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14947065 No.14947065 [Reply] [Original]

how do i get a basic understanding of philosophy?

>> No.14947069

You can't.

>> No.14947079

>>14947065
how old is she?

>> No.14947082

>>14947065
Greeks

>> No.14947099

new history of Western Philosophy by Anthony Kenny

or the one by Bertrand Russell. both are good

or just any general overview on the history of philosophy that will acquaint you with many of the key thinkers and ideas

>> No.14947139

more

>> No.14947171

>>14947065
all of the day bro

>> No.14947176

>>14947099
where to get a decent edition of that Russell book??

>> No.14947181

go to a library
find Philosophy section
pick out relevant books
read

>> No.14947183

>>14947181
>go to a library
we're going through a pandemic...

>> No.14947185
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14947185

>>14947139
sure thing anon! got any sites where i can read the basics of philosophy?

>> No.14947192

>>14947176
Amazon, any bookstore, etc.
https://www.amazon.com/A-History-of-Western-Philosophy/dp/B00FU3XE1Y

alternatively if ur poor, just download it for free
https://b-ok.cc/book/1165777/1c1ca5

>> No.14947193
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14947193

>>14947139

>> No.14947194

>>14947183
oh yeah lmao forgot about that

>> No.14947202

>>14947069
fpbp

>> No.14947204

>>14947099
>the one by Bertrand Russell
This book may not be so great an introduction to philosophy for beginners. Russell is opinionated, so you are likely to get a skewed picture of a philosopher's outlook and relevance if you're first exposed to him through Russell. A History of Western Philosophy is far more enjoyable once you have actually read the thinkers yourself. This makes the experience of reading Russell's opinions like having an conversation with a fellow-reader. Russell is not an expert on many of the subjects he is writing about here, so it is quite legitimate to disagree with him.

>> No.14947207

>>14947192
I'm not poor, I just don't like those "independently published" editions. It's weird that no major publishing house is currently printing that book.

>> No.14947217 [DELETED] 

listen, I will just post this here, because there are newfags in this thread.

you should add this reddit thread to your bookmarks
>https://www.reddit.com/r/Piracy/wiki/megathread
obviously scroll down to the books section. the best sites are the first two: b-ok and libgen.

anytime you want a book or a textbook, you will most likely find out one of these sites, available to download for free. if you're paranoid about piracy, get a VPN.

also see
https://www.gutenberg.org/
which literally has many of the great books in the Western Canon available to download and u don't have to be a pirate to get them

buy an ereader, download ePUB or MOBI files, get calibre so you can see these files to ur ereader. and congrats, you can now basically get any book whenever you want.

>> No.14947219
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14947219

>>14947065
>how do i get a basic understanding of philosophy?
stop posting coomerbait first of all.
secondly start with the greeks and then the eastern church fathers and get baptized.

>> No.14947225
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14947225

>>14947099
>Bertrand Russell
The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell>A History of Western Philosophy

>> No.14947229

>>14947225
>>Bertrand Russell
pure libshit humanist ideology

>> No.14947230

>>14947176
Don't it's trash. Russell can't help but inserting his own bias everywhere.

>> No.14947233

B*rtrand R*ssel SUCKS

>> No.14947238
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14947238

OP, I need you to read every single book on the list in pic related, preferably twiceover. Ideally you will also teach yourself to be fluent in at least 4 languages, and master at least one classical musical instrument. I already assume that you are fluent in Latin, as all of us here are.

This is NOT advice, this is an order. Go away and read these books. You will not have any hope of ever understanding Western philosophy until you have a solid grasp of ALL of these books. Only then are you ready for Philosophy 101.

Good luck, you have 4 years to complete your assignment. I don't want to see you here again until you have completed it.

>> No.14947240
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14947240

>>14947238
My bad, here's an actual readable version of the list.

>> No.14947251

>>14947069
this.

a basic understanding of philosophy is like a basic understanding of pokemon. the entire point of philosophy is to master a vast dump of arcane lore in order to look down on the plebs who didn't. it's about correcting people when they make a minor mistake in interpretation. it has nothing to do with finding man's place in the universe - it's all about the sneer.

>> No.14947253

>>14947238
sorry, i only speak finnish, swedish, english and german. romance languages are shit

>> No.14947256

Copleston, History of Philosophy, all the 9 volumes.

>> No.14947271

>>14947240
this list is a fucking joke, why the fuck would you want to read Aristotle's debunked physical theories or writings of Harvey which are both surpassed both in style and content by modern textbooks? you can almost tell that whoever made that list was a pseud who simply wanted to simply tick off as many positions on the Great Books list as possible without any regard for their utility

>> No.14947276
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14947276

>>14947271
You're right. In fact, all earthly knowledge is basically useless anyway. Here is your new assignment.

>> No.14947288
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14947288

>> No.14947292

>>14947288
yikes

>> No.14947295

>>14947276
what kind of false dichotomy is this? you either read old tracts on natural philosophy that have been thoroughly debunked 1000 times or you read esoteric Vedantic arcane bullshit? you will gain more both in terms of utility and philosophical insight from reading Arnold's textbook on mathematical methods of classical physics than from reading all the quasi-scientific quasi-theological bullshit that led to its development (including Aristotle, Ptolemy, Copernicus, Kepler, Descartes, Leibniz, Newton etc.)

>> No.14947298

>>14947253
> romance languages are shit
oh boy, says the man who speaks finnish and swedish. literally useless languages which have given us no literature of worth beyond a few works

>> No.14947308

>>14947295
>you either read old tracts on natural philosophy that have been thoroughly debunked 1000 times or you read esoteric Vedantic arcane bullshit?
Exactly this, yes! Everybody now knows that Science is fake and gay. This is just a fact of life that you simply cannot refute.

>> No.14947333

>>14947292
any corrections?

>> No.14947362

>>14947271
ok then ignore the science and read the rest lol

>> No.14947436

>>14947238
Should I actually do this? Will it make me more intelligent or just make people think I’m smart?

>> No.14947445

>>14947185
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

>> No.14947457

If you know nothing about philosophy don't start with a specific author, instead read an introduction to philosophy book that gives you a general idea of the main topics.

>> No.14947460

>>14947436
knowing the list and reading the wikipedia articles to each of those books will make people think you are smart. Engaging with content for hours and digesting/critically thinking about said material over a period of time will make you "smart" in the smooth brain way you think of intelligence.


On that note. Go read Ion. The Socratic dialogue. Right now. It's the shortest. And its about knowing.

http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/ion.html


Come back and tell us what you thought about it.

>> No.14947477

>>14947445
https://plato.stanford.edu/

>> No.14947491

>>14947099
This.

>>14947204
No.

>> No.14947624

>>14947065
I recommend The Story of Philosophy by Bryan Magee. Very layman's and covers a good amount of philosophy in only 250-odd pages.

>> No.14947644

>>14947460
I particular enjoyed Socrates description of the chain between gods, muses, and poets. It had me think that the world is a lot more than it appears to be and that with the right feeling one can do great things. I hope one day to be able to draw words, thoughts or creation from the well of divinity. It also makes me feel a bit sad of how much I’ve spent my life being the last rung on the chain, a constant spectator. I don’t really understand what you mean by “it’s about knowing” but I’d like to hear.

>> No.14947652

>>14947204
Have you read that one by Anthony kenny? May as well skip Vol 2 on medieval philosophers.

>> No.14947659

>>14947644
Also arent we all a bit inspired by the divine? Do we not all feel some magnetic force towards something that makes us open our eyes wide and spring up.
Should we follow that force? Is that what following your passion means? What if you felt it towards something negative or harmful to yourself or others?

>> No.14947663

>>14947644
Well, it’s great you got something out of it. Now maybe read an article or two or a lecture about ion. See what other people got out of the same words you just read.
https://youtu.be/PyPVJdbMHlU

When I said it’s about knowing, it, along with theaetetus, discuss where knowledge comes from and frameworks to define it. In ion it can be seen as a discussion of expertise, depth of knowledge in a given field, compared to memorization or emotional opinion. Just as you now seek to start knowing about philosophy, you can’t just read only Plato. Then you’ll be like ion. Reading a wide variety of authors in a field makes mental connections one can’t make without context of other content. Now, I may be completely wrong about this, but it’s what I got out of it, which can be different than what other anons got out of it. But that’s part of the fun.

>> No.14947700

>>14947652
>skip vol. 2
Why?

>> No.14947743

>>14947700
Some of his hot takes in that volume are retarded.

>> No.14947771

>>14947065
Copelston's thicc history

>> No.14947812

>>14947240
is this list actually any good? i might try and go through it.

>> No.14947818

>>14947069
You can't will anything if you're a cumbrain.

>> No.14947825

>>14947099
Anthony Kenny's is head and shoulders above Russell's. If you read Kenny, you'll have a good starting point to figure out which primary texts you want to read next and a rough idea of where they fit in historical context. If you read Russell, you'll walk away with a good knowledge of Russell's contempt for everything between Aristotle and Frege.

>>14947204
This, its a perfectly fine book to visit once you have your footing in the texts but a terrible place to start.

>>14947271
Absolute shit take, nobody reads the Physics for advice on Physics, its for the thought process contained within and the influence it had. Its an important part of our intellectual heritage. Nobody reads the Poetics to learn how to critique Greek theater, as was intended, but for the commentary on how language works. Fuck off.

>>14947445
Unironically the best suggestion in this thread. Everyone uses this site, its written by people in academic philosophy who really know their subject matter, and it has perfect citations to help you go deeper afterwards.

>>14947652
>He doesn't like the Medievals

>>14947812
Its actually pretty decent, if you read all of it you will be better read than 98% of people walking around, but it doesn't give depth. Start there but don't stop I suppose. Also, not all of it needs to be read in its entirety. For example,there is no reason for anyone not working on a Thomistic theology dissertation to read the entire Summa.

>> No.14947868

>>14947825
>its for the thought process contained within and the influence it had
why would I be interested in a thought process that lead to absurdly wrong conclusions and slowed down scientific and economic development of Europe for 2000 years?

>> No.14947881

>>14947825
>He doesn't like the medievals
On the contrary, Kenny doesn't get the Medievals.

>> No.14947891

>>14947271
You are retarded. Top kek.

>> No.14947899

>>14947891
>no argument
dilate

>> No.14948009

>>14947868
You aren't even worth a reply anymore, other than this one, to let you know what an arrogant little modernist you are. I'd almost be curious to see you attempt to tie Aristotle to some kind of modern economics, but not enough to ask about it. Back to R*ddit with you.

>>14947881
Thats actually a fair critique, I misunderstood your initial problem with it.

>> No.14948026

>>14948009
> I'd almost be curious to see you attempt to tie Aristotle to some kind of modern economics
I wouldn't do that because his writings have no bearing on modernity, there's no purpose in reading them other than satisfying your masturbatory purism

>> No.14948055

>>14948026
You literally just said that he slowed down "economic and scientific development" by 2000 years. That would bring us to about the end of mercantilism/dawn of capitalism, if we date our progress from Aristotle. Surely a hard and scientifically-minded thinker such as yourself could see the influence this had on modern economics, especially since you claim to have 2 millennia of counterfactuals you've considered?

Or, alternately, you could just be full of shit.

>> No.14948069
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14948069

>>14948055
>he's still responding
is this your first day on 4chan? did I strike a nerve?

>> No.14948079

>>14948069
What a ruse! I've been had!

>> No.14948154

>>14947099
I like Russels work in phylosphy of language, but, my God, was he ignorant about what came before. Read something else.

>> No.14948156
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14948156

>>14948079

>> No.14948158

>>14947445
>>14947477
Can confirm that these are good suggestions. Even serves good as commentraies when reading originals

>> No.14948180

>>14947240
>no Wittgenstein

Into the trash it goes.

>> No.14948219

>>14947065

Read all the books on the collection The Great Books of the Western World

>> No.14948551

>>14947099
>new
Big red flag

>> No.14948566

>>14947065
wtf i love coffee now

>> No.14948590

>>14947065
>>14947099
passion of the western mind by richard tarnas

>> No.14948622

Just start thinkin retard

>> No.14949051

Copleston

>> No.14949055
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14949055

>>14948622

>> No.14949064
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14949064

You must first leave the cave...

>> No.14949621

>>14947271
Aristotle's Physics isn't a strict textbook on physics like moderns write, it integrates with his greater body of work, same with his biology texts. If you ignore them a large part of his thought will go right over your head.

>> No.14949893

The history of philosophy is a process of questions and answers, but the answer is really just another question and now you can read

>> No.14950423
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14950423

I can recommend this book as an entry point. Sloterdijk is based as hell.