Philosophy

[krusen]

Blake brought up the subject of philosophy some time back. I'm one of those people who likes to talk about that stuff after downing a few beers, but have never taken a course in it, or read any books about it.
I recently bought The Art of Happiness by the Dalai Llama (sp?) I haven't got to read it yet, but I was wondering if anybody had some recommendations on which books would be good starters in both eastern and western philosophy. I'm looking for something that is a good read (not too dry).

[distantdg]

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0199264791/ref=pd_sxp_elt_l1/103-9488811-8800647?n=283155 this book is ok for getting you going in the right direction

[Smyith]

i am a huge fan of asian philosophy and probably one of my favorites is The Tao of Pooh and The Te of Pigglet when you read this it is very key if you get confused to stop and re-read the chapter and if it still doesn't click in the head compeletely restart the book.

i am currently in a intro to philo class and for the most part what we study almost anybody can come up with without having any philosophy knowledge. anyway im into alot of the nature type shit and apparently aristotle is all about that so i cant wait to get to that part.

[mothrows]

Try out The "Fountainhead" by Ayn Rand. I don't really agree with much of anything in her philosophy but it is a great read.

[Weebl]

I recently discovered the Tao of Pooh and it's fantastic, I'm currently reading Thich Nhat Hanh: The Miracle of Mindfulness.

[TexasOutlaw]

I took philosophy in college and much was also covered in upper level history classes (the non-required ones). I wish I had kept a list of all the books I read.

I remember more individual philosophies than books.

[Glock23]

I am a big Ayn Rand fan, I would reccomend any of her books. The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged really give a great commentary on man and how he views himself & the world. They are both easy to read, but are large books. You can get the Fountainhead on mp3 cd, and it is 35 hours. You can rip it to your mp3 and listen to it on the course,

[Blake_T]

my only wish with ayn rand would be that only people who can "get it" would be allowed to read it.

i've known dozens of people that used rand's works to justify why it's okay to screw people over and have no compassion.

it's a method of twisting i've often paralleled to hitler's manipulation of nietzsche's overman.

[calvarycoffee]

i work at a college and i found a philosopy textbook a few days ago. being bored, i started reading it. very interesting stuff.

think i will dig this philosopy thing. . .

dave

[some call me...tim?]

I was a philosophy major in college, and have read a fair amount of it.

There's a real divergence between eastern and western philosophy...more that they share the same name than any of their thinking. Eastern is more into finding your "life path" so to speak (it can also be lumped into religion) and western is more about trying to prove or disprove certain aspects of life (existence, ethics, god, etc.)

I was more into the eastern stuff myself, maybe because it felt like it had more life application, but the western stuff can be interesting too.

Some good reading:

Tao te ching (there's lots and lots of translations of this, probably Stephen Mitchell's is one of the most faithful and accessible though)

There was a book I read in an entry level course that was really good...I think it was simply called "The World's Religions" by Huston Smith. He does a good job of covering everything, but I was really taken with his explanations of Taoism and Buddhism.

As for western stuff, "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" is a classic. Also "Thus spake Zarathrustra" by Nietzsche is a famous one, never read it though. Oh another classic is "The Prince" by Machiavelli...I guess it's more political philosophy than anything else, but it details how to be conniving bastard and get your way with things. Its definitely provided justification for selfish acts in the past.

[Fritz]

I was a big fan of Surfing the Himalayas & Snowboarding to Nirvana books ( http://www.himalaya.com/ ). Also the Art of Happines was good, I'm half way thru and like it so far.

I'm gonna have to check out that pooh and piglet book.

[rehder]

@Timbuktwhom

Ive always perceived philosophy basically as "knowledge about knowledge" This is maybe too simplified, and it might apply to western philosophy more than eastern. I have not really worked with eastern philosphy, but mainly in late french and german philosphy.