4 ms·

"Some ask whether it is worth studying ancient philosophy at all." I'm one of those persons who thinks it is worthwhile to do so. Frederick Copleston's[1] A Hi

"Some ask whether it is worth studying ancient philosophy at all." I'm one of those persons who thinks it is worthwhile to do so. Frederick Copleston's[1] A History of Philosophy series[2] (the early volumes in this case) is a good resource for getting one's feet wet. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Copleston https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Copleston [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_History_of_Philosophy_%28Copleston%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_History_of_Philosophy_%28Cop...

thingsgoby 11y ago
And I'm one of those who think it is an absolute shame that nearly nobody nowadays reads the old Greeks and Romans. There is so much wisdom in their works. Read not only Epicurus I say, read them all! My personal favorite is Epictetus
thingsgoby 11y ago
Also strong recommendations: A History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell (himself also more than worthwhile a read!)
- mercer 11y ago
  From what I've read it's generally considered to be a very subjective work, and intentionally so. That said, I really liked it because of this, as it leads to a coherent, 'fluid' progression. I vaguely recall a chapter on one pretty important philosopher where Russell concludes with something close to 'obviously this guy is full of shit'.
  - VLM 11y ago
    Only one? He dissed Hume pretty badly, something along the lines of sorry you don't think the scientific method is internally self contained, but pragmatically it works pretty well, so WRT that definition of truth, oh well. Also, he actually Godwin'd Rousseau, although that's more claiming evil than claiming BS, plus or minus a worldview that evil is just successful BS... or is it? And the Dewey chapter isn't really a Dewey chapter but mostly is a rant on the evils of intellectual arrogance although I don't remember if he specifically attacked one individual, other than happening to locate that rant in what turned out to be the Dewey chapter. He was more or less complimentary or better on average to everyone else. The great man theory of history is highly politically incorrect at this time, or maybe highly out of fashion, style, or fad. Yet its very popular when teaching the history of philosophy. Perhaps that says more about the validity of being anti-great man vs what it says about teaching philosophy. Still it would be interesting to identify "the best" non-great man philosophy book, assuming there are any good ones.
  - wfn 11y ago
    Yeah, I think one of those philosophers who suffers from Russell's extreme bias (so to speak) was Nietzsche... Also, his discussion of pre-socratics is lacking IIRC; but on the whole the book is certainly a worthy read for sure (not that I've managed to read through all of it)..
nugget 11y ago
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius definitely changed my life. I found it as relevant today as it must have been two thousand years ago when it was written.
trappedfly 11y ago
In Italy there's a whole school type dedicated to it (along with other humanities-related subjects): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liceo_classico https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liceo_classico
RyJones 11y ago
I am a fan of the PEL series of podcasts; in the beginning, they try to have each podcast build on the prior ones to build philosophy from first principles. They no longer give all 100-so of them away, so you might have to pay for them, but I found them worthwhile. https://www.partiallyexaminedlife.com https://www.partiallyexaminedlife.com

thingsgoby 11y ago

And I'm one of those who think it is an absolute shame that nearly nobody nowadays reads the old Greeks and Romans. There is so much wisdom in their works. Read not only Epicurus I say, read them all! My personal favorite is Epictetus

thingsgoby 11y ago

Also strong recommendations: A History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell (himself also more than worthwhile a read!)

mercer 11y ago
From what I've read it's generally considered to be a very subjective work, and intentionally so. That said, I really liked it because of this, as it leads to a coherent, 'fluid' progression. I vaguely recall a chapter on one pretty important philosopher where Russell concludes with something close to 'obviously this guy is full of shit'.
- VLM 11y ago
  Only one? He dissed Hume pretty badly, something along the lines of sorry you don't think the scientific method is internally self contained, but pragmatically it works pretty well, so WRT that definition of truth, oh well. Also, he actually Godwin'd Rousseau, although that's more claiming evil than claiming BS, plus or minus a worldview that evil is just successful BS... or is it? And the Dewey chapter isn't really a Dewey chapter but mostly is a rant on the evils of intellectual arrogance although I don't remember if he specifically attacked one individual, other than happening to locate that rant in what turned out to be the Dewey chapter. He was more or less complimentary or better on average to everyone else. The great man theory of history is highly politically incorrect at this time, or maybe highly out of fashion, style, or fad. Yet its very popular when teaching the history of philosophy. Perhaps that says more about the validity of being anti-great man vs what it says about teaching philosophy. Still it would be interesting to identify "the best" non-great man philosophy book, assuming there are any good ones.
- wfn 11y ago
  Yeah, I think one of those philosophers who suffers from Russell's extreme bias (so to speak) was Nietzsche... Also, his discussion of pre-socratics is lacking IIRC; but on the whole the book is certainly a worthy read for sure (not that I've managed to read through all of it)..

nugget 11y ago

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius definitely changed my life. I found it as relevant today as it must have been two thousand years ago when it was written.

trappedfly 11y ago

In Italy there's a whole school type dedicated to it (along with other humanities-related subjects): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liceo_classico https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liceo_classico

RyJones 11y ago

I am a fan of the PEL series of podcasts; in the beginning, they try to have each podcast build on the prior ones to build philosophy from first principles. They no longer give all 100-so of them away, so you might have to pay for them, but I found them worthwhile. https://www.partiallyexaminedlife.com https://www.partiallyexaminedlife.com