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14861375 No.14861375 [Reply] [Original]

If I want to get a good grasp at the whole of western philosophy canon, is it best to just read the big authors in chronological order? Or can I learn them in the order that I find more interesting?

Can I, say, go straight into Nietzsche or Schopenhauer without having read Plato or Kant?

If a particular order is best, which one would it be?

>> No.14861404

Something something the Greeks

>> No.14861414

>>14861375
if they present their philosophy systematically, for instance, aquinas or kant, you don't need to, but for someone like nietzsche you would need some background. you can always 'cheat' and refer to secondary sources.

>> No.14861419

>>14861375

>>If a particular order is best, which one would it be

Chronological order is the best.
Imagine you are reading an epistolar novel( with one chapter arriving to your home every month).You won't read it out of order right?, you may skim some hapters you find low effort but overall you'll have to read most of them if you want to "get a good grasp of the western tradition".

But there is another option: there are selections and surveys for a lot of themes.
"Liberalism: From Lock to Hayek"
"Aesthetics: from jean paul to Scheleiermacher"
And so and on.
You'll find plenty with selections from the author and commentary on LibGen.