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I was slightly confused the format of seemingly disconnected subsections, but I can't really complain because each section was quite interesting on its own. Wh

I was slightly confused the format of seemingly disconnected subsections, but I can't really complain because each section was quite interesting on its own. While we are on the topic, if anyone has any great recommendations for entry level philosophy/ethics books, I would love to hear them.

pfortuny 13y ago
Not joking: Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics is a very interesting read, albeit in an (obviously) old way of writing. But I think this is a must if you want to read about ethics. At least the Western notion.
- dwaltrip 13y ago
  Just did some background reading about that work. It does seem to be quite important, at the very least because so much has been influenced by it. Although in some other readings regarding Aristotle's political theories, I had a hard time getting past his views on slaves.
gjm11 13y ago
> recommendations for entry level philosophy/ethics books Nice (but opinionated and now ~50y old) overview: Bertrand Russell's "History of Western Philosophy". Long but extremely readable. Not necessarily very reliable. Ethics specifically: Peter Singer's "Practical ethics". Note that Singer thinks that we (in the affluent West) should all be giving a lot more than most of us do to help less well-off people, and that non-human animals' welfare is much more important than most people treat it as, and he's quite persuasive. So reading his work might be bad for your financial and/or gastronomic well-being (but if so, you will consider that that's for the best). Not all that entry-level but full of clever things and exceptionally clear (in approximately the way that maths/physics/computing people value clear thinking extra-highly): Gary Drescher's "Good and Real". Subtitle is "demystifying paradoxes from physics to ethics". Just for fun: Quine's "Quiddities: an intermittently philosophical dictionary". Not really a dictionary, but a collection of short essays and remarks in alphabetical order of (single-word) subject. Quine was an absolutely first-rank philosopher, though he's not in particularly serious mode here. Not at all entry-level (in terms of how hard you need to think; I don't think much expert philosophical knowledge is needed) but extraordinarily good and highly relevant to questions of ethics, though it's more about questions of personal identity: Derek Parfit's "Reasons and persons". He's more recently written a large two-volume work on ethics, which I haven't read.
- dwaltrip 13y ago
  Thanks! I will definitely check some of those out.

pfortuny 13y ago

Not joking: Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics is a very interesting read, albeit in an (obviously) old way of writing. But I think this is a must if you want to read about ethics. At least the Western notion.

dwaltrip 13y ago
Just did some background reading about that work. It does seem to be quite important, at the very least because so much has been influenced by it. Although in some other readings regarding Aristotle's political theories, I had a hard time getting past his views on slaves.

gjm11 13y ago

> recommendations for entry level philosophy/ethics books Nice (but opinionated and now ~50y old) overview: Bertrand Russell's "History of Western Philosophy". Long but extremely readable. Not necessarily very reliable. Ethics specifically: Peter Singer's "Practical ethics". Note that Singer thinks that we (in the affluent West) should all be giving a lot more than most of us do to help less well-off people, and that non-human animals' welfare is much more important than most people treat it as, and he's quite persuasive. So reading his work might be bad for your financial and/or gastronomic well-being (but if so, you will consider that that's for the best). Not all that entry-level but full of clever things and exceptionally clear (in approximately the way that maths/physics/computing people value clear thinking extra-highly): Gary Drescher's "Good and Real". Subtitle is "demystifying paradoxes from physics to ethics". Just for fun: Quine's "Quiddities: an intermittently philosophical dictionary". Not really a dictionary, but a collection of short essays and remarks in alphabetical order of (single-word) subject. Quine was an absolutely first-rank philosopher, though he's not in particularly serious mode here. Not at all entry-level (in terms of how hard you need to think; I don't think much expert philosophical knowledge is needed) but extraordinarily good and highly relevant to questions of ethics, though it's more about questions of personal identity: Derek Parfit's "Reasons and persons". He's more recently written a large two-volume work on ethics, which I haven't read.

dwaltrip 13y ago
Thanks! I will definitely check some of those out.