Any good books on philosophy?

[cynatnite]

I haven't touched the subject since college. I feel the need to do some reading. Recommendations?

Thanks!

[pstans]

1. Tao of Pooh

It is about the Taoist principles in the Winnie the Pooh stories. There is also a 2nd book called the Te of Piglet. Both are great reads and I learned a lot about Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucious.

[Why Syzygy]

23. honestly.

I tried the Tao of Pooh and lost interest. But the Tao of Sobriety got me going.

[nytemare]

2. Are you talking books on philosophy, or philosophy books?

If you are talking philosophy books, I sort of like Rollo May. Freedom and Destiny by him is good.

I also like Viktor Frankl, who sort of bridges the gap between psychology and philosophy. Man's Search for Meaning is a great book.

Funnily, I also find that Carl Sagan's books are in the twilight zone between science and philosophy. "Demon Haunted World" and "Billions and Billions are good.

[ladjf]

4. Excellent recommendations. I particularly like May.

[ladjf]

3. That's a great sign of progress that our fellow DUers are

thinking about that all important science of philosophy,i.e. the study of values. Unfortunately, the science of philosophy has fallen on hard times. There aren't many true academic philosophers any more. Most of who calls themselves teachers of philosophy are mainly teaching the history of philosophy between the years of 300 B.C. up to the present.

In America the teaching and discussions about values that effect the human condition has been forfeited to preachers. Parents are too tired and otherwise preoccupied to worry about values other than peripheral subjects, mostly described through tired slogans, such as the ten commandments, abstinence from sex, anti-homosexual ideas and abortion.

The Existentialist, in my opinion, put the nail into the coffin of philosophical thought by gravely misleading their reader into believing that all of the ultimate answers were available within the brains of each individual rather that object observation of the Universe. They were disillusioned, former religious believers, so angry and depressed over their disillusionment, decided that if there was no ultra God that they themselves must be God. They were as delusional as Bush's group.

You asked for book references and I've offered none. That's because I haven't read a book of philosophy in quite a long time that I thought was recommendable. However, since philosophy is the study of values, DU is a great place to read all sorts of ideas on values that relate to the human situation, particularly as they pertain to politics.

You have intellectual curiosity or you wouldn't be thinking about philosophy. Get on the internet and google any philosophical subject that comes to mind. Follow those leads. Discuss the ideas with your close friends. Everyone actually practices the science of philosophy in their lives they just don't realize that as they are constructing their hierarchy of values that they are putting together their philosophy of life.

[cynatnite]

5. A short story idea is what spurred this...

There are a few other factors which have gotten me to think more on this. Also, I have have questions. Don't get me wrong. I'm not looking for books to answer them. This is more about learning new ideas, new ways to think and asking even more questions. :)

Thanks for the advice. Will follow!

[ladjf]

6. I didn't get you wrong, In fact, my presumption about you

was exactly what you said you were doing. My guess is that you are already a competent philosopher. But, as you know, one is never finished with their tasks of developing the "philosophy of life".
I would imagine that your friends enjoy conversations with you.

[bhikkhu]

26. I don't mean to pick a fight

but my understanding is that "ethics" is the study of values - a specialized portion of philosophy. Philosophy is the study of thought and knowledge, which inevitably makes it the study of those aspects of humanity.

From this perspective, I would say that philosophy has not "passed", so to speak, but has has its historical abstraction from the physical overtaken by the specific developments of more pragmatic sciences. This is all very vague to say - but read Pinker's "Blank Slate" for a good amalgamation of past and present, toward the sametraditional high goal of philosophy.

[angry_chuck]

28. Philo is about

what to do. What could be more basic and universal?

Philo can never be forgotten unless we stop asking that question.

My Rec - Slavoj Zizek ~ "Welcome to the Desert of the Real"...digestible but fibrous

[BillZBubb]

7. "History of Western Philosophy" by Bertrand Russell

It's a great review of Western thought up until 1940.

[thereismore]

8. Any good philosophy? nt

[izzybeans]

9. A few...not all formal philosophy

In the philosophy of Science/historical epistemology: The Science of Science and Reflexivity by Pierre Bourdieu

Critical Philosophy: "The Theory of Communicative Action vols 1 and 2" Jurgen Habermas or check out Legitimation Crisis

A book on dissident philosophy within the history of ideas by Isaiah Berlin called "Against the Current"

Political sociology "The Sources of Social Power" Michael Mann

One that summarizes the political game fairly well, though its dated is Max Weber's "Politics as a Vocation" in "From Max Weber"

"Mind, Self, and Society" by (the students of?) George Herbert Mead is a personal favorite. His "The Philosophy of the Present" is an interesting one as well.

If your into professional education: "Teaching to Transgress" bell hooks

[dennisnyc]

10. a couple of philosophy books

I'm in the process of reading Empire and Multitude by Hardt and Negri. This seems to be a contentious philosophical inquiry into the nature of dissent in the current state of affairs.

It is too jargony but reading it does give me hope in the possibilty of a radical democracy.

One critic says they have rewritten the communist manifest for the 21st century. Interesting....

[Einstein99]

11. For something less academic, there's always

"Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance." Old, but still relevant. The best book ever written on the philosophy of art is Suzanne Langer's "Philosophy in a New Key." You might also want to look at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, which is available online.

[dennisnyc]

12. Wittgenstein is always good. But can be difficult...

I read him in College with an excellent professor.

a favorite quote:

Philosophy, as we use the word, is a fight against the fascination which forms of expression exert upon us.

Ludwig Wittgenstein
--The Blue Book

He's most famous for saying, "The meaning of a word is its use."

_Philosophical Investigations_ is a good intro or maybe try a "Beginner's guide" type book to get started...

[OrwellwasRight]

13. I just started Wittgenstein's Poker.

about a famous event at Oxford College where Wittgenstein and Karl Popper got into a fight that may or may not have ended inviolence.

I am very interested to see how it turns out. I had never heard of this before I picked up the book in a used book store.

[Therealhelmetcase]

14. Ah..philosophy

Reminds me of my college days, when as I was about to graduate I saw an article about how philosophy majors like myself had the lowest incomes of all BA/BS graduates. :(

Oh well, I got a job in sales and said the hell with it. I make more than all those biology and chemistry and math and polisci kids who looked down their noses at me. :)

I was a big Wittgenstein fan. Spent a lot of time on philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, etc. Once you get past the idea that we understand what words mean by associating them with an image in our heads (seems an easy mistake to make, most people think that IS how we understand words, but then, how to account for an image of "the, but, to, and", etc.), you get into some interesting issues.

[OrwellwasRight]

16. Perhaps I will check back here and keep you

posted on my progress and provide you a book reivew.

I am intrigued by philosophy, but did not study it much in school. I had a whole class on Hegel (which I hated), and only one reading of Kant (which I loved). Most of it was in the context of Political Theory, not pure philosophy, so there was of course Locke, Hobbes, Rousseau, Plato's Republic, Karl Marx, etc. (I was a poli sci major).

Here's a story related to yours: when I was getting my Teaching Credential (a required one year graduate program in CA), fellow students in my little political-radical social circle kept being shocked when I told them I was an education student. When I asked why, they would say that ed majors usually aren't very smart. Intrigued (and not too happy), I did some investigating. And, for what it's worth, it was true people in graduate ed programs had the lowest average GRE scores of any major listed by ETS.

Funny thing was, my actual GRE score was higher than the average listed for every program on the list including all the smarty pants engineering and science programs.

So much for "common wisdom." You're not poor, and I'm not dumb.

Welcome to DU. :hi:

[newyawker99]

19. Hi Therealhelmetcase!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[NewHampshireDem]

15. Six Great Ideas by Adler

http://tinyurl.com/dabjw

Good for ponderin' :)

[rublue]

17. Did my genes make me do it?

Last year I read book by Avrum Stroll, "Did My Genes Make Me Do It?"

Good read...covers many topics...

[newyawker99]

20. Hi rublue!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[SCDem]

18. Sophie's World

It is a fiction book but it is a novel that includes the whole history of philosophy told to a young girl by an anonymous corresponding teacher.

[Xipe Totec]

21. Worldviews: An Introduction to the History and Philosophy of Science

The Philosophy of Science is a topic onto itself and has always fascinated me.

[CornField]

22. I love all of Joseph Campbell's works

Hero with a Thousand Faces probably being the most known

[bhikkhu]

24. Pinker "The Blank Slate". Highly recommended.

I have imbibed a great deal of formal philosophy in and out of college, and this is one that is very readable. It also amply bridges a number of gaps between philosophy and "the real world" - including interesting historical build-ups, findings of modern neuroscience and developmental psychology. Pinker's central axe-to-grind is broadly fascinating and related to Wittgenstein's work on language (as well as a bit of Chomsky)- the notion that there is an innate grammar of "human universals" that affect, to a certain extent, the character of our thought. This balanced against or in opposition to the blank slate notion.

I would say this is not pure philosophy, but is a way philosophy should be, particularly toward understanding the current "way of things" (to be circumspect), and would recommend this as a time-saving prerequisite to other philosophical ventures.

(on edit - niggling re-wordings)

[YankeyMCC]

25. Perhaps a bit tangential but take a look at

The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in America by Louis Menand

It's not a book on philosophy per-se but perhaps it would be a good first step back into the subject. I never studied philosophy (one of the things when I look back at life I wish to rectify by learning more now) and this was the first book I ever read even remotely dealing with the subject. I don't recall what made me pick it up but I did. And it was difficult for me to read because of my lack of background but it still managed to keep me riveted and I have since put it on the list of books that have significantly affected my view of life and the world around me.

[jrw14125]

27. Why I'm Not A Christian - Bertrand Russell

[lstrether]

29. Korzybski's "Science and Sanity"

Science and Sanity: An Introduction to Non-Aristotelian Systems and General Semantics
Alfred Korzybski

This is truly a life-changing book.

Korzybski's ideas shed light on most of the problems that we find intractable. He was deeply concerned in his day with the rise of fascism, and was mystified that supposedly educated people could fall for it. His solution - General Semantics - was a diagnosis that could change every aspect of how we live and how we live together, and change it for the better. For that reason it was and still is seen as a threat by all sorts of folks, from some academic philosophers to ever two-bit propagandist with a buck for a box to stand on.

One of his formulations -- "the map is not the terrain" -- would be enough to give the lie to every linguistic and propagandistic crime committed by boy george and his minions. The liar would have you believe that the map IS the terrain, that the world itself really is divided into red and blue, that it really is embroiled in a war against xmas just because the big lie is repeated often enough. All the fools running around thinking they know something about "libruls" and how evil they are, thrilled with their sense of certainty because their uncle rush told them so, would only have to let go of the mapping that their unc'a rush gave them, and get a glimpse of how various and complex and new the terrain really is, in order to be humbled into the patient silence of one who knows that he really doesn't know, and refuses to feel threatened by not knowing for sure.

I love Korzybski's books. I wish I could give you a better account of them. I'm at work now, and am really just writing from the top of my head, but you get the idea. Give him a try.

Here are some links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_semantics

http://www.time-binding.org/

http://www.gsemantics.com/

Have fun!

--KC