[Phate]

I've just finished AS, and thought i'd get a few books for summer reading on the topic!

Any suggestions? I don't have anything particular in mind, just anything that may be useful for next year/at uni (Hoping to study philosophy!)
Note: I'm doing the WJEC philosophy of religion, so there'll be lots of RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE stuff, so any books on that ;D

Thanks guys

[chickenonsteroids]

thinking through philosophy by emrys westacott and Chris Horner is pretty good. (it's a more general book but I think it has some religion stuff in there)

I can't really remember anything on philosophy of religion though is there anything else that you like in philosophy?

[Phate]

Hmm, i'll check it out thanks.

Yeah I just put that in on the off-chance anyone would have done it before but general is good too!

I was thinking perhaps a book that covers ideas of the key ancient philosophers? We don't touch on that too much and I think it'd be good knowledge to have..so any like that?

[pellejema]

Peter Vardy's 'The Puzzle of God' is helpful - loads of really helpful further reading stuff you can put in your essays aswell as core stuff.

Another good'un is Philosophy: the Classics by Nigel Warburton, which gives a good guide to the classic philosophy texts e.g. Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics and Wittgenstein's Tractatus, including their key points and some analysis.

I didn't do WJEC, but there's still stuff you'll find helpful for sure.

[JessaminePoppy]

Bertrand Russell I do like. He came up with a religious theory that evoked a teapot orbiting the sun. What's not to like?

Saint Augustin. The guy had an epiphany on the top of a mountain about what really mattered in the universe. A devout Christian too.

Saint Thomas of Aquin. He believed he had proved the existence of god through logic. (Ontological theory in a nutshell: 1aThat which is evident stems from innate principles.bJohn Damascène says "the knowledge of God is naturally infused into every being". cThis means the concept of God is an innate principle. 2a When we recognize/learn words we can often create immediate associations abstractly b example: the phrase "a part of" is immediately understood to be smaller than a "whole" of the same material, without concrete example. 3 "God" has the definition of being an entity that the human mind cannot fully comprehend or contain; therefore even thinking about him entails his existence, because the mind cannot contain God's existence because God also exists in reality) This is what I gathered from what I read. It might be wrong.

Voltaire also has some good stuff on God. He didn't really believe in religion, but he did like the idea of a supreme and intelligent entity.



I mention it in all the Phil. posts and often in random ones, but the Doors of Perception by Aldous Huxley is a favourite of mine.

[pellejema]

(Original post by JessaminePoppy)

I mention it in all the Phil. posts and often in random ones, but the Doors of Perception by Aldous Huxley is a favourite of mine.

Slightly off topic but: is this a good book? I have it upstairs but is it worth putting on my summer reading list?

[JessaminePoppy]

(Original post by pellejema)
Slightly off topic but: is this a good book? I have it upstairs but is it worth putting on my summer reading list?

I would say yes. It is pretty psychedelic at the start:the dude's on mescalin, but his "trips" lead him to some very interesting ideas and theories. Also I think he writes well, his work is very readable.

[Rugar]

"on the plurality of words" and "naming and necessity"

[philosophynerd]

(Original post by Rugar)
"on the plurality of words" and "naming and necessity"

Two very important and influential books, but probably pitched at too high a level for someone between AS and A2.

I suggest Russell's The Problems of Philosophy. It's a short book, and so ideal for summer reading, but you will want to take your time with each chapter (i.e. read more than once). That will prepare you for some introductory philosophy modules at University.

[laofaurora]

Frege's on sense and reference and Quine's on two dogmas. though these two are not books but essays, they are elegant works. don't miss them!

Plus, I don't think 'naming and necessity' is a good choice for people who don't know Frege and Russell well.

[Hypedupturtle]

Hmm I'll try to give you some different but equally valid picks. Some of these are a little 'out there' but eclecticism is a good thing Hopefully these are all quirky but integral, I've enjoyed them at least:

Tao Te Ching - Lao Tzu

Phi: A Voyage from Brain to Soul - Guilio Tononi

The Secret of the Golden Flower - Thomas Cleary

The Nature of Things - Lucretius

Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus - Wittgenstein

The Analects - Confucius

Any Nietzsche - particularly Thus Spoke Zarathustra (personal favourite, very good book) or 'Human: All to Human'. You'll get the opportunity to study 'Beyond Good and Evil' if you like either of these.

The Perennial Philosophy - Alduous Huxley.

The Myth of Sysiphus - Albert Camus.

How Proust Can Change Your Life - Alain De Botton.

Arcadia - Tom Stoppard (technically literature but falls into the 'Play of Ideas' genre so you get philosophy, metaphysics, values, morality, nature of time/progress, search for identity, etc. Very good book.

Book of Lies - Aleister Crowley. Very ambiguous little book. Philosophers tend to sneer at it but I think it holds the key to an integral part of philosophy, namely the ability to analyse and form subjective meaning and value it against perceived objectivity. Worth checking out.

The World as Will and Representation - Schopenhauer. Or 'Essays and Aphorisms', same author. Preferred the former but only because it was specialised in the interest I held at that time.

Any work by Carl Jung. Just bought his Liber Novus and loving it. The man who combined Psychology and Philosophy in search of who and why we all are and where we come from.

Freud - Technically psychology, but an integral part of understanding the philosophy of modern day science. Freud is not only tackling issues of psychology but also issues encapsulated within a stagnant field of 19th century science, challenging orthodoxies and paving the way for the future.

The Spiritual Exercises - St Ignatius of Loyola.

Any Swedenbourg. Check out his theory of consciousness and enjoy the more esoteric of his philosophical views.

I could go on and on but these are my picks. I avoid Locke and Hume merely because I'm sure you've done them to death during the AS course, especially if you did both Reason and Experience and Metaphysics and Epistemology.

Enjoy!

Edit: You can also find a plethora of philosophical ideas within poetry. Start with the obvious such as Coleridge, Donne, Marvell and work your way from metaphysics to morality and epistemology with the Augustan/Romantic clash. If in doubt read 'Romanticism' by Palgrave Key Concepts. Very good book that sums up the philosophical divide between these two clashing ideals. Pre-Raphaelite poets are similar though I personally prefer Romantics.

Edit 2: Oh yikes, 'Being and Time' by Heidegger is interesting as well.

[acer0951]

If any one is doing A-level History i reccomend reading Animal Farm by George Orwell and the Communist Manifesto!