How to Read Philosophy

Discussion of articles that appear in the magazine.

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Philosophy Now
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Joined: Sun Aug 29, 2010 8:49 am

How to Read Philosophy

Post by Philosophy Now »

What follows is an extract from a forthcoming book called AQA AS Philosophy by Gerald Jones, Dan Cardinal & Jeremy Hayward – an engaging, student-friendly textbook designed to help UK high school students embrace and enjoy philosophy at AS level. It seemed such a useful guide that we decided to print it here as well.

https://philosophynow.org/issues/103/How_to_Read_Philosophy
Veritas Aequitas
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Re: How to Read Philosophy

Post by Veritas Aequitas »

Note [mine],
It [philosophy] is also hard because philosophers are not always the clearest of writers:

Lord Macaulay once recorded in his diary a memorable attempt – his first and apparently his last – to read Kant’s Critique: “I received today a translation of Kant… I tried to read it, just as if it had been written in Sanskrit”.
That is why on average a student need a 3-years-fulltime-study [or 5-years part-time] to understand [not necessary agree with] Kant's philosophies which are the most solid philosophical foundation for philosophy in general.
Veritas Aequitas
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Re: How to Read Philosophy

Post by Veritas Aequitas »

All modern philosophy is a footnote to Kant...
https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-revi ... 0521657296
For those non-philosophers who want to read the Critique of Pure Reason and want some guidebooks to help them make sense of the book I do have some books to recommend but my short answer would be: unfortunately there is probably going to be a limit to how much you can do with the Critique of Pure Reason if you do not have formal training in philosophy.

It is like a book in quantum mechanics. There are popular books that can give lay people some sense of quantum mechanics but if you really want to understand quantum mechanics you have to engage in the difficult task of learning the math and the science behind it, which is something few people are capable of doing on their own.

The same is true of Kant. You can find popular books on Kant that give you some sense of what he was up to, but if you really want to understand Kant's philosophy you have to commit years to really working at it, and few people are probably capable of achieving it on their own.
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