Philosophy for Beginners

[Wannabestepfordwife]

I’ve always been interested in philosophy and watching “The good place” on Netflix has really reignited my interest.

Can anyone recommend some good books to read? Or would anyone like to give a crash course in philosophy

I like the Alan Watts atm.

Also the book: Tao Te Ching

www.amazon.co.uk/Tao-Te-Ching-Lao-Tzu/dp/1484090748/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=tao+te+ching+book&tag=mumsnetforum-21&ie=UTF8&qid=1519485530&sr=8-1

Thank you will get that ordered

Wayne Dyers interpretation of the Tao de Ching is very good.

The very short introduction books are good. Do you know what sort of philosophy you are interested it as it is a very broad subject? In the western tradition there is classical philosophy (Aristotle, Plato, Socrates etc), ethics, metaphysics, the enlightenment philosophers) Locke, Hume, Berkeley etc), the continental philosophers, post modern philosophy, knowledge (epistemology) and then all the Eastern philosophies.

Have a look at Crash Course - free online videos about lots of academic topics. Just been doing the philosophy one with my daughter. They're excellent.

I've studied all but one of these and it still makes me laugh 'The Philosopher's Song'. m.youtube.com/watch?v=l9SqQNgDrgg

If you are looking for something light, you could try the novel-cum-history-of-philosophy Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder. It was originally written with teenagers in mind. I’m not sure it entirely succeeds as a story, but it certainly gives you a not-too-intellectually-demanding overview of the history of philosophical ideas.

And then there’s Bertrand Russell’s History of Western Philosophy. It ploughs a similar furrow but requires rather more stamina than Sophie’s World.

If you have a particular interest in moral philosophy, you might like to dip into the writings of Richard Holloway, a former cleric whose wisdom, honesty and humour I value. Godless Morality: keeping religion out of ethics was written whilst he was Bishop of Edinburgh - and caused some controversy, as you might imagine!

Thank you for all your suggestions I came across Sophie’s World at a random book sale so took that as a sign I was meant to read it. It works well as a beginners guide but my goodness does it get weird as a novel.

Will try Betrand Russell next

Good to hear of your serendipitous find Wannabestepfordwife! (Good name, by the way.)

You can actually have a look at Russell's book on-line for free. (Print quality not that great though.)

www.archive.org/stream/TheHistoryOfWesternPhilosophy/HistoryOfWesternPhilosophy-BertrandRussell#page/n0/mode/2up

Another vote for History of Western Philosophy.

The Good Place is very much about ethics, you could try After Virtue by Alasdair MacIntyre.

Also Zen Flesh, Zen Bones by Paul Reps.

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