What Philosophy books should I read?

Question

I'm trying to expand my reading, and one of the areas is in philosophy--any suggestions on what I should add to a reading list?

There are so many wonderful answers--it is really hard to choose just one. I usually never go to voters, I just suck it up and make my choice. Thank you so much everyone. I will pick up these suggestions and start reading them you were all very helpful. Philosophy seems to have some really genorous contributors.

Answer 1

The philosophy that helped me earn a successful life is Objectivism. It gave me a road map to living my life and based on living this philosophy I had a career I loved, found a wonderful husband, made very good decisions and, most important of all, I am head over heels in love with life.

Here's a bit about Objectivism:

http://www.aynrand.org/site/PageServer?pagename=objectivism_pobs

If you like fiction, I suggest 'The Fountainhead' and 'Atlas Shrugged'.

If you like non-fiction, she has several non-fiction books but I like 'Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand' by Leonard Peikoff as it presents Objectivism hierarchically...soup to nuts.

Answer 2

For introductions, I like some philosophy oriented fiction.

1) Sophie's World. - Philosophy explained to a little girl.
2) The Brother's Karamazov - Does God exist?
3) Atlas Shrugged - Capitalism!
4) The Sandman Series - a series of graphic novels on various topics, but mostly about freedom.
5) The Lord of the Flies - Existentialism.
6) Animal Farm - Communism fails.

Answer 3

"Logic and Contemporary Rhetoric." is awesome!

It cuts through a lot of mumbo jumble, and helps you see truth more clearly!

The Bible says "Why halt you between two opinions"

A classic overly simple example: in a false argument you would correctly prove that a chicken is "a two legged animal", but then go on a step too far and wrongly conclude that "a two legged animal is a chicken". Not necessarily!!!

A lawyer says, "That's not enough evidence to find no reasonable doubt", although the evidence (what little there might be of it) is undisputed.

We need to ask ourselves, "Is that the ONLY conclusion?"

Good critical analysis of arguments cannot be done with a head full of falsehoods.

These illogical arguments can come from famous politicians, clever salesmen, repeating advertising, your own buddies or even wide eyed strangers who come to the door, when we are gullible, or just not ready to think hard at that moment.

Answer 4

I recently read "The Thinking Person's Guide to Great Philosophical Books", edited by James M. Russell, I recomend this is a good place to start. I picked the book up at Chapters and it was on sale. There is a brief synopsis of Works from Plato to Peter Singer, when I say brief I mean brief like 3-4 pages each. This is a Great place to start and find what area of philosophy interests you, as well as find some great books.

Answer 5

My first suggestion would be to read Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. If you are just starting out in philosophy, not only is this a wonderful introduction, but it is in the form of a mystery story. From the book jacket:

"It is the story of a man who said that he would stop the motor of the world -- and did. Was he a destroyer or the greatest of liberators? Why did he have to fight his battle, not against his enemies but against those who needed him most, and his hardest battle against the woman he loved? What is the world's motor -- and the motive power of every man? These are the questions behind the baffling events that play havoc with the lives of the characters in this story.

Tremendous in scope, this novel presents an astounding panorama of human life -- from the productive genius who becomes a worthless playboy ... to the great steel idustrialist who does not know that he is working for his own destruction ... to the philosopher who becomes a pirate .... to the composer who give up his career on the night of his triumph ... to the woman who runs a transcontinental railroad ... to the lowest track worker in her Terminal tunnels.

This is a riveting mystery, not about the murder of a man's body, but about the murder -- and rebirth -- of man's spirit. It is a philosophical revolution, told in the form of an action thriller of violent events -- with a ruthlessly brilliant plot and irresistable suspense.

Peopled by larger-than-life heroes and villians, male and female, charged with awesome questions of good and evil, Atlas Shrugged is a giant novel -- the supreme triumph and ultimate testament of one of the towering geniuses of our time."

Answer 6

I firmly believed your a wide-reader. A writer, a poet and seems to read a lot of interesting books. If you haven't read more of philosophy books you could start with the Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder. Then if it interests you... go to th nearest Bookster and purchase among what interests you most. You may try Chinese philosophy and Buddhism aside from these Eastern and Western Philosophers.

Hope to see you more often in the Philosophy Section.

Thanks for asking. Have a great day!

Answer 7

None of your answers cite Sir karl Popper,
probably for their own personal reasons.

He "took on" philosophy's chief Sage wittgenstein and
showed indoing so how philosophy has become a pseudo
subject,almost full of in-bred teachers.Some like Plato,
others disike the frenchman Bergson(possibly because
they thought he "answered" religion;...).

Sir karl showed that criticisim is close-to reality;he didnt take
kurt Godel's Incompletness proof to its darwinian limit
because he was engaged on so many other things.
Read the Open society and its enemies,and then you should
be able to more-or-less laugh at the modern day politics
carried out supposedly in our name.
Read "Conjecture and Refutations" to find out how easily
academic and taught "fads" come and go( in our time
the stupid and almost insane "Theory of everything"!-i
remember watching that programme on national t.v. too)
And read "Objective knowledge",not to find out an answer to the chicken-and-egg problem,but to find out the extent of
how real criticism is not tolerated;(or keep going to your so-called philosophy classes!).
Anyway, you will get no bullshit with Sir karl,only real knowledge.

Answer 8

yeats was a fan of plotinus, eliot was a fan of bradley - but i'm not convinced that their philosophies helped either of them much with their poetry.

plato's 'ion' is probably essential reading for any poet - but more because of what it says about the nature and history of poetry than for strictly philosophical reasons.

aristotle's 'poetics' and longinus 'art of the sublime' are also works i find myself constantly revisiting - though again more as literary criticism than as philosophy per se.

i suspect between them wittgenstein and goedel put a big question mark against the whole notion of philosophy.

but i think the best way into wittgenstein is derek jarman's film rather than any particular book; and my favourite work on goedel is douglas hofstadter's 'bach goedel escher: an eternal golden braid'.

i doubt most philosophy departments would be very approving of such a listing. but then when i've visited philosophy departments in the past, i've not been very impressed with them either.

Answer 9

The Republic - Plato
The Nichomachean Ethics - Aristotle
Thus Spake Zarathustra - Nietzche
The Prince - Machiavelli
The Stranger - Camus
The Malaise of Modernity - Charles Taylor

Answer 10

One of the best books to start out with is A History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell. It's simply a classic.
http://www.amazon.com/History-Western-Philosophy-Bertrand-Russell/dp/0671201581

It's undoubtedly a hefty load to read (900 to 1000 pages depending on which publisher you buy from), but this book will explain very ancient Greek philosophy, Catholic philosophy of post Roman empire era to medieval times, and modern philosophy starting from 16th century to early 20th century.

Russell writes in a straight-forward crystal clear fashion, I guarantee that there will be no ambiguity in explanation he gives.

By the time you are finished with the book, you will have a very good idea of how Western philosophy started, and developed over time by different philosophers of different school/tradition.