<p>I need some philosophy books to read. I need an intro to philosophy basically. I have a lot of time on my hands and I'm a good reader (meaning I have pretty good reading comp skills) so I can handle the real thing as opposed to condensed or summary versions. I'm looking for everything from marxism to structuralism to critical theory. i need the essentials.
thank you all very much.</p>
<p>For a summer class I am reading the Great Dialogues of Plato. Might check that out. I have only read the first part, but it was interesting.</p>
<p>Leviathan by Hobbes
Anarchy, State and Utopia by Robert Nozick
Phenomenology of Spirit by GWF Hegel
The Republic by Plato
The Social Contract by Rousseau
Critique of Pure Reason by Kant
The Antichrist by Nietzsche
Discipline and Punish by Foucault
Being And Nothingness by Sartre</p>
<p>Here's a list from the Great Books curriculum with a couple of my additions: (In bold are the books I read in my political philosophy class in HS)</p>
<p>** * Adams, Hamilton, Jay: The Federalist Papers
* Gaarder: Sophie's World
* Bloom: The Closing of the American Mind**
* Homer: Iliad, Odyssey
* The Old Testament
* Aeschylus: Tragedies
* Sophocles: Tragedies
* Herodotus: History
* Euripides: Tragedies
* Thucydides: History of the Peloponnesian War
* Hippocrates: Medical Writings
* Aristophanes: Comedies
*** Plato: Dialogues, Republic
* Aristotle: Ethics, Politics**
* Epicurus: 'Letter to Herodotus';'Letter to Menoecus'
* Euclid: Elements
* Archimedes: Works
* Apollonius: Conic Sections
* Cicero: Works
* Lucretius: On the Nature of Things
* Virgil: Works
* Horace: Works
* Livy: History of Rome
* Ovid: Works
* Plutarch: Parallel Lives; Moralia
* Tacitus: Histories; Annals; Agricola Germania
* Nicomachus of Gerasa: Introduction to Arithmetic
* Epictetus: Discourses; Encheiridion
* Ptolemy: Almagest
* Lucian: Works
* Marcus Aurelius: Meditations
* Galen: On the Natural Faculties
* The New Testament
* Plotinus: The Enneads
* St. Augustine: On the Teacher; Confessions; City of God; On Christian Doctrine
* The Song of Roland
* The Nibelungenlied
* The Saga of Burnt Nj</p>
<p>Apology - Plato
Euthyphro - Plato
Republic - Plato
Ethics - Aristotle
Meditations on First Philosophy - Descartes
Essay concerning Human Understanding - Locke
Dialogues between Hylas and Philonius - Berkeley
A Treatise of Human Nature - Hume
Concluding Unscientific Postscript - Kierkegaard
Beyond Good and Evil - Nietzsche
Being and Time - Heidegger
Being and Nothingness - Sartre</p>
<p>Sophie's World--A great read and really easy to understand
The story of philosophy by Durant--very very informative</p>
<p>basically these two books will give you an overview of most philosphers from the early greek era to modern day. each summary will go over the main ideas that the philospher pushed.</p>
<p>read a formal logic book (Methods of Logic by Quine). Then get a mathematical logic book and start reading.</p>
<p>cherrbarry--no thanks! mathematical logic kills me. i tried reading the republic and it really turned me off--its too mathematical. syllogisms confuse me a lot. but i have read and understood some existentialists...it's just that that stuff isn't interesting to me.</p>
<p>well, the truth is that modern philosophy requires a rigorous logic background. philosophy is not a completely right-brained exercise. </p>
<p>u'd be surprised how many ppl cannot prove modus tollens (formally or informally) without appealing to personal intuition ("it just feels like it's right").</p>
<p>the thing is that those who have extensive logic background will be able to recognize whether an argument is bs...by appealing to formal rules as opposed to personal intuition.</p>
<p>i'm not saying logic = philosophy, but just don't want that aspect to be overlooked. there are 50+ books mentioned in this thread, and not one of them deals with this major branch of philosophy. if u look at the Ph. D dissertations being produced these days, over 50% deal with some aspect of formal logic.</p>
<p>yeah true. i've had an introduction to formal logic (in courses specifically devoted to it) and my math teacher spent a unit on Ps and Qs and if-thens and contrapositives and all that. So truth tables are familiar "friends."</p>
<p>a text book i had for a poli sci course... I highly recommend this:</p>
<p>OK, I'm going to start off by buying Great Political Thinkers and The Story of Philosophy. Thanks for the suggestions guys!</p>
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OK, I'm going to start off by buying Great Political Thinkers and The Story of Philosophy. Thanks for the suggestions guys!
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<p>did you buy it yet?</p>
<p>i can sell you my copy... i rarely read it anymore...send me a pm or hit me up on aim some time</p>
<p>peace</p>