirnerfags make me want to puke, few of them have read anything other than Stirner, and have really missed the boat I'd they think he has anything on Nietzsche

>Nietzsche
Why would I read some stirner plagiarist?

0/10

For a serious suggestion, do start with the Greeks. Try Classical Philosophy by Adamson. It's written by the guy from the A History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps podcast thing. It's pretty comprehensive, and good enough to be used as curriculum for my intro to antique philosophy course last semester.

Read some of Plato's dialogues after or during, and see if you want to pick up some Aristotle.

whatever man
who the fuck cares?
you asking random strangers to guide your philosophical education
you could kys for all I care

but if your interested in the subject you should probably read the greeks

You sound like a bitch.

What percentage of Veeky Forums has a working understanding of quantum mechanics?

you sound insecure
wats wrong user?

Not really Veeky Forums but I have a basic understanding of quantum mechanics.

Physics student here. Math and logic are spooks

Elaborate?
Biomedical student here

>Start with Hegel

Jesus Christ don't do this.

The Story of Philosophy by Brian Magee is great to give you an introduction
You could also watch his show on youtube
youtube.com/watch?v=B0_N4nX2G5w

...

Universe creation student here

Read Nietzsche, Stirner, Schopenhauer, and shitpost

There is nothing else

>no one links this
what was the point?

docs.google.com/document/d/1y8_RRaZW5X3xwztjZ4p0XeRplqebYwpmuNNpaN_TkgM/edit?pref=2&pli=1

Start with the Greeks.

docs.google.com/document/d/1y8_RRaZW5X3xwztjZ4p0XeRplqebYwpmuNNpaN_TkgM/pub

This guide is autistic and implies you need to read literally everything, unless you want to do that, which is fine. But it's a helpful guide.

You need to understand the basics and the big dudes. Much of philosophy is written as response to other philosophers and stands on the shoulders of giants.

You beat me.

Can you create a gf for me

"Stirner"
After you're done there, read The German Ideology, particularly chapter three. I think you'll find it most enlightening.

These three plus Diogenes are the shitposting quadrumvirate.

No, not at all. You could start with them, but all you'd be doing is working your way back to earlier thought and then back again to Hegel, Heidegger, and Sartre.

The shortest, yet strongest way into philosophy is as follows: Find a list of Plato's most important dialogues to read, and read them. Then read Aristotle's more important works, mainly Nichomachean Ethics, Physics, and Metaphysics. It's always good to have a strong understanding of Aristotle. After this you can jump ahead to Descartes, read his two short works. Then Hume and Kant, mainly Kant. Then you can go wherever from there really. Aristotle and Kant really dominate the majority of philosophical thought. If you want to read a certain philosopher just look up who mainly influenced them. Almost everyone was influenced heavily by Plato and Aristotle, so it's best to at least understand them.

You can start with whoever, but don't expect to understand them fully. I started with Kierkegaard and worked my way back to the Greeks and some Hegel, and then rereading Kierkegaard.

Do you really think history of Western philosophy is bad? I'm using it to teach some philosophy to my gf, and it was recommendation from my philosophy teacher

I really think someone dismissing the Greek philosophers saying they had terrible ideas is laughable.
Reading Russell probably won't make you more stupid, but it's an unsourced proto-scientistic mess and I would never recommend it to anyone.
I find it hard to believe your phil teacher did to you. Since you say teacher, and not professor, I'm assuming this is not at a university level?

I also want to start with Kierkegaard so I'll take your word, thanks senpai

God bless you. :)

Stop spoonfeeding retards. At least twenty times a day we get a retard thread like this. The sticky needs to be updated and if they can't bother to read a small post they need to fuck off.

Read the following:
Heraclitus
Protagoras
Gorgias and the other Sophists
(you're done with the Greeks)
Hume
Nietzsche
maybe Heidegger
Wittgenstein
Foucault
Derrida
Quine and Sellars (to see how analytic philosophy destroyed itself in the 2nd half of the 20thc.)
Davidson
Rorty

After that you will have understood the total failure of the Western philosophic project and be ready to graduate to Indian philosophy (the Upanishads, Buddha, Shankara, the Gita etc.).

Under NO circumstances should one touch the following thinkers:
Plato
Aristotle (except his ethics)
Any medieval 'philosopher'
Descartes
Kant
Any post- or neo-Kantian
Any analytic philosopher save the ones above
Any continental philosopher trying to hoodwink you into his bullshit 'system'

Good luck.

cont.

Alternatively one *could* read Plato to laugh at his repeated strawmanning and logical fallacies and the naivete of his mystical beliefs (identity between truth and the Good, universals existing in some heavenly realm etc.) but one must avoid being taken in.

>skipping the medieval philosophers
never going to make it brah

>his repeated strawmanning and logical fallacies and the naivete of his mystical beliefs
Reminder that Socrates is not a mouthpiece for Plato and anyone that uses it as their interpretation is the lowest of plebes

I chortled good naturally at this post.

Don't start philosophy.

Eventually you'll get stuck in the bottle, and have to wait until you reach Wittgenstein to get out again.

Start with the greeks, work through some others chronologically too - philosophers are nearly always responding to those who have written before them.

philosophybasics.com
plato.stanford.edu

the Veeky Forums philosophy guide is pretty decent tbqh

Fuck no, read the damn Greeks. If you really want to read modern philosophy anyway, get Descartes which is kinda of a [re]starting point for it and not Hegel which will be too overwhelming.

Not OP, but should I read Iliad and Odyssey before I read anything else.

You should've read those already, like a part of your general education.

Anyone else bothered by the fact that we have on average half a dozen "should I read the greeks" post a day, where every respondent can feel like they have an MA in philosophy while they make routine suggestions pulled from whatever philosophy anthology or online list is their main source of knowledge on the subject, and none actually discussing greek philosophy?

Kinda makes ya think.

To be fair, no one here actually discuss anything.

What should i read first Iliad or the Odyssey?

Iliad

are you retarded

gr8 b8 m8

this is good if you want an overall summary of some of the well-known philosophers since Plato and their ideas.

Don't follow the retardewd advice of "Read every philosopher in existence chronologically"

Read a History of Philosophy

Know the basics of the following: Plato, Aristotle, Descarte, Hume, Kant, Nietzszszche)

Then just read who you're interested in, do a bit of research on the philosopher first, if you find you need a bit of preliminary knowledge, read a few articles of SEP or ask on here.

Most philosophy students don't even go through strictly chronologically unless they're studying the history of philosophy

Do I watch Return of the Jedi, or Attack of the Clones first?

Nitcha and his fucking zscxwhatever consonant cluster. JUST FUCKING WHY?

Read every single piece of literature written by each of those writers. In that order. Holy shit.

don't listen to these retards, philosophy is about ideas NOT the faggots who wrote about them

too often people confuse philosophy with the history of philosophical publications and their authors

if I was you I'd just go to stanford encycloedia of philosophy and read through the articles that interest you

too STRESS, philosophy is not "hume said bla kant wrote x witt said y bla bla fucking bla", it's about ideas

that's the first edition what's wrong with you

My grandfather bought them in 1952 so he could look smart in front of girls to help raise my dad nigger, I didn't go buy them.

I shall read them then.

Is your dad a nigger?

Start by reading The Secret.

No they just partied too hard, and I meant like 1960ish not 1952.

Niggers can't afford books.

It's probably the worst advice I have ever heard

Sartre is really overrated

The Science of the Secret: Prelude to The Great Work

youtu.be/RYoZF_k7ggM

They're like language. Unable to describe The Real.

Great Ideas of Philosophy

thegreatcourses.com/courses/great-ideas-of-philosophy-2nd-edition.html

This course of 60 lectures gives the student a sure guide and interpreter

Dr. Daniel N. Robinson is a member of the philosophy faculty at Oxford University, where he has lectured annually since 1991. He is also Distinguished Professor, Emeritus, at Georgetown University, on whose faculty he served for 30 years. He was formerly Adjunct Professor of Psychology at Columbia University, and he also held positions at Amherst College and at Princeton University

This course is the integration of a lifelong student of these issues who has thought and published in every area covered by these lectures. Professor Robinson is one of those rare teachers whose tremendous respect for his audience, vast expertise, relish for language, and engaging rhetorical flair create an exceptionally enjoyable learning environment.

Dr. Robinson's lectures make the ideas of philosophy thrilling, passionate, human, and divine

geez
is it all worth it?
like I get starting with the greeks, but will my life be tangibly improved by spending a year or two studying german idealism?

Shut up, m'property.

This is good advice. Whatever you might end up thinking about their thought, Plato and Aristotle are so important that one can't really read philosophy without having at least some understanding of them.

I'd add a little something though; get some secondary sources or just schoolbooks. It really helps with getting a basic grasp of the history of philosophy and some of the connections of this and that. Also makes it easier to choose who to read once you've read those basic, incredibly important guys. Oh yeah, it also makes sure that you get none of the terminology wrong.

Can I read Deleuze without having a background in Western philosophy?

Yes and Theogony too.

Depends on the work

Just finished my undergrad philosophy degree. My experience is limited, but I highly recommend "Classics of Western Philosophy" by Steven Cahn if you want the raw sources.

If you wan't commentary, I can't help you there. Consider perhaps?

To clear things up, If you want to get into philosophy proper, I would highly recommend you cover the following at the minimum:

1) Plato's Republic
2) Plato's Apology
3) Aristotle's Metaphysics
4) Descartes' Meditations
5) Hume's Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding

[I would recommend Spinoza's Ethics, Leibniz's Monadology, Kant's CPR, and Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil, but those might be too advanced for a beginner]

Personally I consider the greatest piece of philosophy for general concepts, which I cited on at least 80% of my essays, to be Bertrand Russell's "Problems of Philosophy". I can't recommend it enough, though a lot of Veeky Forumsfags hate the analytics (or think Wittgenstein is superior). I expect fedora comments at least.

Goddamnit my sides

No you idiot

So you think Spinoza's Ethics is harder than Aristotle's Metaphysics? Guess I gotta go back then

seconded. here's the full playlist.
youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFF9E7ADD88FBA144

Aristotle's metaphysics is definitely the hardest on the list of 5 that I gave, but it is pretty much essential to philosophy. Spinoza's Ethics is a general "core" work of philosophy, but it is not important enough to recommend it to a beginner. IMO anyways (and Russell isn't on the list because he isn't essential reading, but I do highly recommend anyone interested in philosophy -beginner or expert- to read that work in particular).

Is it harder than Spinoza's Ethics though? I don't think so. It is harder to read simply because it is very dry, but it isn't loaded with pages of axioms and corollaries and such that require you to go back and look at the reference and create this network in your mind of the argument he is making. That, I would imagine, would be more difficult for someone starting out in the subject than Aristotle's dry writing style.

>Is it harder than Spinoza's Ethics though? I don't think so.

I should clarify that what I mean is that while Spinoza's Ethics is easier to read outright, it is a lot more complicated to understand for a beginner (IMO, again).

>anglocentric worldview
>all that unnecessary shit in antiquity
>somehow pick Tacitus over Livy, pack Marcus Aurelius and Lucretius together, forget Horace and Ovid
>include Plotinus
>include Chaucer as if he were relevant to the general course of mankind, having him next to Dante
>of the 19th century include nothing european but Goethe and Melville
>spend the rest of it on Darwin, Marx, Engels, Tolstoy and Dostoevsky
???????