/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.21870245]

I'd like to get into reading philosophy. Most of my knowledge of the subject comes from youtube videos, this board, and other places online rather than primary sources.
Very simple question: What is required reading before tackling picrel (and Kant's other works)? That is my current goal
I've heard it's best to start with the Greeks, so I've been reading through Plato's complete works, which I'm enjoying. I then plan to read some of Aristotle's works (though not his complete works). What should I read after that? I don't have much of an interest in medieval philosophy, is it okay to skip over that? Is Descartes necessary? What about Leibniz? Spinoza? Locke? Etc
What I'm essentially asking for is a list of philosophers whose work I should familiarize myself before attempting to read Kant

[Anonymous No.21870253]

>>21870245
>I don't have much of an interest in medieval philosophy, is it okay to skip over that? Is Descartes necessary? What about Leibniz? Spinoza? Locke? Etc
Skip everyone including Kant and go straight to the end

[Anonymous No.21870263]

>>21870245
Augustine
Aquinas
Ibn Rushd
Ibn Sina
Al-Ghazali
Al Razi
Hossein Nasr
Palamas

[Anonymous No.21870267]

>>21870263
No Anselm?

[Anonymous No.21870273]

I'm reading CPR right now. You don't really need to know shit about the Greeks for this text directly.

What you 100% need to be familiar with (and familiar with all the debates surrounding these figures, leading up to Kant):

Descartes
Hume
Leibniz

Locke wouldn't hurt either, Kant is directly engaging with him but the 3 above are the main ones, particularly Hume.

[Anonymous No.21870276]

>>21870267
>Anselm
only semi-related but I think a form of Islamic scholasticism is beginning to emerge in the English-speaking world among the white converts like Zaytuna college and CMC

[Anonymous No.21870285]

Unironically, read Copleston. Libgen a random book that interests you and read a chapter that interests you and you'll see what good overviews he gives.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9GwT4_YRZdBf9nIUHs0zjrnUVl-KBNSM

If you want to read Kant just read some supplementary materials like Cassirer's book on him, plus anything else you really want to understand. You will want to be basically familiar with Leibniz but that is not easy, because it presupposes decent familiarity with both Cartesian and scholastic traditions. Spinoza not so much, he's not important for Kant in the way he is for the other German idealists. Hume probably, Locke maybe, Descartes maybe. But again you could spend months reading all these and still only be a beginner in them. So why not just do your best with Kant? Split your reading 50/50 between your target text and supplementary texts and make a project of it. You will not emerge with a perfect or "finished" understanding of Kant, but you will lay a very solid foundation, and get experience learning philosophy that you can then apply to the other texts you're reading or the next target text you select, and eventually all these disparately connected or seemingly disconnected subjects will act recursively on one another and you'll come back to Kant ready for true understanding. This process just takes a while so give yourself a break your first time around and "fake it til you make it."