Philosophy

Albert Camus

George Berkeley

If you buy a book called 'Sophie's World' you will get an overview of Western philosophy written in an intriguing and informative way, so that you can decide your favourites. It's by a Swedish author and is aimed at teenagers but I found it a good read and I was in my forties.

Try The Philosopher's Handbook: Essential Readings from Plato to Kant edited by Stanley Rosen.

It includes selections from Aristotle, Augustine, Descartes, Dewey, Hegel, Hobbes, Hume, Kant, Kierkegaard, Leibniz, Nietzsche, Plato, and Wittgenstein, among others.

Best part about it: it's a monsterous 620 pages for a mere $14.95, probably even much cheaper if you find a used copy.

thanks guys

For more recent philosophers, MacIntyre's work is certainly interesting.

What about John Locke???

John Locke was an empiricist.

Woody Allen.

Also included in the volume I recommend above. :wink:

And I should have added at the time: the point of browsing a volume like that is less about sitting down and reading it cover-to-cover as such, as much as seeing what some of these guys are like to read. Case in point: I'll warn you right now, Nietzsche is arguably the most accessible, easiest philosopher to read. Not that he's necessarily easy to understand, but in terms of 'enjoyable literature', he's virtually unsurpassed when compared to other philosophers - Plato being perhaps the only exception. Most of the other chaps are going to be much dryer and academic in pace and style. Seeing a nice overview of the different writing styles in philosophy will allow you to determine which ones you'd like to try reading.

Especially Kant.

I would offer the opinion that reading Plato is only for historical perspective, not something to take seriously.

Dyslexia is quite anti-platonic/aristotelian. :wink:

yes he is. the bane of western civilization.

Plato can pretty much kiss my ass too. Socrates, however, must be dealt with in full seriousness. That's the real fruit of Plato.

And yes, Ray, Kant is exactly who I had in mind above.

Nietzsche, Kant, Wittgenstein, (love those germans)
Also, personal favorites of a more contemporary nature, Rand and LaVey.

lol Kant is always on the list of complex and at times frustrating read.

BTW if you want to read the Hellenistic and Roman works, Plutarch and Epictetus are great.

try Bill O'reilly, he is one of the top philosophers of all time...

Hmmm... tricky question. If you mean "interested in philosophy", meaning that you enjoy the thinking, you shouldn't read any books by any philosophers. It'd only pollute your capacity for free thought.

On the other hand, if you mean "interested" in the way we usually do, for satiation- filling empty hours, then the old greeks are fun. A bit of advice though. Don't take it too seriously, or you'll become a jukebox for old philosophical phrases.