I'd like to read some philosophy, any reccomendations?

[phoenix_fire]

Quote by: Osborn F Enready Some of my personally considered, essential readings: Ayn Rand: Atlas Shrugged Ayn Rand: The Romantic Manifesto (currently reading, and loving it)

Grak. Rand makes me want to pull my brains out through my nostrils with a curved piece of metal.

[Osborn F Enready]

Phoenix Fire said: Grak. Rand makes me want to pull my brains out through my nostrils with a curved piece of metal.

That really sounds like a healthy dose of mental issue there.

Seriously, what do you find so irritating about Rand? Her writing style, her characters, her philosophical writings or conclusions, or what?

[phoenix_fire]

Her conclusions, the implications of her conclusions, the fact that she takes hundreds of pages of beating around the bush and endless repetition in order to eventually make something that could pass as a point...you name it.

Hey, I have to use that reference when I can. It always makes the point really well.

[Nono]

I support Zinkovich in his enthusiasm for Carl Sagan's "The Demon Haunted World: Science as A Candle in the Dark".

If you're not out to be too dead serious, you could do far worse than "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" by Robert Pirsig.

Quote by: gw Das Kapital is also a very good read.

I'm a great admirer of Karl Marx, but I'd hardly call it a "good read". A goddam slog is more like it. But if you have the time and energy you'll see that a century and a half has changed nothing about certain basic truths.

[tman_ndsu08]

Anything by Milton Friedman

[Nono]

Speaking of utopians... That philosophy? Or just an attempt to write the title deed of the rich straight onto the altar cloth?

[tman_ndsu08]

What has anything to do with the rich?

[Nono]

Quote by: t What has anything to do with the rich?

Friedman: rich get richer.

[tman_ndsu08]

Everyone else instantly drops to zero?



The rich get richer and everyone else gets richer.

[The Architect]

Another book by Carl Sagan which I am currently reading is "The Varieties of scientific experience" -A personal view of the search for god. I dont know if you would call it philosophy but it is a good read.

Ann Druyan editor, The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God. 1985 Gifford lectures, Penguin Press, 2006, ISBN 1-59420-107-2, 304 pgs

[Zinkovich]

A friend of mine who majors in philosophy recommended following this list to get into the subject, and following it so far I can recommend this list as well: Reading for New(ish) Philosophers!

It's from Cambridge University's philosophy department, so you know it's a fairly decent list to follow if you want to gain any in-depth understanding of the topic,

[bishop]

looks like there's no love for plato... :(


i am a big fan of plato's teachings.. the republic is a must read for anyone interested in life/politics/whatever, imo.. aside from the volume of knowledge in the book, there's the very important alegory of the cave - a story that few know/understand even though they should. the gorgias was also excellent imo. it was a pretty thin book focusing solely on using rhetoric for personal/selfish purposes as opposed to righteous purposes (i.e. the pursuit of truth, justice, etc.).


i have others on my bookshelf from hobbes, neitzsche (sp?), aristotle, machiavelli, kant, kierkegard, st. aquinas, etc... none of them seem to put it altogether nearly as well as plato imo.

[Zinkovich]

Plato's fine, but I always found Kant and Aristotle to be too dry when I was just starting out in my philosophical studies.

Nietzsche is only good for people who do not accept what they read state off the bat before analyzing, in my opinion. Hell, the man even contradicted himself sometimes and also deliberately set out to test the reader in most of his writings.

[bishop]

agreed... i never cared much for kant, aristotle, nietzsche and many other philosophers.. the truths (as i see them) that plato wrote still stand to this day. and since those truths are believed to be universal, i tend to believe that they supercede other philosophical opinions - especially since i've yet to encounter one that seems to have quashed plato's perspective.

and, i'd rate hobbes as my second favorite.. his work on the state of nature was spot on imo.

[Heather]

Quote by: Zinkovich A friend of mine who majors in philosophy recommended following this list to get into the subject, and following it so far I can recommend this list as well: Reading for New(ish) Philosophers! It's from Cambridge University's philosophy department, so you know it's a fairly decent list to follow if you want to gain any in-depth understanding of the topic,

Thank you for this list. It looks very well thought out and planned. I myself have been long interested in the subject, but have been clueless as to where to find a good starting point. This is a great help!

[phoenix_fire]

Quote by: bishop looks like there's no love for plato... :( i am a big fan of plato's teachings.. the republic is a must read for anyone interested in life/politics/whatever, imo.. aside from the volume of knowledge in the book, there's the very important alegory of the cave - a story that few know/understand even though they should. the gorgias was also excellent imo. it was a pretty thin book focusing solely on using rhetoric for personal/selfish purposes as opposed to righteous purposes (i.e. the pursuit of truth, justice, etc.). i have others on my bookshelf from hobbes, neitzsche (sp?), aristotle, machiavelli, kant, kierkegard, st. aquinas, etc... none of them seem to put it altogether nearly as well as plato imo.

I love the cave illustration. I learned about that in a cosmology class. Didn't know until then that Plato used to be almost as important to the Catholic church as the Gospels.