Philosophy | Where To Start?

Where do I begin, who should I read first and how should I go about approaching something as ambiguous as philosophy? Since beginning this channel these are the questions which I am most frequently confronted with regarding philosophy. Here are my recommendations for those of you looking to dive into the the rich history of eastern and western philosophy.

If you have any recommendations that may make for a good addition to this video let others know in the comments below!

Other videos:

CC Attributions:
Roman Forum – UCLA Creative Commons

#Philosophy #Philosopher #Westernphilosophy #Easternphilosophy

[kendralewis]

Uhg the anxiety… I love learning, but sometimes I don’t know where to begin. Especially, when you have some many resources and only some much time.

[jichaelmorgan]

I would add Decartes.

From my personal journey, besides direct readings, I would suggest the Norton Introduction to Philosophy. It is slightly lighter than serious academic texts, but still introduces many of the important problems of philosophy encountered over the ages in a clear and concise way. The best part is that it has bite sized, 5-10+ pages, original writings from the greats that give light to each topic from a number of perspectives. I think it helps to create an excellent starting point in a way that doesn't overwhelm with primarily long dense reading, but still doesn't let you get away without reading original material and start to build some required reading skills and stamina.

[MojaveDaemonWitch]

🌹💙 Arthur Schopenhauer! He was my first serious study, because I totally resonated with his realistic pessimism that didn’t sugar coat life. Awesome channel, new subscriber here! Blessings! 🙏

[vikneshwaranmarimuthu]

The Path :-
1. Plato
2. Stoics (Zeno, Chrysippus, Cicero, Epictetus, Seneca, Rufus, Marcus Aurelius)
3. Laozi
4. Confucious
5. Middle Ages and Italian Renaissance (Machiavelli)
6.French Renaissance (Garrulous Montaigne)
7. Voltaire's Candide or Zadig (these are books)
8. Germans (William Wallace, Friedrich Nietzsche) (books :- Kant, Beyond Good and Evil, Thus Spake Zarthustra)
9. Spinoza (ferreting out the ultimate nature of things)
10. Finally season your philosophy by also reading history.(Will Durant 11 volumes The story of Civilzation)

[usmc]

Philosophy is not useless at all. It is so useful and can help u find happiness and resilience thru the hard times. I wasn’t raised religious and for me it gives me guidance in life and helps me find myself and truth.
“Let (others) clean better, if (they) can, the windows of (their) soul, that the variety and beauty of the prospect may spread more brightly before (them).” -George Santayana
Great quote. Thanks for that

[kbarb]

Fabulous channel thank you so much. I love the tone of your voice too.
Started with Western philosophy beginning with Thales, presocratics, socrates, plato and Aristotle at the moment. But the Stoics began it all for me.
Philosophy gives me a way to navigate life, and developing a personal philosophy from the wisdom before us is such a gift.
It also gives me a good use for this thing atop my body.

[seansack]

I would add David Hume to the list, his skeptical philosophy may make already confused students more confused but his thoughts on understanding and causation are, in my view, groundbreaking to all subsequent philosophy. Great Channel, New subscriber here.

[HelloEveryonez]

Nice! I was given Sophie's World years ago, that was my introduction to Philosophy. Also A.C.Grayling History of Philosophy is very good, it includes Eastern and African philosophy, as well as Western.

[dayamitrasaraswati]

Thank you for this video. I am reading, and taking notes from the Discourses of Epictetus. It has been life changing for me! The change in perspective is so valuable in helping with life's difficulties.

[tamirsigal]

I've read Sartre's Existentialism is a Humanism and I enjoyed it.
Thank you for this list!

[paulryan]

NOTE - after 4 and a half minutes, he has only mentioned 2 authors ... fast forward to that place, catch the last 8+ minutes ... and also select for 1.5x speed. Other than that, it's fine.

[brownie]

If anyone wants a CHRONOLOGICAL ROADMAP into philosophy, Eastern and Western combined, here's my compilation. -

Ancient Indian philosophy -
1. Vedic philosophy (2000 BCE)
2. Samkhya sutras of Kapila (~1500 BCE) atheistic school of dualism.
3. The Principal Upanishads (bw 1000 to 600 BCE)
4. Charvaka philosophy of Brihaspati (pre-1000BCE) - world's oldest atheistic and materialistic philosphy. The original Brihaspati Sutras didn't survive.
5. The Nyaya Sutras of Aksapada Goutama (7th century BCE - World's oldest complete book on logic and epistemology)
6. Bhagvad Gita (~500 BCE)
7. Mimansa Philosophy - the principal text woukd be Mimamsa sutra of Jamini (4th-century BCE)
8. Vaisheshika sutra of Kanada ( 7th century BCE - among others these sutras hypothesised the breakdown of matter into atoms and subatoms - Anu and Paramanu)
9. Yoga Sutras of Patanjali (bw 500BCE - 400 CE)
10. Samkhyakarika of Ishvar Krishna (~350 CE)
11. Jain philosophy - outlined in the Tattvārthasūtra of Umaswati (possibly between 2nd-century and 5th-century CE)
12. Buddhist philosophy - important texts include those of the Mahayana sect - Mahaprajnaparamita sutra, Maha Ratnakuta sutra, Sandhinimochana sutra, Amitabha sutra, Vimalakriti sutra, Lankavatara Sutra, Shurngama Sutra, Avatamsaka Sutra, Mahaparinirvana sutra, and Saddharma pundarika sutra.
13. Sociopolitical philosophy - Arthashastra of Chanakya (4th century BCE)
14. Ajivika philosophy - the original scriptures are lost.
Hellinistic -
1. Thales of Miletus (624/623-548/545 BCE) - the father of ancient Greek philosophy.
2. Pythagoras (570 BCE)
3. On Nature by Parmenides (560 BCE – 510 BCE )
4. Anaxagoras (500 BC–428 BCE) - the first to establish a philosophy in its entirety in Athens.
5. Zeno (490 BC–430 BC)
6. Empedocles (490 BC–430 BC)
7. Socrates (470 - 399 BCE - all of him. This man's THE man )
8. Democritus (460 – 370 BCE - famous for his atomifc theory among others)
9. Plato, (born 428/427 - 348/347 BCE)
10. Aristotle (384–322 BCE )
Classical Chinese philosophy -
1. Daodejing of Lao Tzu (5th century)
2. Analects of Confucius (475-220 BCE)
3. Zhuangzi (476–221 BCE)
4. Mencius (3rd century BCE)
5. Xun Kuang (314-235 BCE)
Classical Roman philosophy -
1. Lucretius (88- 55 BCE)
2. Cicero (106 - 43 BCE)
3. Seneca the Younger (BCE 4- 65 AD)
4. Pliny The Elder (23-79)
5. The Meditations by Marcus Aurelius (121-180)
6. Porphyry of Tyre ( 233- 305)
7. Augustine (354–430)
8. Hypatia (370-415)
9. Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius (470/75-524)
Islamic philosophy -
1. Abū Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariyyā al-Rāzī (854 CE – 925 CE) Famed doctor, chemist, and philosopher. First person to describe smallpox and measles as separate diseases and author of the first book on pediatrics.
2. ArA ahl al-madīna al-fāḍila (The Views of the People of The Virtuous City) by Al-Farabi (872-951 AD)
3. Saadia Gaon (882 CE – 942 CE)
4. Yahya ibn Adi (893 CE – 974 CE) Logic theorist and doctor
5. Avicenna (980 CE – 1037 CE) Persian Polymath that is often regarded as the single greatest thinker of the Islamic Golden age.
6. Ihya Ulum al-Din - The Revival of Religious Sciences by Al-Ghazzali (1058-1111 AD)
7. Ibn Rushd (1126-1198 AD) - aka Averroes.
8. Sohrevardi (1154 CE – 1191 CE) Founder of the Islamic school of Illuminationism.
9. Tafsir Al-Kabeer of Fakhr al-Din al-Razi (1149 CE – 1209 CE)
10. Ibn Arabi (1165-1240 AD) the first Islamic postmodern and feminist thinker.
Medieval European and Renaissance era philosophy -
1. Augustine (354–430)
2. Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius (470/75-524)
3. Saint Anselm of Canterbury (1033–1109) - the originator of the ontological argument for the existence of God
4. Scholasticism - 13th and 14th century - Some of the main figures of scholasticism include Anselm of Canterbury (“the father of scholasticism"), Peter Abelard, Alexander of Hales, Albertus Magnus, Duns Scotus, William of Ockham, Bonaventure, and Thomas Aquinas. Aquinas's masterwork Summa Theologica (1265–1274) is considered to be the pinnacle of scholastic, medieval, and Christian philosophy;
5. Humanism - important works include those by Coluccio Salutati (16 February 1331 – 4 May 1406), Petrarch (1304 – 1374), Michael de Montaigne (1533 – 1592), Lorenzo Valla (1406–1457), Rudolph Agricola (1443–1485), Mario Nizolio (1488–1567), Juan Luis Vives (1493–1540), and Petrus Ramus (1515–1572).
6. Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499) - the most important Renaissance Platonist.
Modern Philosophy -
1. Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
2. Rationalists - Rene Descartes (1596-1650), Baruch Spinoza (1632-77), Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716)
3. Empiricist - George Berkley (1685-1753), John Locke (1732-1704), David Hume (1711-1776)
4. Political philosophy - Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), Jean Rousseau (1712-1778), Voltaire(1694-1778), Giambattista Vico (1668 – 1744), Cesare Beccaria (1738-1794), Giuseppe Mazzini (22 June 1805 – 10 March 1872), Karl Marx (1818-1883), Fredrich Engels (1820-1895).
5. Adam Smith (1723-90).
6. The German idealists - Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), Gottlieb Fichte (1762-1814), G W F Hegel (1770-1831), F W J Schelling (1775-1854),
7. Existential philosophers - Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855), Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980), Simone de Beauvoir, Karl Jaspers, Gabriel Marcel, Martin Heidegger (1889-1976), Albert Camus (1913-60)
8. Analytic philosophers - Rudolf Carnap (1891-1970), Gottlob Frege (1848-1925), George Edward Moore, Bertrand Russell (1872-1970), Moritz Schlick, Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951)
9. Neoconfucianism - Xiong Shili
10. Neo-Vedanta - Vivekananda, Aurobindo and Radhakrishnan
11. Kyoto school of thought - founded by Kitaro Nishida
Contemporary philosophy
1. Martha Nussbaum (b. 1947)
2. Cornel West (b. 1952) - pioneered the school of “neopragmatism”
3. Slavoj Žižek (b. 1949)
4. Gayatri Spivak (b. 1942)
5. Gu Su (b. 1955)
6. Postmodernist philosophers - Jean Baudrillard, Jean-François Lyotard, and Jacques Derrida
7. - Michel Foucault, Jaques Derrida
I may have missed many but this is all too much to finish anyway. 😂 Good luck everyone! 🙂

[interstellarhyperdrive]

This is so timely in my life when I’m taking my first philosophy class, but knew before I signed up that it perhaps will not be the beat bet for me to understand philosophy especially in a organized way. I was conflicted in deciding whether or not I should study philosophy in a university sense or just in a personal way. I view philosophy the same way others view art or another passions which they do not desire money from it (assuming they don’t ultimately desire money, which I do not) - I wasn’t sure if I should keep my passion for philosophy away from the university where I will be timed with death lines, still needing to give answers, and pay great amounts of money to study something which I believe I should be questioning for the beginning of my journey in the search for wisdom.

Though I perhaps rushed to take the course, it does help, and I find joy in talking even to the professor but nonetheless I wanted to find a good start.

I first read Camus as my first philosopher about a year ago and looked to understand philosophy much more so I picked up a Nietzsche book... but saw that he was influenced (here I mean influenced as both in a possible and rebuttal way) by Plato and others like Schopenhauer. I knew Plato was where to start so I began with him, then the Stoics which I found great joy in and knowing that, after reading, I did not agree 100% with Plato’s views. Indeed I respond in some ways as Diogenes would. I am still very unsure how to start but this video helps. A big problem I had when I was trying to read more philosophies was trying to read in order (as in if I would read Schopenhauer knowing that he was influenced by Kant, who himself was influenced by writings of Leibniz and Hume, I will not understand Schopenhauer as a whole and his background knowledge and influences)

I’m not religious nor do I necessarily agree with their writings, but St. Augustine and Thomas Aquinas are also important to understanding philosophy and philosophers after them. Though philosophy took a big hit in the wake of these times, these two among others were a important factor that didn’t push philosophy more away.

I love your videos, and I apologize if some of my language structure is not too understanding for I am not too great with it. Thank
You for this video

[robertdegruchy]

Some 20th century philosophers to look at may include Russel, Sartre, Derrida.Deleuze, Rawls, Kripke, Searle, Arendt, de Beauvoir, Nussbaum and Rorty among others...lots of good ideas and investigations related to AI and consciousness among other topics...

[pa]

Thank you so much, I'm kind of glad I dropped my philosophy unit (had issues with lecturer), it all makes sense now! Subscribed!

[aadityapareek]

I have my MATH exam tomorrow but philosophy is better... LOL.
nice video dude!! thanks

[bart-v]

So happy to find Lao Zi and Will Durant among your recommended books. One might add Schopenhauer and Bertrand Russell.

[cbbcbb]

Thank you for reminding us that philosophy is not just western philosophy. Ancient Egypt had philosophy as well.

[eliasluftig]

Will Durant has also a great book about philosophy!!! History of philosophy

[AllTenThousand]

The line of thinking between William James and Karl Popper (with occasional help of Russell and Habermas) refusing to play word games is to Philosophy what the work of Darwin is to Catholicism. Doesn't disprove anything, but leads to a good habit of testing reality and making progress - that stands for our greatest share of truth - and satisfaction - by most definitions.