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Ask HN: Best Philosophical Books?

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Re: Ask HN: Best Philosophical Books?

#131

Post by AmaroqWolf »

dmfdmf wrote: post #8

"The Virtue of Selfishness" "Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal" "Philosophy: Who Needs It" "Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology" All by Ayn Rand. Whether you end up agreeing with her or not, she will definitely will make you think.

I'm currently pursuing Rand's philosophy. Her nonfictions are very valuable because they comprise the philosophy itself. But Peikoff's books and lectures about Objectivism are also extremely valuable.

He had to overcome a lot of bad thinking habits to gain a genuine understanding of Objectivism and he is in a good position to help others get past those roadblocks.

Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand is useful to help you integrate Rand's philosophy into a mental hierarchy, and his courses Understanding Objectivism and Objectivism Through Induction are useful to help you prove Objectivism to yourself, so you can see how Rand's philosophy really is connected to reality and pertains to your life.

Re: Ask HN: Best Philosophical Books?

#132

Post by cma »

mindviews wrote: post #42

Given that philosophy as practiced in academia is as much about creating arguments as about the ideas themselves, I suggest "The Philosopher's Toolkit" as a useful reference. For what I'll call "hard philosophy" I put my votes for books by Hilary Putnam and John Dewey. As a rationalist seeking a solid basis for ethics in the physical world, I've found both authors quite instructive. Perhaps "Objectivity" by Nicholas…

What are your Dewey recommendations?

Re: Ask HN: Best Philosophical Books?

#134

Post by cma »

helwr wrote: post #25

Hirshman, Exit, Voice, and Loyalty Camus, the myth of Sisyphus Borges, the Aleph Chomsky, on Language Cicero, On Invention Marcus Aurelius, Meditations Wiener, Cybernetics James, Pragmatism Tzara, Dada manifesto

re: Cybernetics, a better start is probably Wiener's The Human Use Of Human Beings: Cybernetics And Society

Re: Ask HN: Best Philosophical Books?

#135

Post by danielford »

DanielBMarkham wrote: post #89
danielford wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but you still dicked up the quote. Footnotes and mothers are not synonymous, much to the relief of both.

For the anal-retentive among you. It would be footnotes and children are not synonymous. Not footnotes and mothers. Philosophy generates science. Western philosophy is a footnote. Your transitives are mixed up. You can generalize and say "philosophy and science are derived from Greek works, which are still relevant" and help this guy out, or we can play word games. I could give a shit what the actual quote was. My go…

Sorry, I really didn't need to be so rude. That said, I think getting quotes right is important if you're going to use them. Otherwise you're contributing to sum total of misinformation in the world.

Re: Ask HN: Best Philosophical Books?

#136

Post by jsc »

hh wrote: post #70
ulvund wrote: post #17

I would not recommend any compilations of philosophy. The great thing about philosophy is reading the rationales and the results, not only the results. "Ricard+Revel - The Monk and the Philosopher" http://www.amazon.com/Monk-Philosopher-Father-Discuss-Meanin... "Socrates(/Plato) - The Allegory of the Cave" http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/allegory.html "Plato(/Socrates/others) - Symposium" http://www.amazon.com/…

I absolutely agree that The Monk and the Philosopher is one of the best book. A frank discussion between a father and son who both have PhD. Every interesting book.

Actually Jean-Francois Revel did not have a PhD (he explains why in his autobiography "Le voleur dans la maison vide").

Re: Ask HN: Best Philosophical Books?

#137

Post by kleevr »

baddox wrote: post #44
jrp wrote: post #2

I don't know if it counts as a serious philosophy book, but I really enjoyed Godel, Escher, Bach. Math, computers, consciousness, etc. I'm currently reading Reasons and Persons. Thought experiments and discussion about how personal identity works under, eg, transporter copies.

I think many readers will be surprised at how accessible "Gödel, Escher, Bach" actually is. I'm not an expert at anything: I have no work experience and maybe two serious computer science courses under my belt, but GEB really satisfies an intellectual curiosity I've had for years. I'm 550 pages in (out of about 750 pages) and with the exception of the two chapters discussing the anatomy of the human brain (a subject…

> (out of about 750 pages)

Come on, it's 777 pages for a reason! :)

When I realized the page count (purposefully) included the index I was quite tickled. So many gems, little and large...

Re: Ask HN: Best Philosophical Books?

#138

Post by MWinther »

jrp wrote: post #2

I don't know if it counts as a serious philosophy book, but I really enjoyed Godel, Escher, Bach. Math, computers, consciousness, etc. I'm currently reading Reasons and Persons. Thought experiments and discussion about how personal identity works under, eg, transporter copies.

I bought GEB when I was 13, mostly because I liked the Escher paintings. I was hooked after reading the first Achilles/Turtle episode, though, and even though many concepts went over my head at the time. I still haven't read it cover to cover, though, but I still have a hard time not agreeing with this particular recommendation.

Re: Ask HN: Best Philosophical Books?

#140

Post by MWinther »

I took a course in philosophy during my Cognitive Science studies, and our course book (http://www.amazon.com/Philosophy-Mind-Anthology-John-Heil/dp...) was really useful, since they had an original text and a couple of criticisms of that text, sometimes followed by a retort on that criticism. That was really good to get a grasp of the subject, even though I agree with others here that having an excellent teacher did a lot more to get the subject than any book would have.
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