i've been regretting that i did not take classes in philosophy when i had the chance. i had some exposure to it because i earned a degree in literature, but not in an organized fashion and only to a subset of philosophical traditions. i want to amend my ignorance, but i don't know where to start. suggestions?
Sunday, June 11, 2006
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13 comments:
ditto.
it depends on what kind of philosophy you're interested in. what are you looking for: ethics, political philosophy, philosophy of language, metaphysics, epistemology? choose your poison
one more thing: i majored in philosophy undergrad. when i got my BA, i debated between going to law school or grad school in philosophy. i ended up choosing law school on the theory that i could keep up with my love of philosphy just by reading philosophical works in my free time.
it turned out to be completely wrong. i can't seem to read philosophy on my own. it's really more of a process. i need to read the same thing as other people and then discuss it with them to get much out of it. i took a few philosophy classes at night and that worked a lot better.
that's just my experience, but i thought i should warn you. just because i recommend some books doesn't mean you will get much out of them.
or maybe that's just how my philosophical brain works and you'll have better luck
ethics and political philosophy are my main interests. i'm pretty good at digesting material without the structured approach of a class. since i became a blog junkie, it has gotten even easier. the constant exposure to so many thoughtful and intelligent people reawakened my appetite for learning. i've spent hours at wikipedia because a single blog post sent me running to look up one topic which inevitably led me to other topics.
the difficulty of a subject like philosophy is that the philosophers are all talking to one another. i had a hard time grasping a lot of lit theory because the readings assigned in my classes required a lot of assumed knowledge and exposure to the prior writings on a given topic.
so, i guess what i am asking for is something to introduce me to the foundational writings of ethics and political philosophy, and i'll take it from there.
I also majored in lit without ever taking philosophy except as it popped up in grad lit theory classes. I read Jostein Gardner's Sophie's World and found it to be fun while it outlined (in very, very basic form) major philosophical ideas.
The problem with introductory philosophy classes is that they all start with the Greek, who were really proto-physicists, chemists and political philosophers anyway. Then you veer off into the Speculative philosophers and usually stop around Rene Descartes after which things really got interesting with David Hume kicking ass and taking names, and the advent of the Logical Postivists and Ordinary Language Philosophy.
My suggestion would be to get a copy of some good survey work like Will Durant's The Story of Philosophy with access to the 8 volume Encyclopedia of Philosophy published by MacMillan and Free Press (no doubt available in your library's reference section) at your side for bits you want to go into more detail. If you would rather delve right into classic philosophical problems there's Stumpf's Philosophy: History and Problems and Mandelbaum, Gramlich and Anderson's Philosophic Problems, which is a bit drier and more technical.
But remember what Steve Martin said about philosophy: You remember just enough to screw you up for the rest of your life.
Oh yeah, and an afterthought, because Durant really does write in the ponderous and mannered prose of his day, which can be off-putting. Lighter and more readable fare includes "Looking at Philosophy: The Unbearable Heaviness of Philosophy Made Lighter" by Donald Palmer and for the real intravenous dose of remedial philosophy there's Popkin and Stroll's "Philosophy Made Simple".
okay, so what about a pure science major with absolutely no literature background? (and when i say absolutely no literature background, that's what i mean. NADA.) the closest i came to philosophy was whatever i learned in law school from osmosis and whatever i read in blogs.
i struggle with abstract thought unless it can be applied to real world situations. (or more accurately, i automatically tune out and cannot continue reading abstract thought that cannot be applied to real world situations. hence, law school.)
so um, "applied philosophy," if that exists, would be a nice place for me to start. anything like that it existence?
what kind of book would you suggest?
(pretend you're talking to an elementary school student with a large vocabulary. i really don't know my ass from my elbow in this realm.)
i don't know what to suggest to emily2. "applied philosophy", i guess, is ethics. but they can still be pretty abstract.
as for emily1, for political philosophy i would suggest rawls "a theory of justice." you should read some marx, "the communist manifesto" is probably the shortest and easiest, but his other longer works are better, albeit really hard to get through unless you already know a lot about hegel. for legal philosophy i'd recommend various things by ronald dworkin.
martha nussbaum has been veering away from her earlier abstract hellanistic philosophers that she used to write about and is now seems to be making an effort to be "topical" in her writings, meaning they are more politically relevant to things today
really the biggest problem with getting into philosophy on your own is that modern philosophers have all been schooled in the history of philosophy. mykeru is right that intro philo classes are really history of philosophy classes. that means it takes a while to get into meatier issues if you're taking classes, but it also means that philosophers tend to write as if you already know a lot of philosophy, at least what various historical philosophers stand for.
for a historical overview, bikeprof already recommended "sophie's world." it's a very readable novel that manages to teach a lot of the history of philosophy along the way. it's not as rigorous as studying the original texts, but it should, at least, give you a passing understanding of the major casts of characters who might come up in other readings.
bertram russell wrote a "history of philosophy" book. it's pretty long, but also fairly readable. russell isn't the greatest philosopher himself, but the fun thing about his book is how he doesn't pretend to be objective when he recounts the field's history. a lot of it explains what russell thinks is wrong with aristotle, etc. i thought it was a fun read after studying those guys for four years. i'm not sure how it will work for someone who doesn't already know the basics as much though.
all right. how about a book on philosophy at the cliffs notes level? i'm interested in learning the basics but i'm not interesting in delving into the texts themselves.
(please spare me whatever speeches any of you have prepared for superficial dilettantes like me, if any. i work 65 hour weeks, am in a relationship, and simply have very little free time and patience.)
thank you! ;)
emily2,
go with "sophie's world"
it's a novel, but it's also about the history of philosophy, which means it's even more readable than cliff's notes. it's not perfect, but it's at least a start if you're curious whether you want to delve in a little deeper later.
wow. i never expected such a response!
so, thanks to all of you who commented. i have purchased a copy of Sophie's World to get me started, and copies of The Unbearable Heaviness of Philosophy Made Lighter and Philosophy Made Simple to follow up on Sophie's World.
upyernoz: i've read some marx as a precursor to reading some of the lit theorists i studied while earning my Literature degree. it's practically a rite of passage for a liberal arts education.
once i make through the above texts, i think i will then tackle the primary sources.
emily2: my old tutor from college recommends the Very Short Introductions series by the Oxford University Press. he has been an avid reader of them, and he thinks they are accessible guides to topics that most people find difficult to master. they're definitely a step above Cliff Notes. i haven't been over to SparkNotes since i stopped working for them, but they probably also have guides to the major philosophers if you want something simpler. i don't know how good they are, but they might be worth a try. unlike articles on Wikipedia, all SparkNotes undergo a formal editorial review.
tank yew tank yew!!!
I think Philosophy Made Simple and Looking at Philosophy are going to be what you are looking for. LAP even has cartoons and a sense of humor. PMS is more of the Cliff Notes version, with good biographical info on philosophers, what they said, who they were responding to and who they pissed off.
Of course, at least three beers are recommended before any philosophical musings.
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