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HarryT · 11-11-2017, 02:38 PM

Is anyone interested in philosophy? It's one of the subjects I most enjoy reading about, particularly ancient and mediaeval philosophy, so I thought it might be of interest to have a thread for recommendations of, and discussions about, philosophy books.

If I had to pick one book to recommend, it would be Bertrand Russell's magnificent, idiosyncratic, flawed, but wonderfully witty and well-written "A History of Western Philosophy", the book which was largely responsible for his award of the Nobel Prize for Literature a few years after its publication. You can love it or hate it (and opinion in the academic world is split 50:50), but you can't ignore it. If you only ever read one philosophy book, this should be the one!

Somewhat more "balanced" surveys of the subject are Anthony Kenny's four-volume "A New History of Western Philosophy" (the title a homage to Russell), whose four volumes deal with ancient, mediaeval, pre-modern, and modern philosophy respectively, and Anthony Gottlieb's "The Dream of Reason" (the Greeks to the Renaissance) and "The Dream of Enlightenment" (the rise of modern philosophy). All great reads.

As far as reading the actual writings of philosophers go, I'm very much stuck in the ancient world, and my two favourites are THE two ancient masters: Plato and Aristotle. Fortunately both were liked by early Christian theologians, so, unlike most ancient writers, we have a great deal of their work. We have probably everything that Plato wrote, and much (but not all) of Aristotle. Plato wrote flowing dialogues, but what we have of Aristotle is probably the lecture notes he used for teaching in his philosophical school in Athens, so it's rather terse and challenging.

Anyone else interested in this topic, or am I alone in finding the subject fascinating?

11-11-2017, 02:38 PM	#1
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,549 Karma: 93383099 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	Philosophy Books Is anyone interested in philosophy? It's one of the subjects I most enjoy reading about, particularly ancient and mediaeval philosophy, so I thought it might be of interest to have a thread for recommendations of, and discussions about, philosophy books. If I had to pick one book to recommend, it would be Bertrand Russell's magnificent, idiosyncratic, flawed, but wonderfully witty and well-written "A History of Western Philosophy", the book which was largely responsible for his award of the Nobel Prize for Literature a few years after its publication. You can love it or hate it (and opinion in the academic world is split 50:50), but you can't ignore it. If you only ever read one philosophy book, this should be the one! Somewhat more "balanced" surveys of the subject are Anthony Kenny's four-volume "A New History of Western Philosophy" (the title a homage to Russell), whose four volumes deal with ancient, mediaeval, pre-modern, and modern philosophy respectively, and Anthony Gottlieb's "The Dream of Reason" (the Greeks to the Renaissance) and "The Dream of Enlightenment" (the rise of modern philosophy). All great reads. As far as reading the actual writings of philosophers go, I'm very much stuck in the ancient world, and my two favourites are THE two ancient masters: Plato and Aristotle. Fortunately both were liked by early Christian theologians, so, unlike most ancient writers, we have a great deal of their work. We have probably everything that Plato wrote, and much (but not all) of Aristotle. Plato wrote flowing dialogues, but what we have of Aristotle is probably the lecture notes he used for teaching in his philosophical school in Athens, so it's rather terse and challenging. Anyone else interested in this topic, or am I alone in finding the subject fascinating?