Introducing Philosophy – A Reading List



Introducing Philosophy – A Reading List

The reading list below comprises a number of books all aimed at introducing philosophy in general rather than specific philosophers or topics. They are all aimed at different levels so it is worth looking at the books before hand to find something that suits your own interests and level – my favourites are in bold.

General

• Philosophy: The Basics - Nigel Warburton.

• Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction - Edward Craig.

• What Does It All Mean? - Thomas Nagel.

• Think - Simon Blackburn.

• The Problems of Philosophy - Bertrand Russell.

• Sophie's World - Jostein Gaarder.

• Philosophy: The Essential Study Guide - Nigel Warburton.

• Thinking from A to Z - Nigel Warburton.

• Philosophy: The Classics - Nigel Warburton.

• Western Philosophy: An Anthology - John G. Cottingham

• Moral Philosophy: A Guide to Ethical Theory - Gerald Jones et al.

• An Introduction to Political Philosophy - Jonathan Wolff.

• The Philosophy Gym - Stephen Law.

• 101 Philosophy Problems - Martin Cohen.

• 101 Ethical Dilemmas - Martin Cohen.

• The Pig That Wants to be Eaten - Julian Baggini.

Ancients

• Ancient Philosophy - Anthony Kenny

The Republic - Plato

• Plato: A Very Short Introduction - Julia Annas

• Five Dialogues: Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Meno, Phaedo - G.M.A. Grube

Coffee With Plato - Donald R. Moor

• Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to Plato and the "Republic" - Nickolas Pappas

• Aristotle: A Very Short Introduction - Jonathan Barnes.

• Basic Works of Aristotle - Aristotle and Richard McKeon.

• Coffee With Aristotle - Jonathan Barnes.

• Aristotle for Everybody - Mortimer Adler.

• The Essential Aristotle - Paul Strathern.

• Greek Philosophers: From Thales to Aristotle - William Keith.

• The Greek Philosophers - W.K.C. Guthrie.

Ethics and Politics

• Ethics: A very Short Introduction – Simon Blackburn

• The Puzzle of Ethics – Peter Vardy

• A companion to Ethics – Peter Singer

• On Liberty and Other Essays - John Stuart Mill

• Ethics: Inventing Right and Wrong - J Mackie

• Political Philosophy: A Beginners' Guide for Students and Politicians - Adam Swift

• Ethics - Peter Singer

• First As Tragedy, Then As Farce - Slavoj Zizek

• Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative? - Mark Fisher

• An Introduction to Political Philosophy - Jonathan Wolff

Language

• The Language Instinct - Steven Pinker

• Philosophical Investigations - Ludwig Wittgenstein

• The Construction of Social Reality - John R Searle

• An Introduction to the Philosophy of Language - Michael Morris

• Philosophy of Language - William Lycan

• The Search for the Perfect Language - Umberto Eco and James Fentress

Art and Aesthetics

• Reading Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art – Christopher Janaway

• Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art - Robert Stecker

• The Oxford Handbook of Aesthetics - Jerrold Levinson

• Beauty - Roger Scruton

• On Beauty: A History of a Western Idea - Umberto Eco and Alastair McEwen

• Understanding Music: Philosophy and Interpretation - Roger Scruton

Epistemology and Metaphysics (Knowledge and Reality)

• Riddles of Existence: A Guided Tour of Metaphysics - Earl Conee and Theodore Sider

• A Survey of Metaphysics - E. J. Lowe

• Epistemology: A Contemporary Introduction - Robert Audi

• Epistemology: The Theory of Knowledge - Daniel Cardinal, Gerald Jones, and Jeremy Hayward

• Reality? Knowledge? Philosophy!: An Introduction to Metaphysics and Epistemology - Stephen Cade Hetherington

• An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding - David Hume

• The Reason of Things: Living with Philosophy - A.C. Grayling

Mind and Body

Philosophy in the Flesh: The Embodied Mind and Its Challenge to Western Thought - George Lakoff, Mark Johnson

• Consciousness Explained - Daniel C. Dennett

• The Brain: A Very Short Introduction - Michael O'Shea

• A Contemporary Introduction to Free Will - Robert Kane

• Making Up the Mind: How the Brain Creates Our Mental World - Chris Frith

• Consciousness: An Introduction - Susan Blackmore

• The Mind's I: Fantasies and Reflections on Self and Soul - Daniel C. Dennett and Douglas R. Hofstadter

• Conversations on Consciousness - Susan Blackmore

• Philosophy of Mind: A Beginner's Guide - Ian Ravenscroft

Science

• Philosophy of Science: A Very Short Introduction - Samir Okasha

• Against Method - Paul K. Feyerabend

• The Structure of Scientific Revolutions - TS Kuhn

• The Logic of Scientific Discovery - Karl Popper

• Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life - Daniel C. Dennett

• Varieties of Scientific Experience - Carl Sagan

• Philosophy of Science: The Central Issues - M Curd

• Understanding Philosophy of Science - James Ladyman

Logic

• Rulebook for Arguments - Anthony Weston

• Logic: A Very Short Introduction - Graham Priest

• How to Win Every Argument: The Use and Abuse of Logic - Madsen Pirie

• The Art of Always Being Right - Arthur Schopenhauer

• Logic - Wilfrid Hodges

• Logic - Dan Cryan, Sharron Shatil, and Bill Mayblin

Best of the Philosophers (The top text for all the biggies. Caution: TOUGH READING!)

• Plato – The Republic

• Aristotle – Metaphysics

• Machiavelli – The Prince

• Descartes – Meditations on First Philosophy

• Locke – An Essay Concerning Human Understanding

• Kant – The Critique of Pure Reason

• Hume – An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding

• Hegel – The Phenomenology of Spirit

• Russell – The Problems of Philosophy

• Wittgenstein – The Philosophical Investigations

• Sartre – Existentialism and Humanism

• Ayer – Language Truth and Logic

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The best anthology and the one I will be using most is:

An Anthology of Western Philosophy – John Cottingham

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