Comment by drinka40tonight on 25/01/2025 at 12:22 UTC

3 upvotes, 0 direct replies (showing 0)

View submission: Philosophy book recommendations?

You can try Sarah Bakewell's At the Existentialist Café.

Here's the first chapter to get a sense: https://cdn.waterstones.com/special/pdf/9780701186586.pdf

For general advice:

There are a lot of different ways to start. See here for instance for a number of avenues, primary and secondary text recommendations: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskPhilosophyFAQ/comments/4ifqi3/im_interested_in_philosophy_where_should_i_start/

For some secondary recommendations: A good choice for an introduction for a general reader might be Julian Baggini's *The Pig that Wants to be Eaten*. Another one might be something like Simon Blackburn's *Think*.

I'd say the most important thing is to find the thing you will actually *do*. If that means reading Plato, then do that. If it means reading something like The Norton Introduction to Philosophy[1], then do that.

1: https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393624427

There are also some youtube courses that one can start with:

E.g. Shelly Kagan has a course on death: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEA18FAF1AD9047B0

Sandel has a course on justice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBdfcR-8hEY

Gregory Sadler has an often recommended series: https://www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler

Daniel Bonevac has a youtube channel that has a number of lectures organized as courses or on particular books: https://www.youtube.com/user/PhiloofAlexandria

There are a number of Rick Roderick videos on youtube if you are more into "continental" philosophy, e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wetwETy4u0

Another good option is just to jump into a podcast. If you are history inclined, you can check out History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps, https://historyofphilosophy.net/[2] If you want something more "bite sized," you can check out Philosophy Bites.

2: https://historyofphilosophy.net/

Or browse some philosophy podcasts and see what looks interesting to you:

https://dailynous.com/2020/11/23/big-list-philosophy-podcasts/

https://old.reddit.com/r/AskPhilosophyFAQ/comments/4i0faz/what_are_some_good_philosophy_podcasts

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