<p>this goes out to the plethora of intellectuals here at CC. i'm looking to broaden my horizons in regards to philosophy this summer, so does anyone have good recommendations for books that may serve as springboards into the subject? thanks</p>
<p>I'm interested too.</p>
<p>Story of Philosophy: The Lives and Opinions of the World's Greatest Philosophers by Will Durant.</p>
<p>Basic Teachings of the Great Philosophers by S.E. Frost</p>
<p>On Bullshit by Harry G. Frankfurt</p>
<p>Why don't you just read many books and see what you like?
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-form/103-2683962-0171843%5B/url%5D">http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-form/103-2683962-0171843</a></p>
<p>Without a doubt, the best introduction to philosophy would be best done through 'Sophie's World' by Jostein Gaarder</p>
<p>^ agreed - great book for an intro to philosophy</p>
<p>my philosophy teacher highly recommended the class to read the following, if interested, for last summer.</p>
<p>Ishmael
My Ishmael
The Story of B
(in that order)</p>
<p>These are not exactly springboards to philosophy but interesting philiosophy books nonetheless:</p>
<p>For the New Intellectual by Ayn Rand
The Poetry of T'ao Ch'ien by T'ao Ch'ien
Essays in Idleness by Yoshida Kenko
Chuang Tzu by Chuang Chou</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for the recommendations. This "On Bull ****" sounds intriguing.</p>
<p>From Socrates to Sartre, by TZ Lavine.</p>
<p>Admittedly, I'm only in the process of reading it now, but I do like it extraordinarily well.</p>
<p>Also, if you want more than pure theory/history of philosophy, reading the works of DH Lawrence is incredibly stimulating for the mind - his characters partake of LONG philosophical debates throughout his novels. ('Women in Love" comes to mind first)</p>
<p>Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant</p>
<p>j/k of course. Bertrand Russell's "The Problems of Philosophy" may be a good intro, if u are interested in his views. I approach philosophy sorta differently however, and I'm reading "Methods of Logic" by Quine to get a linguistic basis in philosophical arguments. Not sure if many ppl would choose this path though.</p>
<p>You could actually read philosophy... and not someone's interpretations of philosophy. It's not as ponderous as most people think.</p>
<p>Plato (I love the Symposium... the Republic of course, Lysis, Gorgias, Phaedo, etc...)
Aristotle's Ethics is a classic, or his metaphysics
Euripides
Tao Te Ching - Lao Tsu
Heidegger
Kierkegaard
Kant
Descartes
Pascal</p>
<p>If you want a narrative, or at least a more modern, approach
Siddhartha - Hermann Hesse
Annie Dillard
C.S. Lewis
Seeds of Contemplation - Thomas Merton</p>
<p>My recommendation is
Schumacher - A Guide to the Perplexed</p>
<p>I would suggest starting with Plato/Socrates. You should buy an author-specific intro book (i.e. "Introduction to Plato" or the like) as well as an actual work (The Republic is definitely the most accessible of Plato's works).</p>
<p>Then you should read up on what philosophers were influenced by Plato, and read them. Then find out who objected to those philosophers and read those.</p>
<p>Actually, thinking about this further, it depends on which branch of philosophy u are interested in.</p>
<p>Religious, political, ethical, metaphysical, epistemological, scientific, mathematical, logical, etc?</p>
<p>if you really are interested in philosophy, start from the ancient Greeks such as Socrates, aristotle, and plato to name a few. Learn where they were flawed and slowly advance to the medieval. renaissance and enlightenment ages. Some very good ideologists if you will from those periods include Machievelli,(hitler and nixon slept with his book) Bossuet,nad Voltaire(personal favorite.) You might also want to try reading up omn confucius. anyway, read up on the famous ones and then try a few less known one. all i'm saying is that you don't necessarily need a summer program to learn phlosophy. I've read most of this stuff myself outside of school and found it fascinating. although i've forgotten a lot it now.</p>
<p>For a good intro to Ethics, there's a book called: "Three Methods of Ethics" Lol. Very good intro to consequential, Kantian, (forgot the other one)</p>
<p>LOL. Machievelli,(hitler and nixon slept with his book). Yes, The Prince is a classic.</p>
<p><em>Nicomachean Ethics</em>, Aristotle
<em>Two Treatises on Government</em>, John Locke
<em>Utilitarianism</em>, J.S. Mill
<em>Power/Knowledge</em>, Michel Foucault</p>
<p>Maybe Hobbes' <em>Leviathan</em> or some Rawls...</p>
<p>As a general introduction/overview, I suggest <em>The Story of Philosophy</em> by Will Durant.</p>
<p>Also, check out <a href="http://www.epistemelinks.com%5B/url%5D">www.epistemelinks.com</a> for various texts/resources on the subject.</p>
<p>Edited because I'm dum.</p>
<p>for a truly cynical look at human nature, try Hobbes. HE's a classic. +</p>
<p>question. how would colleges know that you are seriously interested in philosophy and that you've read an extensive amount of books on the subject, without taking a course in it. could you put on your app. "read many books on philosophy"?</p>
<p>I've picked up Will Durant's Story of Philosophy. It's pretty straightforward, but Durant has an interesting style/good analysis.</p>
<p>I'm enjoying it and would recommend it.</p>
<p>To the person who recommended Sophie's World, THANK YOU. I remember my favorite English teacher raving about it, and I knew it was Sophie's _____, and I knew it wasn't Sophie's Choice. YES. That was bugging me for months. Haha.</p>
<p>fire2006, lots of summer programs or some community colleges offer classes in introductory philosophy. I helped start a Philosophy Club at my school, which is a possibility for you. We got a lot of people at the beginning of the year who wanted something pretentious and intelligent-sounding for college apps, but as weeks went by, they left, and I came to meet some of the smartest and most interesting/awesome people I've ever met in high school. Or, you could find a teacher who is interested in the subject, and get in the habit of talking to them about it, asking for book recommendations and whatnot. If you ask them to do a college recommendation, then you could ask that they focus on your interest in philosophy.</p>
<p>Nigel Warburton's philosophy set, this big book of actual readings by the philosophers and this smaller book to help with summarization and analysis, were my first philosophy texts. I highly recommend them. It's divided up into God, ethics, political philosophy, philosophy of art, of the mind, etc. etc., and once you find something that interests you, you can go out and seek more stuff by that philosopher, or stuff that contradicts what they wrote.</p>
<p>Agreements with other suggestions here -- "On ********" is great; I adored Plato's Symposium as well as Siddhartha. Ayn Rand's stuff is interesting, and in novel format. I don't necessarily agree with her, but I've found one of best ways to figure out what you believe is to try to figure out what you definitely don't agree with or believe. CS Lewis was also very popular with the philosophy club, and eventually we started shifting into dystopian literature (not pure philosophy, but very interesting) like Brave New World and The Giver. </p>
<p>I'm excited by this thread. I'm always looking for new books to read. And, for some fun while you're reading all these books -- <a href="http://www.philosophersguild.com%5B/url%5D">www.philosophersguild.com</a> -- one of the most fun online stores I've ever seen for people like me-- literary geek/possible philosophy major.</p>
<p>I recommend
What is History (Edward H. Carr)
To be or To have (Erich Fromm)
Well these are the ones I read so I recommend them.
However if you want I think these are also good.
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (Ludwig Wittgensteinm)
- I think he is considered the most influential philosopher of the 20th century.
Tao Te Ching (Lao Tzu)
I think philosophy is kind of slanted towards western culture. So I think it's important to balance it with oriental/asian philosophy.</p>