Philosophy Now Forum

Any recommendations for a good introductory read on the subject(s)?

Hi and welcome to the forum.

I recommend Richard's book. www.projectsandvalues.com . I cherish the book. I wish that I could teach it to some high school seniors.

Tom

Stephen Law's The Philosophy Gym! It's not that informative but gets you thinking well. Guess it depends how much of a beginner u r. Adam Swift's Political Philosophy is good for the subject of the title. But you can go straight in with a "proper" book. They're not necessarily harder. Plato's Republic is easy and Nietzsche is always fun. ... sais pas..... why am I writing then?...

Hi xenophon,

If you take sally's advice and go for a "proper" book then I'm currently reading Karl Popper's Conjectures and Refutations and it's very clearly written and enjoyable. I also remember Descartes' Meditations on First Philosophy as a good read.

Bullwinkle

Go for Russell and Copleston - they oppose each other on many things but you'll get a good syntheses of western philosophy from each. Aside from both of these, check out Heidegger's "What Is Philosophy?" It's a very good and informative essay; unorthodox, yes, but informative also.

Hi

Here are some books at the introductory level in the various subsubjects of philosophy:

Epistemology
Introduction to Contemporary Epistemology by Jonathan Dancy
ISBN 0-631-13622-3

Ethics
Philosophical Ethics – An Introduction to Moral Philosophy by Tom L. Beuchamp
ISBN 0-07-004256-X

Philosophy of Mind
Philosophy of Mind – Dimensions of Philosophy Series by Jaegwon Kim
ISBN 0-8133-0776-7

Philosophy of Science
Philosophy of Science – Science and Objectivity by George Couvalis
ISBN 0-7619-5101-6

Metaphysics
Metaphysics – Foundations of Philosophy Series by Richard Taylor
ISBN 0-13-567819-6

Philosophy of Language
The Philosophy of Language by A. P. Martinich
ISBN 978-0-19-518830-1

Logic
The Logic Book 4th ed. by Bergmann, Moor, and Nelson
ISBN 0-07-240189-3
(This book rates superbly above the logics book below. It's utmost recommended and it is beautifully educative and easy to learn from. There is also a 5th ed. out.)
Formal Logic – Its Scope and Limits by Richard Jeffrey
ISBN 0-07-032357-7

They should be of good help.

Aetixintro

Thanks guys, especially Aetixintro - ISBN numbers and all - great stuff!

Popper, Heidegger and Nietszche as entry-level books!? Are you lot trying to put this guy off?

Aetixintro is on the right track. Try the other books later on when you have a solid understanding of the basics.

May I suggest my own book, Philosophy and Living (Imprint Academic)? Basically it is a 630 page History of Philosophy, but with inset passages discussing the views of past philosophers and in relation to their own time as well as to ours.

Welcome Ralph!

Of course you are welcome to recommend your own books here, provided that isn't the extent of your contributions to the forum. Now you've found us, I hope you'll be a regular contributor.

Mick

a good introductory philosophy book is 'If Minds Had Toes' by Lucy Eyre, its in the form of a story and is really good for people thinking about doing or just starting philosophy as it introduces the major philosphical questions and encourages the reader to think about them

Nigel Warburton has written some easy-to-read, if a little over-simplified, introductory texts including:
Philosophy: The Basics which tackles philosophy issue-by-issue (religion, ethics, epistemology etc.)
Philosophy: The Classics takes a book-by-book account of key philosophical texts

For deeper introductions, Simon Blackburn's
Think - as a guide to philosophy,
Truth - as a guide to...well "truth"
Being Good - as a guide to ethics

And if you want an introductory text written by a philosopher, Russell's History of Western Philosophy

An Introduction to Philosophical Analysis: John Hospers.

A good introductory text for anyone wanting to get to grips with the main issues and answers in Anglo-American academic philosophy.

p.s. I thought "the dullest book on the planet" when I first had to read it. Over the years I've realised that its an essential read for anyone interested in Anglo-American Philosophy.

I would recommend Thomas Nagel's What does it all mean?

Excellent.

Cornman/Lehrer "Philosphical Problems and Arguments" like Hosper's
Michael Scriven "Primary Philosophy" mainly for
its take theistic arguments
Michael Shermer "The Science of Good and Evil" humanist ethics- covenant morality for humanity " Why People Believe Weird Things"
"How We Believe" on religion
Schick/ Vaughtn "How to Think about Weird Things"