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Philosophy Readings - Page 4

post #46 of 59
7/2/10 at 8:37am
^^ Have you ever watched the Foucault/Chomsky debate? Foucault kills Chomsky. To contribute to the OP. If you like videos, watch the Great Minds series. It is by far the best online videos there is and can bring more light to this post. And I will also recommend Jean-Paul Sartres novel Nausea and The Transcendence of the Ego. They were written more or less simultaneously and are so entwined that they really can't be seperated. One explain the other and vice versa. Beside this, they can be seen as the platform from where the rest of his (early) writings take of.
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post #47 of 59
7/2/10 at 9:50am
I strongly recommend you attend a prelimenary class in philosophy, or peruse a thorough book on the various areas of philosophy, certain concepts like dualism and the self, and the logic involved. I also think you should get yourself a philosophy dictionary as a number of words have different meanings in philosophy than they do in general english (e.g.: the word absolute referring to innate ideas rather than perfection or completeness (though obviously they may still be perfect or complete)). I would also recommend that you first briefly study the various areas (logic, metaphysics, epistemology) before you progress to studying philosophers. When you do get to reading up on the philosophers, I would suggest that you do it chronologically, as later philosophers have built on previous works in many respects and this allows you to 'branch out' your understanding from one philosopher to another (e.g.: Plato to Aristotle, Descartes to Locke). Also to begin with as others have said I'd try to avoid primary texts, as not only may you not initally grasp it (might be lacking prereq. knowledge for example) but there is a lot of ground to cover and you can spend months reading up on just one philosopher if you're going by primary texts, you would be best doing this at a later time once you have a general understanding of philosophy.
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post #48 of 59
7/2/10 at 9:54am
Quote:
Originally Posted by JacobJacob View Post
^^ Have you ever watched the Foucault/Chomsky debate? Foucault kills Chomsky.

To contribute to the OP. If you like videos, watch the Great Minds series. It is by far the best online videos there is and can bring more light to this post.

And I will also recommend Jean-Paul Sartres novel Nausea and The Transcendence of the Ego. They were written more or less simultaneously and are so entwined that they really can't be seperated. One explain the other and vice versa. Beside this, they can be seen as the platform from where the rest of his (early) writings take of.

Would you really recommend Sartre's fiction to someone who is just starting out in reading philosophy?
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post #49 of 59
7/2/10 at 10:29am
Quote:
Originally Posted by JacobJacob View Post
^^ Have you ever watched the Foucault/Chomsky debate? Foucault kills Chomsky.

Have seen that before. Focault isn't the only thinker to engage Chomsky in debate.

That said, here is the transcript of the Foucault/Chomsky debate.
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post #50 of 59
7/4/10 at 12:02am
Quote:
Originally Posted by IUtoSLU View Post
Kant's Critique of Pure Reason. Lightweight beginner stuff.

+1
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post #51 of 59
7/4/10 at 1:32am
I'd suggest you read The Imperative by Alphonso Lingis. It's an example of the very best work in philosophy. It's beautifully written and accessible to people with limited background in philosophy. It might even be life-changing--it was for me. Seriously, I don't think you can do better.

You might also try The Community of Those Who Have Nothing in Common by the same author.

Good luck!

EDIT: Or if you can read French, I'd suggest the book whose title is the same as my username. The author is Michel Serres.
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post #52 of 59
7/4/10 at 3:45am
Read some Baudrillard, the most important philosopher of the 20th century.
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post #53 of 59
7/4/10 at 10:50am
What about Get a Life?
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post #54 of 59
7/4/10 at 12:46pm
Some good recommendations in here already. But I have a BA in philosophy and still haven't deciphered a number of the tomes previously mentioned. I'd recommend Richard Rorty's "Philosophy and Social Hope." It will give you a good introduction to American Pragmatism (Rorty's brand of thinking) but also sketch out a rough arc of philosophy since Plato. Additionally, Nietzsche's "Thus Spoke Zarathustra," an allegory, will challenge you but will be fun. Finally, I'd recommend taking an intro class in philosophy. You'll never entirely "get" what these guys are arguing about until you understand the traditions that preceded them.
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post #55 of 59
7/4/10 at 2:45pm
I've always enjoyed reading Rorty. Theodore Drange has a great book on philosophy of religion, "Nonbelief & Evil: Two Arguments for the Nonexistence of God."
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post #56 of 59
7/5/10 at 3:38pm
Sophie's World, a novel by Jostein Gaarder, provides a good introduction to western philosophical thought.

My personal favorites are Jean-Paul Sartre an d Friedrich Nietzsche.
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post #57 of 59
7/5/10 at 4:20pm
Ditto on "Sophie's World." It's an intriguing read. My list of philosophy reads is way too long to share here, but I would suggest that if you have iTunes you look under podcasts for the free "Philosophy Bites" podcasts. I think there are about 130 of them, each around 15 minutes long. They are usually on one very specific topic / question ("Is it wrong to sell organs?") and they talk about the major thinkers and philosophies informing different opinions. I think a good place to start is to listen to a couple on topics that interest you, see what philosophers they mention and go from there. "Philosophy" by Bryan Magee is also a nice introductory text - just two or three pages on each of the major topics / thinkers to give you a sense of what might interest you. Apologies if it was mentioned previously and I missed that. Happy reading.
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post #58 of 59
7/5/10 at 5:05pm
Thank me later broski http://www.amazon.com/Family-Guy-Phi.../dp/140516316X A required 10 second video clip for all philosophers...
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post #59 of 59
7/5/10 at 6:08pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by gigi2010 View Post
Plato is not very difficult, his works are in the form of dialogues, where several characters argue a topic by asking questions of each otehr. This form let the reader decide wich is the valid argumenti among the different points of view.

No, no, no.

The dialogues are dramas, in which the teaching emerges from consideration of the whole. Plato's thought is not contained in what any one character says, not even Socrates. Socrates is wiser than all the others but he tempers what he says depending who he is talking to (and who is listening).

In addition, all arguments are in a sense provisional and can only be properly assessed once one can see the dialouges as a whole in themselves.
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