Where would be the easiest place to start with (reading) philosophy?

Question

I'm not a complete newbie, I'm aware of a lot of the major philosophies and their ideaologies but it seems that every time I start reading about one thinker it just leads on to more movements and more important people & it just seems a bit too much to take (for example when I first got into Sartre, he made a reference to Heidegger which made me want to go find out more about him too, similarly when I looked into Marx I ended up studying Lenin and so on too...) basically I'm asking who are the most important people to read? I'm 15 so I'm not really that experienced in these matters, I just find it interesting, so sorry if this Q is silly...

Answer 1

First of all, you must resist the temptation to go off on a tangent to what I call derivitive thinkers. The best way to do this is to stick with the historical sequence of great minds (SEE BELOW)...

One of my favorite authors is Wil Durant.

http://www.willdurant.com/home.html...

He wrote a book called "The Story of Philosophy." It is very easy to read, and you will learn a great deal about the greatest western european minds who have shaped the way we think today.

It's also good to know what the perspective is of the author. Wil Durant was fond of The French Enlightenment, so he gives a lot of space to Voltaire, who generally isn't even mentioned in smaller historical compilations.

He has also written about eastern philosophy, if that's an area you want to focus on. Many of his works are available in audio at the web site.

Beside Durant's, there are many history of western philosophy books which have been written through the ages. My favorites are the ones which "boil down" the historical figures to the absolute minimum. Then, they give a succinct description of the basic ideas of the thinker. Here is a list of some the greatest & most influential minds in history:
Socrates
Plato
Aristotle
Plotinus
Machiavelli
Francis Bacon
Hobbes
Descartes
Locke
Spinoza
Hume
Rousseau
Immanuel Kant
Hegel
Nietzsche
Heidegger
Sartre
These are the guys whose names keep popping up because they made the greatest case for looking at the world in a particular way. Most others, are secondary, or derivitives, or rely upon these guys in some way.
I would recommend starting with the guys on this list. The table of contents in a western philosophy book will list the names of the thinkers. Go to the book store and look for a book which has these guys as the basic list in its table of contents.
Once you are familar with what these guys have to offer, THEN AND ONLY THEN venture forth to expand your knowledge of other philosophers / eras / genres you are interested in.

Good luck!

Answer 2

your question is not silly, yes it can be confusing, i would suggest starting with basic articles about the subject,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy
is a good one, then branch out and read about different philosophers,
philosophy, while including reading about others thoughts and concepts , is as much about developing your own! so no one philosopher, either past or present, is more important then another, and there are many different views on the same subjects, with some of the philosophers presenting new ideas, so just pick the ones that seem to be speaking about a topic you like or find interesting or else presenting new ideas, or else pick a topic, and see what writings have been done on it

Answer 3

start at the beginning of philosophy. Plato, Aristotle, etc. Then work your way down the time line.

Answer 4

I'm with laura f. Start with Plato and Aristotle.