[bowstaff981]

I took a philosophy class last year that I enjoyed thoroughly. I often get into debates with a friend about philosophy, but I feel like I'm not well versed in it. I would like to start reading more into it, but I don't know where to start. Can anybody point me in the right direction on where to start studying philosophy? Are there any books or people in particular that I should start with?

[Thrash]

I really enjoy Wittgenstein....

[Chrysostom]

If you have the aptitude for philosohpy, there are two excellent introductory books you should get, both by Robert Solomon: Introducing Philosophy and A Short History of Philosophy. He was an eminent philosopher at the University of Texas (died just maybe two years ago), and for a long time one of the only major American thinkers who took seriously the philosophy from Continental Europe. His books might not be easy but they will be much, much easier than the stuff that most American philosophers write (trust me). His understanding of Christianity is pretty narrow, but he's not at all hostile to us and in fact takes us very seriously, which is always nice. (His wife co-wrote many of his books, and is a devout Roman Catholic IIRC.)

I've had good experiences with the Introducing and For Beginners series. (Like, Introducing Wittgenstein, or Foucault for Beginners.) A search on Amazon will reveal a horde of them. They are generally easy to read and involve lots of comic-book-like pictures. I've read a few that were a bit, err, opaque, but in general they're very accessible. If you go to a used bookstore you might be able to find a bunch of them. I own thirty or more, and bought them at $3-5 a pop.

If you're looking for some Christians who write about philosophy, try James KA Smith or Merold Westphal.

[Jeffrey]

Ha! I also highly recommend the Introducing series. They're not written at a simplistic level - they're meaty, but laid out intuitively with illustrations (they're akin to sequential art). Their biggest blind spot (at least the ones I've read) is including non-Western material. Introducing Logic is very solid (I've bought copies for logic teachers who admitted they only know logic in terms of debate and fallacies), but it leaves out Indian and Chinese logic - despite referencing modern logicians who were influenced by both! Especially glaring is how it skips over the Muslim logicians like Avincenna (who preserved and progressed Aristotelian logic) and pre-Leibniz logicians like Aquinas and Abelard! It wouldn't have been too hard for them to add just a few more pages!

I'm hopefully going to obtain a copy of Indian Logic: a reader by Ganeri, which I'm told is a good primer.

Otherwise, if you're focusing on the West, start sequentially. This means that you should read some Plato and Aristotle. Even if you find modern philosophers more engaging, they'll make much more sense in light of the past. I can't imagine someone really understanding Hegel, Marx, Russell, Heidegger, Sartre, Rand, or Foucault without understanding the basics of Aristotle - because those logicians viewed themselves as responding to the Classical philosophers.

p.s. A good place to start is with Euthyphro and Meno, two Socratic dialogues. There are many readable translations available for free, online.

Also, read the Tao Te Ching. Daoism as a religion is not quite the same as the basics of the Tao Te Ching, which is read by many as a work on philosophy, logic, and epistemology.

[Thrash]

Oh, if you guys like illustrations and intro books to philosophy, you should check out "Looking At Philosophy: The Unbearable Heaviness of Philosophy Made Lighter" , by Donald Palmer.

This is a MUST HAVE BOOK. Go and buy it. It is amazingly awesome. The illustrations are just wild and they really really really help the concepts stick in your head!
Palmer is agnostic, but he treats Christian philosophy fairly and does not make fun of faith much. He seems to have healthy respect.

[Jeffrey]

Indeed! Donald Palmer has a number of great introduction books for Western philosophers - he's part of the Beginning [Philosophical Topic] series.

[Jeffrey]

Originally Posted by Chrysostom

I've had good experiences with the Introducing and For Beginners series. (Like, Introducing Wittgenstein, or Foucault for Beginners.) A search on Amazon will reveal a horde of them. They are generally easy to read and involve lots of comic-book-like pictures. I've read a few that were a bit, err, opaque, but in general they're very accessible. If you go to a used bookstore you might be able to find a bunch of them. I own thirty or more, and bought them at $3-5 a pop.

The ones on critical theory and post-modernism are examples of being opaque. They're both good, but the authors attempt to do too much and (likely unintentionally) stilt things toward their own experiences with the topics. Still, I recommend them.

[Chrysostom]

Originally Posted by Jeffrey

Their biggest blind spot (at least the ones I've read) is including non-Western material.

Agreed... I have the one on "Eastern Philosophy." The West gets book upon book, survey upon survey, while the East gets... one book. It's like the editors didn't read what their own books say on colonialism and such. Solomon's books are not at all Western-centric, by the way. Things get a little balanced in favor of the West once he gets to the last 50 years, but a) until then it's extraordinarily balanced, and b) in the last 50 years a whole lot more has been going on in the West than elsewhere, so it's not his fault.

Also, most that I've read have a very Enlightened perspective, even if they're pomo sympathizers. (There is a terribly strong correlation between the Enlightenment and marginalization of all other voices, no matter how robust...) For instance, the book on Descartes begins with about twenty pages of outright lies about the Medieval period, haha.

Originally Posted by Jeffrey

The ones on critical theory and post-modernism are examples of being opaque. They're both good, but the authors attempt to do too much and (likely unintentionally) stilt things toward their own experiences with the topics. Still, I recommend them.

I haven't read the one on Theory but I've got the one on Post-modernism, and to be honest I kinda like it's opacity.

[Jeffrey]

Originally Posted by Chrysostom

Agreed... I have the one on "Eastern Philosophy." The West gets book upon book, survey upon survey, while the East gets... one book. It's like the editors didn't read what their own books say on colonialism and such.

Also, most that I've read have a very Enlightened perspective, even if they're pomo sympathizers. (There is a terribly strong correlation between the Enlightenment and marginalization of all other voices, no matter how robust...) For instance, the book on Descartes begins with about twenty pages of outright lies about the Medieval period, haha.

MAN BOO TO THE ENLIGHTENMENT

I haven't read the one on Theory but I've got the one on Post-modernism, and to be honest I kinda like it's opacity.

It's so hard to define postmodernism, which I think is part of the idea. Still, they don't delve into the implications of literary post-modernism, which is one of its major ways of dissemination.

[Skeeter]

Indeed. Arguably, post-modernism is inextricably tied to literature and is impossible to understand outside of a literary context.

[Chrysostom]

Originally Posted by Jeffrey

MAN BOO TO THE ENLIGHTENMENT

Well, yeah, I think it's the most boring and annoying of all the Christian heresies thus far.