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Reading for beginner-ish!

I'm applying for Uni this year and just wanted a bit of advice from people who know more about a subject than I do! My passion is more for the political and historical side of things, but philosophy actually links in with a lot of the debate which I encounter. What I need is a good understanding of a selection of philosophers' works, so that I can bring in bits of philosophy to strengthen my historical/political arguments.

I've drawn up a rough list of philosophers whose works I think I should read. It would be soooo helpful if anyone could suggest the best/most famous work of each so I could read one from each!

So:
Plato
Descartes
Russell
Hume
Foucault
Hegel
Nietzche
Wittgenstein
Popper
Lyotard

*breaths*

P.S. Feel free to add to the list! Any help with books would be much appreciated :smile:

Reply 1

Zarathustra

Plato - Republic is probs one of the most famous, but is lengthy and difficult. I personally like the Socratic ones, and you could try something like the Phaedo or the Apology etc. Or Euthyphro, since the dilemma in it is now so famous.
Descartes - Meditations on First Philosophy is the main one.
Russell - Problems of Philosophy is the beginner one. (And A History of Western Philosophy might be useful)
Hume - Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding - DEFINITELY. (And Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, if that interests you. I wouldn't recommend Treatise of Human Nature as 'beginner' stuff - I have tried and failed many times with that one.)
Foucault - There's really a lot. What specifically are you interested in, since he covered a number of topics. Stuff on madness? sexuality? etc? I would say the obvious and add 'power' to that list, but since most of them are about that in some sense it wouldn't really narrow it down.
Hegel - Nothing Hegel wrote is beginner-ish. In fact, it's all gibberish :wink:

(Ask someone else on this one).
Nietzche - Thus Spake Zarathustra is wonderful to read, and contains a lot of his ideas. It's also very wide-ranging and just...generally lush. (I wouldn't recommend The Antichrist as he'd gone pretty nuts by then.) The other ones - Gay Science and Genealogy of Morals might potentially be more 'useful' to you though.
Wittgenstein - Tractatus Logico Philosophicus and Philosophical Investigations are the main ones, but the former is not particularly readable to say the least. A philos prof once said to me that the Blue and Brown Books were the best way into his work, so try that.
Popper - The Logic of Scientific Discovery, I guess.
Lyotard - Gotta be The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge.

ZarathustraX

Reply 2

mellow-yellow

That's brilliant - thanks!

I'll be heading to Waterstones tmw hehe.

Reply 3

Zarathustra

mellow-yellow

That's brilliant - thanks!

I'll be heading to Waterstones tmw hehe.

No problem! Have fun bookshopping :wink:

*jealous*

Zarathustra

Hegel - Nothing Hegel wrote is beginner-ish. In fact, it's all gibberish :wink:

In defence of my statement, here's the man himself:

"The surmounting of the object of consciousness in this way is not to be taken one-sidedly as meaning that the object showed itself returning into the self. It has a more definite meaning: it means that the object as such presented itself to the self as a vanishing factor; and, furthermore, that the emptying of self-consciousness itself establishes thinghood, and that this externalization of self-consciousness has not merely negative, but positive significance, a significance not merely for us or per se, but for self-consciousness itself. The negative of the object, its cancelling its own existence, gets, for self-consciousness, a positive significance; or, self-consciousness knows this nothingness of the object because on the one hand self-consciousness itself externalizes itself; for in doing so it establishes itself as object, or, by reason of the indivisible unity characterizing its self-existence, sets up the object as its self. On the other hand, there is also this other moment in the process, that self-consciousness has just as really cancelled and superseded this self-relinquishment and objectification, and has resumed them into itself, and is thus at home with itself in its otherness as such. This is the movement of consciousness, and in this process consciousness is the totality of its moments"

Uh-huh :p:

ZarathustraX

Reply 4

Calvin

Zarathustra

Couple of things. On the Wittgenstein Get the blue and the Brown books and then read the brown book. The blue one isn't terribly helpful, the brown is probably the shortest way to cover the interesting stuff. But I've never managed to find the book for less than £20. Which is a crying shame. Philosophy books just don't show up in libraries mostly.

With Popper, if you are thinking political you're best bet is probably The Open Society and it's Enemies. Another of his main works but it focuses specifically on defending democracy from totalitarianism.

I'd definitely say look at Anarchy, State and Utopia by Robert Nozick, it's on the reading list for political philosophy and Ethics for most major Philosophy courses and it's actually quite good I think- though it's pretty long.

Another possibility for Plato is to read Meno which is one of the most famous ones- it's on virtue (which is probably better translated as "political ability") and whether it can be taught. But most of Plato's famous political philosophy is in the Republic and you could easily pick out just the chapters on it to save yourself lots of reading.

You'll never read all of these before Uni so your best bet probably is to selet a couple of chapters from the longer ones, after all, even at university they'll never make you read the whole book.

Reply 5

Zarathustra

Calvin

With Popper, if you are thinking political you're best bet is probably The Open Society and it's Enemies. Another of his main works but it focus specifically on defending democracy from totalitarianism.

Mhm, yes listen to Calvin on this one - I had forgotten that you said you were more into political philosophy :smile:

ZarathustraX

Reply 6

Calvin

Just another point. Philosophy books are damn expensive. You'd be lucky if you could find anything by Foucault, Wittgenstein, Popper, Lyotard and Hegel for under £15 each. I'm not sure what the solution to that is. Perhaps if you know any university students ask them kindly to borrow the books for you from their library as I doubt you'd find them in a standard one. It's a shame really that the obscurity of philosophy fuels itself by maintaining high prices for books. You might find some of it on the internet as well so take a look there, at least until you get to uni and possibly could get a book grant perhaps. That would be my suggestion.

Reply 7

Zarathustra

Calvin

I'm not sure what the solution to that is...

Amazon Marketplace :smile:

Or Amazon Jersey, if you're lucky enough for them to be stocking what you want. I saved £9 (on a dvd I think?) last time I went through Amazon Jersey... :eek:

But if Jersey don't have what you want, try the Marketplace.

ZarathustraX

Reply 8

Calvin

Ah now there's a good tip.

Reply 9

wanderer

Zarathustra

Hume - Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding - DEFINITELY. (And Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, if that interests you. I wouldn't recommend Treatise of Human Nature as 'beginner' stuff - I have tried and failed many times with that one.)
[

But its so good when you succeed - the enquiry just doesn't do it for me. Admittedly, I wouldn't recommend it to a beginner - but then, if you're a beginner I'd say stay away from Plato, Hegel, or Wittgenstein. Start with Russell and Descartes, maybe then go on to Hume, and after that, well, head on up ...

Reply 10

pedy1986

mellow-yellow

Why don't you read some political philosophy, rather than stuff concerning metaphysics and other matters that will have no relevance to what you interested in?

I would advise Johnaton Woolfs introduction to political philosophy, deals very well with many key issues.

Mills, On Liberty
Marx, communist manifesto etc (also relevant to history)
Fukayama, The End of History
Rousseau, The Social Contract

Modern theorists, such as Nozik and Rawls are much more difficult but worth at least learning about to have a basic grasp of their theories.

Reply 11

wanderer

corey

And Hobbe's Leviathian? Haven't read it so can't comment on accessibility, but it fits in with that list. Oh, and War and Peace is basically one big philosophy of history argument, if you're in the mood for something hefty. Its also an excellent read, surprisingly decent for a 'great novel.'

Reply 12

Reema

Political philosophy - I'm surprised no one has mentioned Marx. Do a little bit of reading around him (better than Hegel although he derives his ideas from him). Nevertheless, I'm not a big fan of him (used to be), but I put that down to personal preference and evolution of taste!

Thomas Paine - Rights of Man is good as well, classic defence of Liberalism. On Liberty is good too - and Rawls ("A Theory of Justice"). I find Rawls quite readable and interesting too...
I've had a quick flick through Leviathan - that doesn't seem too accessible for a beginner somehow :P. Try out some Locke if you want to have a crack at some of the oldies...

Reply 13

mellow-yellow

I have read some political philosophy already, especially Marx through studying Russian history. Thanks for the ideas for some more reading though - will definitely make sure I read much more political philosophy and at least try some of the harder stuff!

Just having a look on amazon jersey/marketplace now so i'll let you know the outcome. :smile:

Reply 14

pedy1986

mellow-yellow

A friend of mine, who stuided Russian History find studying the theory of marx allowed him a much better insight into how the view was distorted and in no sense did Russia actually follow Marx's teachings.

If you haven't already, learning about the whole 'public power losing its political character' , economic deterministic, historical materialism crap he talked about is very useful!

Reply 15

mellow-yellow

Managed to buy 8 books for £29 on Marketplace - pretty good I think!

Reply 16

coldfish

If you're into ethics and political philosophy then 'Notes from the Underground' by Dostoevsky is another example of a (short!) novel with loads of interesting stuff in. I need to re-read it sometime. :P