How to begin learning philosophy?

[Sacred_Flame]

I'm currently laying out the beginning of what will be a large and time consuming project.

Currently, I'm attempting to learn philosophy by myself (for the time being at the moment), but I don't exactly know where or what exactly is the best way to start this daunting task. I'm reading this book that give the bare basis of several famous philosophers, but it doesn't seem like it's the best way to go about this.

So the question I pose is: What texts, websites, or anything that would aid in my quest would you recommend?

Thanks

 

[AWAR]

I've used Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. It's like wikipedia and it's a good place to start if you're a beginner.

 

[Blitsie]

Just finished first year philosophy at my University. My best advice I can give is:

Definitely get direction as quickly as possible, since its a pretty freaking big subject (psychology, medicine and even maths was a philosophy at first if I'm not mistaken).

Bookmark that Stanford link above me, it's got everything ranging from technical terms (philosophy is filled with that, especially Aristotle with his telos, polis and all other weird terms) to definitions about complex concepts and whole theories and stories (like the allegory of the cave and such, look that one up, very interesting).

If you're interested in moral and political philosophy or just need a push in some direction, get Sandel's "Justice: What is the right thing to do?" book, we basically studied the whole thing in our second semester and it was bananas. You learn lots of things ranging from Utilitarianism (and other theories and all their criticisms) to viewpoints on affirmative action to patriotism and so on and so on. His lectures are also free on Itunes U if you're interested (be sure to spot spider man in the crowd)

All in all, good luck, Philosophy isn't the easiest thing out there to study but definitely one of the more interesting subjects you can sink time into.

 

[Spiridion]

Basically everything that's already been said. I've had professors to guide me through what I understand of philosophy so I can't really comment on the nest ways to go about learning on your own. Assuming you're from a Western nation, Western philosophy is probably a good general area to start in since you're likely to have more familiarity with the ideas and will be able to see how they've influenced society around you. Probably largely because I learned in a university setting, I've found it can also be helpful to tackle one or two divisions of study at a time. There's always some overlap, but it can be helpful if you look at the different things, I dunno, Socrates/Plato, Kant, and Nietzsche each have to say about ethics specifically since it refines the information, somewhat. The seven branches being: Metaphysics: the study of reality; Epistemology: the study of knowledge/truth; Logic: studying teh correct principles of reasoning; Axiology: studying the roles of values; Ethics: studying concepts of good/bad, right/wrong; Political: studying ways to organize the human herd; and Aesthetics: studies sense perceptions.

Other than that the advise I would give is approach a new philosopher under the assumption that they're right. Or rather, don't render your own value judgments on their ideas until you have a good grasp of their methods, values, and framework. Really try to understand what/how/why they're saying what they're saying before before you decide whether it is or is not applicable to your life.

 

[SweetShark]

Ok.......this is not a serious answer I will give, so please don't report me for this reason.
Thank you.

My suggestion.....go play this game:

Socrates Jones: Pro Philosopher

In this game you literally meet very well-known philosophers from many different time periods seeking an answer for the solution of morality.
The gameplay involve you trying to "break" their theorists.

It is very enjoyable,humorous and strangely enough, VERY informative.

 

[Neta]

My favourite branches of philosophy are logic and critical thinking.

I strongly, strongly urge absolutely EVERYONE to learn about critical thinking. In this day and age, it's needed more than ever.

 

[Amethyst Wind]

As a philosophy graduate (who has unfortunately forgotten who pioneered which school of thought, but still remembers some names and some schools), I'd recommend Nietzsche, Sartre, Descartes, Kafka and Aristotle (his approach is more faceted than his teacher, Plato). I'd say stick to European continental philosophy for the western world, Anglo-American schools of philosophy tend to be very dry and move away from context in favour of systems.

I unfortunately know very little of Eastern philosophy, so go nuts there.

 

[rutger5000]

True wisdom starts with the realization that one knows nothing, and never can know anything.
There can never be a proven link to reality and what you precieve as reality.
From there, there are literally an infinite number of paths to venture further.
You could start studying science, which should be practiced as a form of philosphy.
You could ponder the meaning of existence.
You could try to find the nature of morality. (you'll fail, but it never hurts to try or get an answer for yourself)
etc etc etc etc.

 

[rutger5000]

Ok.......this is not a serious answer I will give, so please don't report me for this reason.
Thank you.

My suggestion.....go play this game:

Socrates Jones: Pro Philosopher

In this game you literally meet very well-known philosophers from many different time periods seeking an answer for the solution of morality.
The gameplay involve you trying to "break" their theorists.

It is very enjoyable,humorous and strangely enough, VERY informative.

I played the game too, and it helped me find an answer on the nature of morality that I personally found very satisfying.

 

[maxben]

As a philosophy graduate (who has unfortunately forgotten who pioneered which school of thought, but still remembers some names and some schools), I'd recommend Nietzsche, Sartre, Descartes, Kafka and Aristotle (his approach is more faceted than his teacher, Plato). I'd say stick to European continental philosophy for the western world, Anglo-American schools of philosophy tend to be very dry and move away from context in favour of systems.

I unfortunately know very little of Eastern philosophy, so go nuts there.

You continentals... sure anglo philosophy is dry but only because continental philosophy is needlessly complex. I mean, you guys jump from idea to idea to idea, and it never seems like you look at any particular thing with enough rigor. Worse, you build a house of cards where you continuously build on one idea until you have an encompassing theory that fully depends on one idea. Once you pull that away, the whole thing collapses. If I don't accept that consciousness is consciousness of something, then all Phenomenologists go out the window and therefore all Existentialists.

OP, let me give you examples from the Anglo side of things. Bertrand Russel is absolutely amazing. Looking at anything he has written or done you can have a lot of fun playing with really powerful logical arguments. GE Moore is also a good choice. These two represents the core of the analytic tradition, and once you get a good sense of the kinds of arguments that they make the newer philosophers will make more sense.

 

[Brown Cap]

Some rudimentary steps include some articles on solipsism and existentialism.

If this stuff is interesting to you, then maybe continue pursuit on a more academic level.
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/existentialism/
http://www.iep.utm.edu/solipsis/

 

[renegade7]

I'm currently laying out the beginning of what will be a large and time consuming project.

Currently, I'm attempting to learn philosophy by myself (for the time being at the moment), but I don't exactly know where or what exactly is the best way to start this daunting task. I'm reading this book that give the bare basis of several famous philosophers, but it doesn't seem like it's the best way to go about this.

So the question I pose is: What texts, websites, or anything that would aid in my quest would you recommend?

Thanks

If you have time (like a couple hours per week), I recommend looking for a philosophy module on Coursera. There is almost always some introductory philosophy/anthropology related content, since I started using Coursera in Summer there have already been a number of intro to philosophy modules, the content might still be available for access.

 

[CloudAtlas]

I'm currently laying out the beginning of what will be a large and time consuming project.

Currently, I'm attempting to learn philosophy by myself (for the time being at the moment), but I don't exactly know where or what exactly is the best way to start this daunting task. I'm reading this book that give the bare basis of several famous philosophers, but it doesn't seem like it's the best way to go about this.

So the question I pose is: What texts, websites, or anything that would aid in my quest would you recommend?

Thanks

You could start by studying Moral Philosophy. It's relevant for society, will improve your understanding of many important political debates of our time, it's relatively easily accessible, understandable, and practical (in the sense that you can use its insights to make better moral decisions yourself, refine your political views, and so on).
If you do that, you'll meet many famous philosophers on the way and can start digging deeper into their respective ideas if you find them interesting.

And for Moral Philosophy, the arguably best introduction (definitely the most well-known anyway) is Michael Sandel's "Justice". Either in book form or for free as online videos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBdfcR-8hEY

 

[beyondbrainmatter]

I'm currently laying out the beginning of what will be a large and time consuming project.

Currently, I'm attempting to learn philosophy by myself (for the time being at the moment), but I don't exactly know where or what exactly is the best way to start this daunting task. I'm reading this book that give the bare basis of several famous philosophers, but it doesn't seem like it's the best way to go about this.

So the question I pose is: What texts, websites, or anything that would aid in my quest would you recommend?

Thanks

So, what do you want to learn? Do you want to learn about intellectual history or do you want to learn how to philosophise? If you want to learn about the history of philsophy, I suggest starting with the ancients: Plato's dialogues about the trial of Socrates (Eutyphro, Apology, Crito, Phaedo). I also suggest putting Plato on hold after reading those (unless you feel strongly about some or the other supposed transcendental realm where ideas or "Ideas" "exist"), and continuing with Xenophons Socratic dialogues if you want to learn more about Socrates.

In any case, modern philosophy starts with Descartes, so his Meditations might be worth a look. Reading Kant is important if one wants to understand what the German idealists are on about (Fichte, Hegel, Schelling), while Schopenhauer has a neat summary of Kants philosophy in his Parerga und Paralipomena.

If you want to understand phenomenology, I suggest stating with Brentano and Merleau-Ponty (on to gestalt psychology with Kohler, Koffka and Wertheimer) and Husserl, if you want to go the Heidegger route.

Finally, when it comes to philosophy of science, Kuhn would be the one to read (continuing on with sociological analyses of scientific communities). If you want to delve into the philosophy of science itself, continuing with Popper and Feyerabend would be the way to go.