Education

What books are most important for a neophyte philosopher to read?

Comments

Some of our panelists have written fine introductions to philosophy. For a more classical one, you could seek out Bertrand Russell's The Problems of Philosophy or his History of Western Philosophy. Then let your reading be guided by the books or philosophers whom you find most intriguing.

But beware: Many introductions written in the West (e.g. Russell's, recommended by Prof George) will introduce you only to Western philosophy, and there is a lot of very good philosophy pursued in many non-Western traditions. I recommend Ben-Ami Scharfstein's excellent introduction to world philosophy, or Robert Solomon's and Kathleen Higgins' short introduction to world philosophy for a more global approach.

As an alternative to starting with a broad survey, you might also consider diving straight into a single work, such as Hume's "Dialogues concerning Natural Religion", Descartes' Meditations on First Philosophy, or Plato's Symposium. These (relatively short) classic works in the history of Western philosophy (and there are plenty of similar texts from other traditions and time periods) take you directly into central philosophical problems while being a treat to read.

I second Catherine's suggestion: At best, an introductory text will provide you with the opportunity to read a few excerpts of philosophical writing, and at worst the text will be dominated by boring summary. Based on my experience reading and teaching them, it is likely that reading texts like these won't inspire or engage you at all.

Exactly which texts might engage and inspire you depends a lot on your interests and preferences. (For me, it was reading Hobbes' Leviathan; I still remember exactly where I was when I really engaged with that text for the first time! Quite of a few of my students in introductory classes have engaged well with Descartes' Meditations and Plato's Republic.) So, as the other panelists have suggested you should "shop around" until you find a text that seems interesting enough for you to read with great care -- that's the best way to learn how to read philosophy.

I recommend Plato's Apology, Will Durant's The Story of Philosophy, Camus's Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays, Bryan Magee's The Story of Philosophy, David Cooper's anthologies, and perhaps The Philosopher's Toolkit.

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