/lit/ - Literature

>>15560967
You have to read all of the major presocratics and about them as well. Just buy the complete Presocratic works along with the complete works of Plato and Aristotle.

And yes, you have to read everything by Plato and Aristotle also. But perhaps more importantly, you have to read the Greek poets Homer(not a single great English translation but the best is Lattimore), Hesiod, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Pindar and Sappho. Aristophanes is funny too; nobody told me that the Greeks were actually funny. Epicurus is also necessary because for example, how something like his materialism relates to Descartes mind-body dualism. You should also be familiar with every major Greek Stoic and every major work of Greek Stoicism.

The Romans are a different subject, but you can read much less of them for the time being. Great stuff to read for enjoyment though. However you really must read much of and about medieval philosophy/theology/poetry/art because of how it relates to the renaissance and its mistakes made and further to the enlightenment. It'd be a great idea to read de Montaigne and de Maistre before Descartes as well however.


It doesn't take that long apart from Homer, Plato and Aristotle; so just get used to and enjoy it.