Philosophy

TamsinValencia

TamsinValencia

Scooby
Joined
Jul 21, 2017
Messages
4,146
Black Thorn
Anyone on the forum have an interest in philosophy?
Recently I have become interested in the subject. The first philosophy book I bought was Lessons in Philosophy by John Sellars.
I am enjoying the book and have learnt a lot about controlling emotions.

Any philosophy fans here? Book recommendations for beginners?
 
I know I've read some books on philosophy by accident - the field is so broad it encompasses a lot! I'm not even sure how much philosophy I have read. The ones I definitely know are Machiavelli's The Prince and Discourses.
 
I'm no longer interested in philosophy as I once was, but I'd like to point out a philosopher and book that is easy to read and underrated:

Hiero (Xenophon) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

Having read this myself, I recall some saying that Machiavelli wrote The Prince as a satire. I don't believe it for more than one reason (but my years old memories are vague on that now), and as I read the one I just recommended, I figured Machiavelli also read that work at least once (or the thoughts filtered to him somehow). (And speaking of Machiavelli, my impression from reading The Prince is that he wasn't trying to "invent evil politics" but just merely made blunt observations about how it was practiced that those who already lived by what he observed didn't want people to think about, him being bitter about it rather than cackling an evil laugh waiting for his moment to give a Palpatine shout of, "UNLIMITED POWER!")

Though it's important to note that concepts of tyrants and democracy were very different in Ancient Greece than in the modern world, and that trips a lot of people up. The history is not what many would expect, especially if one assumes they had the same understanding and practice of the modern day as a surprising number of people do.

(In case I'm giving the impression that I think philosophy is a Greek thing, I'm not. It's just all that I felt like commenting on at this time.)
 
While not a philosophy book per se, if not already read, one must read Camus' The Stranger.
 
I barely know what the word means anymore.


Watch The OA and explain it to me 😭😭😭
 
ILLYRIAN
ILLYRIAN
Should those letters be changed to be A O, saying them like that one might sound like one understands what they mean.
My understanding is that the Discourses on Livy reflect Macheveli's true thoughts on political theory, and that The Prince was intended to more like "Yes, Minister" than "The Windsors."
 
Though I am admittedly not a great under stander of philosophy I do know where you can go to find those who do/are. The college/university where you go.
 
@LLYRIAN Should those letters be changed to be A O, saying them like that one might sound like one understands what they mean.
Click to expand...


Noooo!! OA truer than a name, sounds like... Oooohh aaaay..... A Way.
 
Last edited:
I did find a survey reader in a thrift store once. Granted, most of the core texts are public domain. But, you never know what you'll find. Bibles and Greatest Generations mostly.
 
thrasherpix said:
Having read this myself, I recall some saying that Machiavelli wrote The Prince as a satire. I don't believe it for more than one reason (but my years old memories are vague on that now), and as I read the one I just recommended, I figured Machiavelli also read that work at least once (or the thoughts filtered to him somehow). (And speaking of Machiavelli, my impression from reading The Prince is that he wasn't trying to "invent evil politics" but just merely made blunt observations about how it was practiced that those who already lived by what he observed didn't want people to think about, him being bitter about it rather than cackling an evil laugh waiting for his moment to give a Palpatine shout of, "UNLIMITED POWER!")
Click to expand...

I don't think The Prince was written as satire either. I might describe it, for want of a better word, as a job application - Machiavelli wanted to go back home and the ruler he dedicated the book to and supposedly wrote it for could allow him to do that!

AlphaFoxtrot said:
My understanding is that the Discourses on Livy reflect Macheveli's true thoughts on political theory, and that The Prince was intended to more like "Yes, Minister" than "The Windsors."
Click to expand...

Yes, in the Discourses Machiavelli shows that he was an admirer of Roman republicanism and had a very low opinion of the type of ruler depicted in The Prince.
 
Sellars seems to be one of the modern day Stoics, so if you liked him giving Marcus Aurelius’ ”Meditations” a try could be something. Seneca is also well worth reading. I love Seneca.

Not really a Stoic, but Cicero is good too.

I enjoy philosophers like Spinoza, Wittgenstein, Nietzsche, Camus, and Dostoevsky (yes, I classify him as a philosopher). The first two are not the easiest to read though, so night not be for beginners. I believe Wittgenstein even proclaimed that he had ”solved” philosophy at one point. Gotta love that kind of ego.

I think getting some kind of overview book that presents different schools of thought (or better yet taking a philosophy course where someone gives you a list of books) is a good idea as a beginner. That way you can familiarize yourself with what you think is interesting and go from there. 🙂

Right now I’m reading Heidegger (The question concerning technology) and re-reading Plato (The Republic). I also mean to get to Sloterdijk’s Spheres trilogy (recommended by I think @AnthonyCordova) but I keep getting sidetracked. The current plan, after the above, is The Analects (Confucius).
 
If that's the case, start with Mortimer J. Adler. The guy lived for about a century and was spent a lot of that time trying to educate laymen in philosophy, the Great Books of the Western World project was his. He wrote as a Aristotelianism and a Tomasian, but frankly, those are good foundations. As a more general guide, An Incomplete Education is an older volume, but still worthy of attention.
 
I'm interested in good ideas, wherever I can find them. I have degrees in Philosophy but I read a broad range of things; the only thing I expect from what I read is that I come out a better thinker on the other side. So although I still read philosophers with great pleasure, it's not the only thing I read. I prefer to call broadly what I read discursive literature. So for example, I am reading Rousseau's autobiography The Confessions; the essays of William Hazlitt, Samuel Johnson and Charles Lamb; the periodicals of Richard Steele and Joseph Addison; the correspondences of Sevigny, Van Gogh and John Keats; the epigrams of La Bruyere and Chamfort; and the literary criticisms of Lionel Trilling, Walter Pater, John Ruskin and Matthew Arnold. All of these writers are rich in ideas, and they all can be labeled discursive writing. Among the philosophers I still read avidly, I reach most for John Dewey, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Friedrich Nietzsche and Michel Foucault. I would also encourage anyone interested in new forms of philosophy to try Peter Sloterdijk. He is exciting because be reconceives what philosophy can be and explores new literary modalities to express himself.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Bop
You have to take an online course or in class with a teacher in order to have a better idea of different philosophies and a mental map. It can be helpful to understand what philosophy you find interesting or suited for you.

I started in High school (third year), I studied it for 3 years at school (mainly Western philosophy). It was one of the most important subjects in my school, like Italian and Latin (grammar and literature). Before that, I didn't even know or cared about philosophy, however through years (studying it) I started to gain interest in it.

My program in high school started with Ancient Greek philosophy:
1) Pre-Socratic philosophers: Thaletes, Anaximander, Anaximenes then Xenophanes, Heraclitus and Phytagora, then again Eleatics, Cynics, Sophists etc
2) Classic Greek philosophers: Socrates, Plato and Aristotle
3) Hellenistic philosophy: Phirronism, Epicureanism, Skepticism, Stoicism, Platonism etc
Then Ancient Roman philosophy, medieval philosophers and modern philosophers until Freud, Jung, Adler etc (where philosophy started to be intertwined with psychology and psychiatry).

After I stated to be interested in Eastern Philosophies (such as Buddhism, Daoism/Taoism, Confucianism, Vedic philosophy etc) also through anime like Hokuto No Ken.

Personally, I'm more interested in philosophies that represent a prototype of what science can't still explain and understand because of our limited scientific knowledge and instruments/technology.
I'm not interested in philosophies now outdated with the advent of scientific discoveries that proved them wrong, like the cardiocentric hypothesis: the heart as the center of thought instead of the brain as Aristotle and others believed, geocentrism, anthropocentrism, philosophies related to theologies etc. These theories have only an historical (or symbolic) value.

Anyway, I think Taoism can also be connected to science for example Yang-Yin concepts, and the 64 hexagrams (each hexagram composed of 2 trigrams) of the I-Ching are related to the structure of the genetic code with 64 codons with sets of three nucleotides.

I think it is somewhat like the rudimentary theorization of the atomic structure of the matter by Atomism (Leucippus, Democritus etc) or Ancient Indian philosophers like the Vedic sage Aruni. These philosophies were a prototype for the factual scientific discovery that atoms and molecules are the constituents of matter. As a matter of fact, after many debates about the matter through centuries, in the 20th century, Einstein published a paper where he explained with precision the Brownian motion. Successively, Jean Perrin conducted other verifications; these analyses of the Brownian motion served as convincing evidence that atoms and molecules exist.
 
I can't recall if you're into video games, but I do remember seeing I think the end of Metal Gear Solid 2 where an AI reveals itself in what is now prophetic of our society in regards to tribal instincts, echo chambers, and such (from ideology to religion to philosophy, and how more often than not, it's about reinforcing one's own personal and tribal identity than a genuine search for Truth)....better than a philosophy class, and something anyone should keep in mind as they search for truth (come to think of it, it's rather Pyrrhonic in nature, if lacking optimism in humanity to work it out). If you know anyone who loves the game, maybe ask them about it.
 
Last edited:
I enrolled on the openlearn philosophy course that is free online with the Open University and I am learning a lot so far.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom