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This is cool! But there's a lot in there, so I don't even know where to start. Does anyone know of a good introduction to philosophy? My work is in the hard

This is cool! But there's a lot in there, so I don't even know where to start. Does anyone know of a good introduction to philosophy? My work is in the hard sciences, and I know next to nothing about philosophy, but am very interested in learning. Something that kind of gives an overview of the whole field I think would be best.

Osmium 12y ago
This might be somewhat controversial, but Bertrand Russell has a good introduction to Western philosophy. For something a little lighter, AC Grayling is good.
leephillips 12y ago
Simply read Plato's dialogues. Everything after that is just a footnote.
- kenko 12y ago
  AN Whitehead, ladies and gentlemen.
  - atmosx 12y ago
    Jeez I lost both your comments and quoted whitehead straight-out :-P
parenthesis 12y ago
The aforementioned A.C Grayling edited the fantastic: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0198752431/ http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0198752431/
thanatropism 12y ago
This will be _super_ controversial, but I read Deleuze's "What is philosophy?" after reading a lot of philosohpy (and a lot of Deleuze), and it really makes sense of things. That, of course, will cover next to nothing in the post-Wittgensteinian analytical camp. But eh, you could do worse if you have one book to read.
- jjgreen 12y ago
  Deleuze is incisive, an unexpectedly readable
primelens 12y ago
Apart from Russel's book, Will Durant's _The Story of Philosophy_ provides a fun light introduction. If you'd rather read primary texts there are many choices - the history of philosophy can seem like a summit conference between dazzlingly brilliant but at the same time really dense, almost obtuse masterworks. I'd recommend starting with Plato's _Republic_, skipping forward to Descartes' _Meditations_ and then directly on to Wittgenstein's _Philosophical Investigations_ for a whirlwind tour of the subject with three of the sharpest people you'll ever meet. If you finish these three, I would bet that you'll continue to read on your own and will forever remain a student of philosophy.
nessus42 12y ago
Philosophy is such a broad field that I think it would be hard to give a good overview of the entire field. Philosophers love formal logic, so that's one thing that's of interest. Once you have a good understanding of logic, Philosophy aims to investigate important questions that other fields don't seem to have a good grasp of. Here are some of them: - How can that sensation of redness that you experience when you look at a ripe tomato arise from or be explained by scientific law, which seems to only answer questions that are very qualitatively different from this question? And how do you know that your friend has that same sensation of redness? Perhaps when he looks at a ripe tomato, what he experiences is what you experience when you look at a blueberry. - If Star Trek transporters work by ripping apart all your atoms and then making a copy of you at the other end from atoms at the destination, would that still be you? Or would you have died, and there be a new person who is deluded into thinking he's you. - When you push around a wrinkle in your bed-spread, is that wrinkle itself a real thing, or is it just similar different bunches of your bed-spread? - If you could murder one innocent person to save ten people, would that be the right thing to do? If so, why? If not, why not? What if you could save a million people instead?
- aggie 12y ago
  These are some great examples to get yourself thinking philosophically. If anyone reading would like to explore them a bit more, here are some wikipedia articles: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qualia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qualia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trolley_problem http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trolley_problem
jjgreen 12y ago
A Flew, "An Introduction to Western Philosophy"
walterbell 12y ago
Charles Sanders Peirce is worth a look, http://peirce.org http://peirce.org "Who is the most original and the most versatile intellect that the Americas have so far produced? The answer "Charles S. Peirce" is uncontested, because any second would be so far behind as not to be worth nominating. Mathematician, astronomer, chemist, geodesist, surveyor, cartographer, metrologist, spectroscopist, engineer, inventor; psychologist, philologist, lexicographer, historian of science, mathematical economist, lifelong student of medicine; book reviewer, dramatist, actor, short story writer; phenomenologist, semiotician, logician, rhetorician and metaphysician. He was, for a few examples, the first modern experimental psychologist in the Americas, the first metrologist to use a wave-length of light as a unit of measure, the inventor of the quincuncial projection of the sphere, the first known conceiver of the design and theory of an electric switching-circuit computer, and the founder of "the economy of research." He is the only system-building philosopher in the Americas who has been both competent and productive in logic, in mathematics, and in a wide range of sciences. If he has had any equals in that respect in the entire history of philosophy, they do not number more than two." Quotes: http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Charles_Sanders_Peirce http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Charles_Sanders_Peirce Edit: from http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/peirce/ http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/peirce/, "Currently, considerable interest is being taken in Peirce's ideas by researchers wholly outside the arena of academic philosophy. The interest comes from industry, business, technology, intelligence organizations, and the military"
jseliger 12y ago
> Does anyone know of a good introduction to philosophy I don't know if this qualifies as "good", but it is certainly interesting: http://paulgraham.com/philosophy.html http://paulgraham.com/philosophy.html .
dinkumthinkum 12y ago
I tend to disagree with all those commenting to you. If you want a broad understanding of philosophy, well there is a lot to it, so "where to start" is a loaded question. It is not like Plato or any particular philosopher is a one-stop-shop . If you have an expertise in physics, well you didn't master it from just one book. I recommend starting with the novel "Sophie's World;" it is very accessible and it can give a good springboard for what to study next. I think it is important to read Plato closely. It would probably be helpful to have a glance through "Ancilla to the Pre-Socratic Philosophers. To really understand it, I recommend going through a survey book of Western Philosophy to go through Plato and the other Greek and Roman philosophers, particularly Aristotle. Then move on to the medieval philosophers and toward the likes of Spinoza. Studying the history of Skepticism from Descartes onward, I find to be critical. You want to familiarize yourself with the famous problems of philosophy (problem of evil, problem of induction, etc). You may be interested in the philosophy of science, people like Carl Hempel, Karl Popper, Kuhn, essays from people like Gould. I recommend "Readings in the Philosophy of Science: From Positivism to Postmodernism." This is sort of scattered because it is a broad field. Some people mention the Analytics and Continentals, I would definitely start from the ground before you get into the differences of Pragmatism and Pragmaticism. A major reason I suggest this path is that if you start reading later philosophers, you are missing an entire context and discussion that goes back to Plato and Socrates, even the Pre-Socratics like Heraclitus. But, you can do a lot worse than reading "Sophies World" and then skipping to the Philosophy of Science text I mentioned and then filling in the gaps later. This is just one suggestion. :)
- jchrome 12y ago
  I don't really support trying to get a broad understanding of philosophy. It's much better to get in-depth with a specific philosopher and then move on to the next, chronologically. One thing I haven't seen mentioned is that often, Philosophers of a certain generation are building their theses in reaction to the previous generation. So there's a great reason to read Ancient philosophy, starting with the pre-Socratics. I highly recommend "Retrieving the Ancients". David Roochnik (the author) was my professor for both Ancient and Modern philosophy. Trying to be unbiased here but this is a great introduction to the pre-Socratics and it even connects their ancient issues with modern ones.
CodeDiver 12y ago
"The Story of Philosophy" by Bryan Magee "The Story of Philosophy" by Will Durant These are what you're looking for. You won't regret either of these.
atlantic 12y ago
There is an excellent podcast by Peter Adamson on the history of philosophy at www.historyofphilosophy.net. I've listened to 100+ episodes already, and have yet to feel disappointed. A good start would be to listen to all the episodes on ancient philosophy, and then to approach the original texts directly, with particular emphasis on the Platonic dialogues. As Whitehead said, "The safest general characterization of the philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato." The Stoics are also very approachable. In the opinion of my teachers, the pivotal figures in the history of philosophy were Plato, Aristotle, Descartes and Kant. If you master those four, you won't go wrong.

Osmium 12y ago

This might be somewhat controversial, but Bertrand Russell has a good introduction to Western philosophy. For something a little lighter, AC Grayling is good.

leephillips 12y ago

Simply read Plato's dialogues. Everything after that is just a footnote.

kenko 12y ago
AN Whitehead, ladies and gentlemen.
- atmosx 12y ago
  Jeez I lost both your comments and quoted whitehead straight-out :-P

parenthesis 12y ago

The aforementioned A.C Grayling edited the fantastic: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0198752431/ http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0198752431/

thanatropism 12y ago

This will be _super_ controversial, but I read Deleuze's "What is philosophy?" after reading a lot of philosohpy (and a lot of Deleuze), and it really makes sense of things. That, of course, will cover next to nothing in the post-Wittgensteinian analytical camp. But eh, you could do worse if you have one book to read.

jjgreen 12y ago
Deleuze is incisive, an unexpectedly readable

primelens 12y ago

Apart from Russel's book, Will Durant's _The Story of Philosophy_ provides a fun light introduction. If you'd rather read primary texts there are many choices - the history of philosophy can seem like a summit conference between dazzlingly brilliant but at the same time really dense, almost obtuse masterworks. I'd recommend starting with Plato's _Republic_, skipping forward to Descartes' _Meditations_ and then directly on to Wittgenstein's _Philosophical Investigations_ for a whirlwind tour of the subject with three of the sharpest people you'll ever meet. If you finish these three, I would bet that you'll continue to read on your own and will forever remain a student of philosophy.

nessus42 12y ago

Philosophy is such a broad field that I think it would be hard to give a good overview of the entire field. Philosophers love formal logic, so that's one thing that's of interest. Once you have a good understanding of logic, Philosophy aims to investigate important questions that other fields don't seem to have a good grasp of. Here are some of them: - How can that sensation of redness that you experience when you look at a ripe tomato arise from or be explained by scientific law, which seems to only answer questions that are very qualitatively different from this question? And how do you know that your friend has that same sensation of redness? Perhaps when he looks at a ripe tomato, what he experiences is what you experience when you look at a blueberry. - If Star Trek transporters work by ripping apart all your atoms and then making a copy of you at the other end from atoms at the destination, would that still be you? Or would you have died, and there be a new person who is deluded into thinking he's you. - When you push around a wrinkle in your bed-spread, is that wrinkle itself a real thing, or is it just similar different bunches of your bed-spread? - If you could murder one innocent person to save ten people, would that be the right thing to do? If so, why? If not, why not? What if you could save a million people instead?

aggie 12y ago
These are some great examples to get yourself thinking philosophically. If anyone reading would like to explore them a bit more, here are some wikipedia articles: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qualia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qualia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trolley_problem http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trolley_problem

jjgreen 12y ago

A Flew, "An Introduction to Western Philosophy"

walterbell 12y ago

Charles Sanders Peirce is worth a look, http://peirce.org http://peirce.org "Who is the most original and the most versatile intellect that the Americas have so far produced? The answer "Charles S. Peirce" is uncontested, because any second would be so far behind as not to be worth nominating. Mathematician, astronomer, chemist, geodesist, surveyor, cartographer, metrologist, spectroscopist, engineer, inventor; psychologist, philologist, lexicographer, historian of science, mathematical economist, lifelong student of medicine; book reviewer, dramatist, actor, short story writer; phenomenologist, semiotician, logician, rhetorician and metaphysician. He was, for a few examples, the first modern experimental psychologist in the Americas, the first metrologist to use a wave-length of light as a unit of measure, the inventor of the quincuncial projection of the sphere, the first known conceiver of the design and theory of an electric switching-circuit computer, and the founder of "the economy of research." He is the only system-building philosopher in the Americas who has been both competent and productive in logic, in mathematics, and in a wide range of sciences. If he has had any equals in that respect in the entire history of philosophy, they do not number more than two." Quotes: http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Charles_Sanders_Peirce http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Charles_Sanders_Peirce Edit: from http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/peirce/ http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/peirce/, "Currently, considerable interest is being taken in Peirce's ideas by researchers wholly outside the arena of academic philosophy. The interest comes from industry, business, technology, intelligence organizations, and the military"

jseliger 12y ago

> Does anyone know of a good introduction to philosophy I don't know if this qualifies as "good", but it is certainly interesting: http://paulgraham.com/philosophy.html http://paulgraham.com/philosophy.html .

dinkumthinkum 12y ago

I tend to disagree with all those commenting to you. If you want a broad understanding of philosophy, well there is a lot to it, so "where to start" is a loaded question. It is not like Plato or any particular philosopher is a one-stop-shop . If you have an expertise in physics, well you didn't master it from just one book. I recommend starting with the novel "Sophie's World;" it is very accessible and it can give a good springboard for what to study next. I think it is important to read Plato closely. It would probably be helpful to have a glance through "Ancilla to the Pre-Socratic Philosophers. To really understand it, I recommend going through a survey book of Western Philosophy to go through Plato and the other Greek and Roman philosophers, particularly Aristotle. Then move on to the medieval philosophers and toward the likes of Spinoza. Studying the history of Skepticism from Descartes onward, I find to be critical. You want to familiarize yourself with the famous problems of philosophy (problem of evil, problem of induction, etc). You may be interested in the philosophy of science, people like Carl Hempel, Karl Popper, Kuhn, essays from people like Gould. I recommend "Readings in the Philosophy of Science: From Positivism to Postmodernism." This is sort of scattered because it is a broad field. Some people mention the Analytics and Continentals, I would definitely start from the ground before you get into the differences of Pragmatism and Pragmaticism. A major reason I suggest this path is that if you start reading later philosophers, you are missing an entire context and discussion that goes back to Plato and Socrates, even the Pre-Socratics like Heraclitus. But, you can do a lot worse than reading "Sophies World" and then skipping to the Philosophy of Science text I mentioned and then filling in the gaps later. This is just one suggestion. :)

jchrome 12y ago
I don't really support trying to get a broad understanding of philosophy. It's much better to get in-depth with a specific philosopher and then move on to the next, chronologically. One thing I haven't seen mentioned is that often, Philosophers of a certain generation are building their theses in reaction to the previous generation. So there's a great reason to read Ancient philosophy, starting with the pre-Socratics. I highly recommend "Retrieving the Ancients". David Roochnik (the author) was my professor for both Ancient and Modern philosophy. Trying to be unbiased here but this is a great introduction to the pre-Socratics and it even connects their ancient issues with modern ones.

CodeDiver 12y ago

"The Story of Philosophy" by Bryan Magee "The Story of Philosophy" by Will Durant These are what you're looking for. You won't regret either of these.

atlantic 12y ago

There is an excellent podcast by Peter Adamson on the history of philosophy at www.historyofphilosophy.net. I've listened to 100+ episodes already, and have yet to feel disappointed. A good start would be to listen to all the episodes on ancient philosophy, and then to approach the original texts directly, with particular emphasis on the Platonic dialogues. As Whitehead said, "The safest general characterization of the philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato." The Stoics are also very approachable. In the opinion of my teachers, the pivotal figures in the history of philosophy were Plato, Aristotle, Descartes and Kant. If you master those four, you won't go wrong.