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This is difficult to answer without knowing one's background. A fun introduction that's sometimes used in Intro to Philosophy courses is Coffee Meets Philosophy
by wannabebarista 3y ago
This is difficult to answer without knowing one's background. A fun introduction that's sometimes used in Intro to Philosophy courses is Coffee Meets Philosophy by Bruce Waller [0]. It tries to give the reader context in introducing philosophical problems (frankly the most difficult part of understanding philosophy) alongside primary texts. But it is a little weird!
If you prefer to dive into the deep end a bit, the Contemporary Debates series is excellent. For a given area such as epistemology [1], the books contain original essays for and against various positions. These books will give you a good idea what's going on in an area but can be a little dated.
[0] https://www.google.com/books/edition/Coffee_and_Philosophy/b9BhAAAACAAJ?hl=en https://www.google.com/books/edition/Coffee_and_Philosophy/b...
[1] https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Contemporary+Debates+in+Epistemology%2C+2nd+Edition-p-9780470672099 https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Contemporary+Debates+in+Epistemo...
- wannabebarista 3y agoShould have mentioned this above, but the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy is an invaluable resource.
- tiberious726 3y agoI, regretfully, have to consul against putting too much faith in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. It's one professors pet project, and unusably biased on many topics, extra especially Frege, which is his specialty
- wannabebarista 3y agoThe SEP covers vast amounts of philosophy and most of the articles are high quality and written by people who are knowledgeable about the particular topic. Is it perfect? No. But it's a good starting point.
- tiberious726 3y agoIt's all controlled by a single professor who is quite a ways outside of the mainstream, and consistently presents his small, and very nonstandard school of thought as accepted truth. Frequently without so much as mention of the actual standard interpretation. It's not a good place to send a beginner, and frankly not even that useful as a reference for an expert unless they are particularly studying that one small school of thought. The SEP was a land-grab in the early days of the internet.