/lit/ - Literature

Am I suppose to read the whole thing or use it like a text book?

>>18292454
Read the best survey in English and find out where you want to go next. Obviously Aristotle would come next chronologically but he is much less fun to read and has the problem of embracing naturalism more than Plato but (understandably) being fancifulily wrong about his biology and physics. Secondary sources and long excerpts might work better.

A New History will let you pick where to go next without gaps. Durant's Story of Philosophy has top tier prose and Durant's own analysis but is full of holes, covering Durant's main influences (Plato, Aristotle, Bacon, Spinoza, Volitiare, Kant, Schopenhauer, and Hegel. Excellent book but maybe not for a novice. His Story of Civilization will give you all the history you need to understand Western thought, but is a huge undertaking.

No one can read everything and secondary literature is endless so you will need surveys at some point.

I would go: Plato - survey of the field - secondary/lighter reading of Aristotle and Decartes - Spinoza - Kant - Schopenhauer - Nietzsche - Wittgenstein - Hegel since I found them most interesting. Hegel last because he is the hardest and requires the most background

These four books by sir Anthony Kenny

It starts with ancient philosophy and works through medieval all the way up to modern

You will learn how it(our current understanding of life today) all started, how those ideas evolved and by who, afterwards you will know exactly who you want to read more of and who you don’t

There has yet to be one single thread posted on this forum that has discussed a western philosopher that isn’t covered in one of his four books

It used to be recommended on here before starting with the Greeks or anyone else