Does anyone else read philosophy for fun?

[Virginiaisforlovers]

Or am I just weird? One of my favourite things even as a heathen scientist ;) is to read some of the old philosopher's works. My personal favourite just due to the sheer lack of sentence structure is Kant. Does anyone else have this obsession?

[thegreenheartofmanyroundabouts]

I had to study some of the real oldies at uni - Locke, Hume, Descartes but these days I find myself drawn to post modern French philosophers. Oh er.

[GhostOfTheRobot]

Does Michel de Montaigne (sp?) count? I really enjoyed his literature. Think he was 15th century but a bit hazy on that!
Also enjoyed Marcus Aurelius' writings.
I need to get back to that sort of writing.

[Virginiaisforlovers]

I haven't read anything by Michel de Montaigne, I will look into him. For me it's a very amateur thing I have no formal education in philosophy but I like reading about how people think more than anything. But I've always preferred non-fiction to fiction books anyway.

[GhostOfTheRobot]

Me too, Virginia. I just read what takes my fancy. I've got Plato but find it hard to dip in and out (need dip in and out with two preschoolers) so mostly it's shorter stuff at the moment.
I also like reading about Buddha. He made a lot of sense.
Slightly a lot off topic, but Mary Wollstonecraft (Shelley) wrote some darn good womens rights lit. Think its called 'A vindication for the rights of women'. Quite brilliant & philosophical about the future.

History offers up some fantastic stuff! I love obscure stuff.

[larabanana]

Thoreau is my favourite!

[themaltesecat]

A minor correction, GhostoftheRobot. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman was written by the feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, who was the mother of Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (later Mary Shelley). I agree, it's a cracking read.

I love Dostoevsky (more a psychologist than a philosopher, perhaps- but Nietszche called him his greatest teacher) , Camus and a bit of Voltaire. Will look into the other philosophers mentioned here.

[nlondondad]

I also read philosophy for pleasure: I am struck that the OP's favourite is Kant, as frankly he can be really hard, tho' not so much of a challenge as Hegel. If you like Kant have you tried Schopenhauer?

Also, if anyone is in the Crouch End region of London, I facilitate a weekly learning circle in Philosophy, which meets every Thursday at 11 am in Hornsey Library...

[Wuldric]

This is slightly odd and also slightly tangential, but my bathside book is A History of Western Philosophy. It is quite screamingly funny. I don't think anyone has fully explored the comic side of Bertrand Russell. There must be a phd in that