Political Crossfire Forums

kowalski · Joined: 01 Aug 2006 Posts: 1

Hey, does anyone know of any good Intro to philosophy books?

thanks for help!

LostSoul3412 · Joined: 11 Feb 2005 Posts: 7781

"Philosophy" is a very broad term. There are many books on certain philosophies, but the only books on "Philosophy" itself are textbooks.

Anarko-Kapitalizt · Joined: 21 May 2005 Posts: 2517

Are there any certain areas of philosophy you're interested in or are you just wanting an introduction into general philosophy?

bigstick61 · Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2006 1:59 am Post subject:

Well, in the case of political philosophy, good books I've read and own have been "The Nichomachean Ethics" and "The Politics" by Aristotle, "The Republic" by Plato, "The Leviathan" by Hobbes, "Democracy in America" by Alexis de Tocqueville, "On Liberty" by John Stuart Mill, "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity" by Fitzjames Stephen, "Common Sense" and "The Rights of Man" by Thomas Paine, "Two Treatises on Government and a Letter Concerning Toleration" by John Locke, "The Prince" by Niccolo Machiavelli, "The Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations" by Adam Smith, "On the Social Contract" by Jean Jacques Rousseau, and a couple of works by Voltaire and Montesqeiu. Also, a good book is called "Freedom and Virtue: The Conservative/Libertarian Debate" and includes the works of John Hospers, John P. East, Richard M. Weaver, M. Stanton Evans, Russel Kirk, Frank S. Meyer, Doug Bandow, and other conervative/libertarian-conservative writers and philosophers.

mojo · Joined: 08 Sep 2005 Posts: 5485 Location: Dreamland, NC

bigstick61 wrote: Well, in the case of political philosophy, good books I've read and own have been "The Nichomachean Ethics" and "The Politics" by Aristotle, "The Republic" by Plato, "The Leviathan" by Hobbes, "Democracy in America" by Alexis de Tocqueville, "On Liberty" by John Stuart Mill, "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity" by Fitzjames Stephen, "Common Sense" and "The Rights of Man" by Thomas Paine, "Two Treatises on Government and a Letter Concerning Toleration" by John Locke, "The Prince" by Niccolo Machiavelli, "The Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations" by Adam Smith, "On the Social Contract" by Jean Jacques Rousseau, and a couple of works by Voltaire and Montesqeiu. Also, a good book is called "Freedom and Virtue: The Conservative/Libertarian Debate" and includes the works of John Hospers, John P. East, Richard M. Weaver, M. Stanton Evans, Russel Kirk, Frank S. Meyer, Doug Bandow, and other conervative/libertarian-conservative writers and philosophers.

Those are pretty good choics except Im not really a fan of Rosseau.

My favorite religiously natured philosophic book is "Orthodoxy" by G.K. Chesterton.

But a great book on political conservatism is "The Mainspring of Human Progress" by Henry Grady Weaver.

adleberg · Joined: 20 Jun 2006 Posts: 164

A good follow-up to platos 'Republic' is 'Utopia' from Thomas More. Its essentially an early 15th century answer to Plato's ideas-very thought provoking. Also, Descartes Meditations are great. The discourse on method is a bit heavy but the meditations are the best way if you want to get a foundation for western philosophy. Good luck! 8:)

Gatz Nieblas · Joined: 20 Jul 2006 Posts: 99 Location: California

I can give you some names to books from my favorite libertarian author. "Economic Fallacies" by Frederic Bastiat and "The Law" by Bastiat as well.

[Bible]Monkey · Joined: 03 Jul 2004 Posts: 6675 Location: Alberta

Philosophy for Dummies :-D , but a good basic introduction.

Does The Center Hold?: An Introduction to Western Philosophy

Or read electronic texts on line or

http://people.brandeis.edu/~teuber/textsonline.html

Vazul · Joined: 20 Jan 2006 Posts: 22

Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche