What's your favorite philosophical book?

Answer 1

The Catcher in the Rye.

Answer 2

The Book of Laughter & Forgetting by Milan Kundera. It's fiction but introduces a lot of neat theories, like:

"the devil's laughter" - when you start laughing uncontrollably because you suddenly realize how meaningless and pointless and absurd something is

"the angel's laughter" - when you start laughing uncontrollably because you suddenly realize how all the pieces fall into place, how there was meaning all along and it all makes sense

"burden of buoyancy" - the painful heaviness you feel when everything is really superficial and shallow

"litost" - unspeakably bitter anguish - like what Romeo would feel if he magically recovered and realized that Juliet had been alive the whole time, and then had killed herself upon seeing he had killed *himself*

I love how he can describe things we all experience, but in a perfect way that makes you say "yes, yes, yes!" because it hits it right on the head. That man can *capture*.

Answer 3

brothers karamozov.....palms down. that's a special, so in step with probability i'm disqualified, despite if that's finished of affection of theory like no different e book i've got examine. pay attention although, 'the grand inquisitor' which hides in that e book will clarify why we are all doomed. by using all means, sense blessed in case you haven't any longer examine it, and much greater blessed in case you do no longer know it. by using how, the purest philosophy isn't interior the treatises of philosophers, no...they are in many cases psychological idiots hiding at the back of abstruce tedium. the wonderful philosophy is discovered interior the dating between poetry and our afflictions

Answer 4

One that I have read recently has become very meaningful to me. It is one that has inspired me and changed my thinking forever. Written by Sheldon Cheney (no, not that other Cheney!), it was published in the 1940s but has recently been reissued. It is entitled Men Who Have Walked with God, and deals with men (and women) of "mystic" faith, going all the way back to Lao Tzu in China and Gautama Buddha in India and coming up to William Blake, the English poet and visionary in the late 1700s and early 1800s. It gives a brief bio of about ten such mystics and fairly clear and complete explanations of their beliefs with special attention of their visions and their influence on others. It includes Plato and Plotinus, Saint Bernard (the saint, not the dog!), Meister Eckhardt, Jakob Boehme, with side references to many, many others. I read it once and then reread it again immediately, taking about ten to fifteen pages a day, almost like an old-fashioned devotional manual. I am not a mystic, but this book almost made me wish I were. It certainly clarified and influenced my sense of values and my relation to the Infinite in my life. It's even better if you talk about it with someone else who shares your interest in such books.

Best wishes. Here's hoping you find just the right book that speaks to you as this one did for me -- and someone to share it with!

Answer 5

Uncle John's Bathroom Readers

Answer 6

The Book by Alan Watts

Answer 7

The Little Engine That Could

Answer 8

Oh my gosh, The Catcher In The Rye


and the Little Prince...two books I would die for

and Siddhartha

Answer 9

Kudos to Crowley for picking Alan Watts. I agree, but I like, "The Wisdom of Insecurity".

Answer 10

Pale Blue Dot by Carl Sagan
God's Debris by Douglas Adams

(even though I don't agree with a lot of what both of them say, they are still my favorites)