John Locke

[Arising_uk]

"An Essay Concerning Human Understanding"

For those who have come to Philosophy via the Continentals. An early English Phenomenologist.

A wordy style of English but its the 1690's, slow your pace and its still very clear English for all that.

Nicely structured, so you can 'dip' as well.

[Richard Baron]

An excellent recommendation, of which William Blake made fun in the words:

An Easy of Huming Understanding, by John Lookye Gent

(An Island in the Moon, chapter 8.)

[Arising_uk]

I'd not heard that one RB.

Which is why I recommend it as an antecedent with which to understand the Germans if thats the way you came to philosophy. Or is that 'antidote'?

[Rortabend]

I would be interested to hear why you call Locke a phenomenologist. I had always understood phenomenology to be created by Husserl in the early twentieth century.

[Arising_uk]

Hi Rorta,
Its a new thought as I was taught him as an Empiricist but re-reading him now, after many years, I can now understand him as a 'phenomenologist' in the Husserlian sense as he was interested in how we get ideas, concepts, understanding, etc from the viewpoint of the body. At least this is the interpretation that I'm now gaining from his words. Although I'll grant you that Husserl had not come to the conclusion that the body is the 'source' of our phenomena, that(I think but its hard to tell) was Merleau-Ponty's achievement.

[RachelAnn]

Hegel's "The Phenomenology of the Mind" is 750 pages of ground tooth reading.

[Arising_uk]

RA,
That sounds familiar, which'll be why I've 'missed' him as the others where 'bad' enough. But I think it must be time

So where are you up to RA? And I'll see if I can catch-up, if not least because it may give me an' BB something to chat about.

Also, experience urges me to pass on a tip - Check the contents first, maybe read the translators intro, then once through fast, not bothering if it all hangs together, just get the terms. Then backwards. Then forwards slowly, with fast 'dipping' to relieve the boredom, then Intro whether done at first or not. Sorry if this is eggs and grannys.

God help me! 'Transcendental Idealistic Mind'

[amateurphilosophynerd]

I have the Enquiry on human understanding on mp3 file which i plan to listen too as a lead in text to the very substantive Charles Taylor 'Sources of the Self' speaks of the 'Lockean' self, hence the need to investigate the connection.