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Knowledge politics.

I'm putting together a reading list, to help expand my outlook and knowledge in areas such as politics, philosophy and economics, so can you recommend me three books to read please?

Thanks

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Reply 1
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Giovi
OP
Anyone? No good books to read?
Newspapers :yes:

Very Short Introductions

People also need to know what level you're at now to say precisely.
Reply 3
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Giovi
OP
Original post by PythianLegume
Newspapers :yes:

Very Short Introductions

People also need to know what level you're at now to say precisely.


I read the observer and the times, the FT and the economist. I'm doing A levels and and well versed in history and economics, I've been interested in politics for two years now, watching the news regularly and competing in a debating team.
Original post by Giovi
I read the observer and the times, the FT and the economist. I'm doing A levels and and well versed in history and economics, I've been interested in politics for two years now, watching the news regularly and competing in a debating team.


Definitely Very Short Introductions, then.
Reply 5
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Giovi
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Original post by PythianLegume
Definitely Very Short Introductions, then.


Thanks :h:
looks good
(edited 10 years ago)
Original post by Giovi
I'm putting together a reading list, to help expand my outlook and knowledge in areas such as politics, philosophy and economics, so can you recommend me three books to read please?

Thanks

Spoiler



University reading lists are usually helpful in this regard, e.g. the attached document.

I would try, insofar as it's possible, to resist entering into and pursuing a particular orientation, methodology or whatever; try and read as widely as possible.

Two good introductions to contemporary analytic political philosophy, are: Kymlicka's Contemporary Political Philosophy, and Wolff's An Introduction to Political Philosophy. Within the analytic canon, I would also recommend John Rawls' lectures on moral and political philosophy, though these are more substantive than the two aforementioned, explicitly introductory books.
In terms of continental philosophy, I would recommend - if only for clarity of writing, although the works are brilliant in their own right - the work of Raymond Geuss (probably Philosophy and Real Politics), Sartre's Existentialism and Humanism (though if you don't want to buy the book, this lecture might suffice as a substitute), and some - though I don't know which - introductory work on Foucault.
I would also caution against being absorbed into orthodox (neoclassical) economics, and believing that this way of understanding economic relations is the only, true or best way of doing so; by way of antidote, read some political economy and, specifically, some Marx.
Philosophical Canon_Cambridge Reading List.pdf65.8KB
Oh, and I would also strongly recommend this introductory text.

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