If you don’t have much experience with philosophy, I would not recommend starting with anything postmodernist, or anything along those lines. Before bothering to try to understand what those folks are up to (not much, in my opinion) you might as well look at more worthwhile stuff, like:
Logic. Learn sentential (propositional), predicate, and modal logic. Learn how the recursion theorem guarantees a function to exist which maps freely-generated syntax to semantics.
Ancient. Read some (Socrates) Plato / Aristotle. “The trial and death of Socrates” plus the Republic is a good package of Plato, and Nicomachean Ethics is enough Aristotle.
American. Read everything by Emerson, and some Peirce and James. Also Wittgenstein—he counts.
Contemporary. Dennett is always a good read. Also probably some other stuff.
Existentialists. I’m not quite sure what they’re doing, but it’s weirdly thought-provoking. Read whatever Nietzsche you’d like (other than Will to Power), some Sartre, and whatever else falls off the shelf. Now you’re getting dangerously close to postmodernism, so expect a lot of it to not make any sense.
Utter nonsense. If you’re serious about taking postmodernism seriously, you need to read a lot of their forerunners. Hegel, Marx, and Heidegger are particularly bad examples. You can skip Marx, since practically everything he said about economics was wrong, and everything he said about anything else was already said better by Hegel.
Postmodernism. Feel free to complete the descent into madness by reading actual postmodernism, or just read whatever shows up here. Also consider looking in the dark places of the world, invoking the True Name of one of the elder gods, and ripping the skin off your flesh with your fingernails while blood eyeballs leak from the ceiling ichor Nyogtha permeates my face
The Will to Power is a posthumous publication of some of Nietzsche’s notes ordered, selected and occasionally revised by his nationalistic and anti-semitic sister. It’s widely thought to be not at all representative of anything he believed.
It’s funny. I think this list is probably both overkill and underkill. No Hume?!?!?!
You can skip Marx, since practically everything he said about economics was wrong, and everything he said about anything else was already said better by Hegel.
Nothing ever said by someone other than Hegel was better said by Hegel.
Also, Heidegger was an existentialist and Sartre just took his stuff and watered it down.
Also, Heidegger was an existentialist and Sartre just took his stuff and watered it down.
I’m pretty sure Heidegger asserted that he was not an existentialist (and that he was an existentialist), and he specifically said that Sartre got him entirely wrong. Though when I actually go back to find such claims, I find very few places where Heidegger actually seems to be expressing a proposition. But then, I read English translations—we all know German philosophers make more sense in the original French. And Sartre said some things that had nothing to do with Heidegger.
Nothing ever said by someone other than Hegel was better said by Hegel.
I agree with the sentiment, but a study of some Hegelians should demonstrate otherwise.
No Hume?!?!?!
What in Hume is valuable? If you want to read interesting stuff about causality, read Judea Pearl. I didn’t think a section on political philosophy led down the right road (for humor), and I’d recommend Locke and Mill before Hume. For empiricism, the Pragmatists really should do well enough. And surely you wouldn’t want people reading Hume directly in order to understand economics? What else is there?
The phenomenalism, the argument against induction, and frankly giving Judea Pearl’s book to someone who has barely even thought about causality is a little ridiculous. Hume is a far more manageable, math-free introduction. Then there is the classic response to the Watchmaker argument, written before Darwin. People here should be familiar with Hume, if only as an intellectual forbearer.
If you don’t have much experience with philosophy, I would not recommend starting with anything postmodernist, or anything along those lines. Before bothering to try to understand what those folks are up to (not much, in my opinion) you might as well look at more worthwhile stuff, like:
Logic. Learn sentential (propositional), predicate, and modal logic. Learn how the recursion theorem guarantees a function to exist which maps freely-generated syntax to semantics.
Ancient. Read some (Socrates) Plato / Aristotle. “The trial and death of Socrates” plus the Republic is a good package of Plato, and Nicomachean Ethics is enough Aristotle.
American. Read everything by Emerson, and some Peirce and James. Also Wittgenstein—he counts.
Contemporary. Dennett is always a good read. Also probably some other stuff.
Existentialists. I’m not quite sure what they’re doing, but it’s weirdly thought-provoking. Read whatever Nietzsche you’d like (other than Will to Power), some Sartre, and whatever else falls off the shelf. Now you’re getting dangerously close to postmodernism, so expect a lot of it to not make any sense.
Utter nonsense. If you’re serious about taking postmodernism seriously, you need to read a lot of their forerunners. Hegel, Marx, and Heidegger are particularly bad examples. You can skip Marx, since practically everything he said about economics was wrong, and everything he said about anything else was already said better by Hegel.
Postmodernism. Feel free to complete the descent into madness by reading actual postmodernism, or just read whatever shows up here. Also consider looking in the dark places of the world, invoking the True Name of one of the elder gods, and ripping the skin off your flesh with your fingernails while blood eyeballs leak from the ceiling ichor Nyogtha permeates my face
Why do you single out the Will to Power among Nietzsche’s works?
The Will to Power is a posthumous publication of some of Nietzsche’s notes ordered, selected and occasionally revised by his nationalistic and anti-semitic sister. It’s widely thought to be not at all representative of anything he believed.
Yes, what Jack said exactly.
It’s funny. I think this list is probably both overkill and underkill. No Hume?!?!?!
Nothing ever said by someone other than Hegel was better said by Hegel.
Also, Heidegger was an existentialist and Sartre just took his stuff and watered it down.
I’m pretty sure Heidegger asserted that he was not an existentialist (and that he was an existentialist), and he specifically said that Sartre got him entirely wrong. Though when I actually go back to find such claims, I find very few places where Heidegger actually seems to be expressing a proposition. But then, I read English translations—we all know German philosophers make more sense in the original French. And Sartre said some things that had nothing to do with Heidegger.
I agree with the sentiment, but a study of some Hegelians should demonstrate otherwise.
What in Hume is valuable? If you want to read interesting stuff about causality, read Judea Pearl. I didn’t think a section on political philosophy led down the right road (for humor), and I’d recommend Locke and Mill before Hume. For empiricism, the Pragmatists really should do well enough. And surely you wouldn’t want people reading Hume directly in order to understand economics? What else is there?
The phenomenalism, the argument against induction, and frankly giving Judea Pearl’s book to someone who has barely even thought about causality is a little ridiculous. Hume is a far more manageable, math-free introduction. Then there is the classic response to the Watchmaker argument, written before Darwin. People here should be familiar with Hume, if only as an intellectual forbearer.
Thank you very much for this Tom.