Philosophy - Introductions
There are many
introductions to philosophy and they all incorporate some general conception
of what philosophy is supposed to be, aim at, and produce.
My own general conception of philosophy is
realistic and analytic - by which I mean that I presume that
there is one reality in which all things that exist do exist and that the
generally best way to philosophize and try to find rational beliefs is by
logical analysis. A brief introduction is in my
Natural Philosophy.
Given this general conception, here are four items that I found very helpful
as introductions to philosophy. The first four are general introductions in one
volume and readable by anyone with a decent mind:
-
Klausner - Kuntz:
Philosophy - The study of alternative beliefs
-
David Hawkins: The
language of nature
-
Bertrand
Russell: History of Western Philosophy
-
Bertrand
Russell:
Problems of Philosophy
There is an edition of
Problems of Philosophy
on this site, with my notes.
The other two are also
general introductions but in quite a few volumes. They also presume some
interest in and/or knowledge of basic mathematical logic, though the first
volumes of Stegmüller also explain this topic:
- Wolfgang
Stegmüller: Probleme und
Resultate der Wissenschaftstheorie und Analytische Philosophie
- Mario
Bunge: Treatise on Basic
Philosophy
The first is German and comes either in 4
thick volumes or some 30-odd thin ones for students, called "Studienausgabe"
in German. I have been told it has all been translated into English, but I
never saw that edition.
The second is English and by a theoretical
physicist. It comes in some 10 volumes and requires some knowledge of and
facility with basic mathematical logic (or abstract algebra, if you studied
mathematics).
For those interested in politics in a
somewhat rational and reasoned way, there is a list of books with reasons why
that includes rather a lot of fundamental social philosophy
Maarten Maartensz
last update:
31 July, 2004