Beginning / Intro to Philosophy

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MichaelP71

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Cheers all… 😃

I have always wanted to be a better thinker and read or get myself immersed in Philosophy. My excuses have been that I would lose my faith (pretty stupid logic, huh?!) and that it is too hard or boring. Anyone have any suggestions as to where I can start? I would eventually LOVE to sit and read the Summa & more of Aquinas plus JPII. …I want to be able to discern right and wrong by reasoning it out.
 
You may want to start with an good primer on the Greek Philosophers.

W.K.C. Guthrie wrote a nice concise book that gives the basics.👍
 
MichaelP71 said:
Cheers all… 😃

I have always wanted to be a better thinker and read or get myself immersed in Philosophy. My excuses have been that I would lose my faith (pretty stupid logic, huh?!) and that it is too hard or boring. Anyone have any suggestions as to where I can start? I would eventually LOVE to sit and read the Summa & more of Aquinas plus JPII. …I want to be able to discern right and wrong by reasoning it out.
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You will not lose your faith, it will probably be strengthened. Aquinas is, to me, the summit of theological reasoning and philosophy. He is so brilliant that just one or two sentences of his writing can provide pondering material for weeks. Or maybe I am just that thick! 🤷

I love the study of philosophy. It undergirds our lives so knowing the influences of philosophers through the centuries can help you understand how we got to where we are today. Man’s struggle to make sense of our lives will continue until that happy day when Jesus returns!
 
If you do not have much background in philosophy and are looking for a very basic primer, I would really recommend reading some books by Peter Kreeft. He is a Catholic Philosophy professor at Boston College (but don’t hold that against him ;)) and he has a remarkable way of breaking down complex ideas into terms that are very easy to understand. I find his books to be a breeze to read and very engaging. I highly recommend them.

Here are some of his books I would recommend to someone like yourself who is trying to familiarize yourself with philosophy (in roughly the order I would recommend reading them):
Hope that helps!
 
Joe 5859 … One follow up to your answer which is kind of off the subject, sorta. Is philosophy related to critical thinking and is critical thinking a prerequisite to philosophy?

Lastly I heard Prof Kreeft on Catholic Answers Live and saw him on Youtube and was VERY impressed. Am I just being cynical but he just seems too easy to understand being a philosopher and all.

Thanks much for your answers Joe 5859!
 
MichaelP71 said:
Cheers all… 😃

I have always wanted to be a better thinker and read or get myself immersed in Philosophy. My excuses have been that I would lose my faith (pretty stupid logic, huh?!) and that it is too hard or boring. Anyone have any suggestions as to where I can start? I would eventually LOVE to sit and read the Summa & more of Aquinas plus JPII. …I want to be able to discern right and wrong by reasoning it out.
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Someone suggested Copleston, which I second. But, in truth, there can be no substitute for just reading philosophy. Read read read it. Read the great thinkers, and not just “what John Doe says” about them. You have a mind and reasoning abilities. No doubt, you will be lost and not understand much at first. But let the subject take you where it will. Always ask the questions that are honestly on your mind. Leave no stone unturned. God is truth. If he is real, you have nothing to fear. Also, be wary of reading one take on a great philosopher. Aquinas himself said, “be wary of the man of one book.”
 
MichaelP71 said:
Am I just being cynical but he just seems too easy to understand being a philosopher and all.
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Heheh you are being so a bit :D.

I don’t know enough to comment on Kreeft, but one should be fairly easy to comprehend if one is a good/worthwhile philosopher, especially when trying to preach to the masses. When it comes to an overall system, it is my opinion that some of the moderns hide their lack of insight behind complexity, but it is also my opinion that the complexity should be in the particulars of the material, not the surface. Take Plato and St. Anselm for instance. They are very easy reads compared to some (take the Republic and the Proslogion), but the depth of their thought is most profound and can be extremely complex if one wishes to delve there.
 
I agree with reading some of Dr. Kreeft’s books, especially the “Socrates meets…” series.

With all respect, though, I would not recommend diving into Aquinas or Anselm until you get some “experience.” It will be useful to get a book that will define certain terms for you (i.e. efficient cause, final cause, extention and non-extention, etc). After that, I would recommend reading Descartes’ “Discourse on the Method” and “Meditations on First Philosophy;” for centuries, most philosophy was a critique of these two works.
 
Eloi,

What book or internet reference could you point me to get a handle on philosophy vocabulary. I am assuming that this is what you meant by the words you stated in this post…yes???

Michael
 
I do agree with the idea of just starting reading. Descartes isn’t a bad starting place - he is close enough to us that his way of writing is familiar. THe difficulty or barrier that seems to exist with older philosophers is that they do not really use the same forms and it can be confusing. Especially with the medievals who use a disalectic form but without making it obvious, and so it sometimes seems like they keep changing their minds.

If I were going to reccomend a beginning point though, I’d go back to the Greeks and do a brief overview of the ancient world. I’d suggest something like:
  • A look at the Greek pre-socratics, finishing with Parmenides. (there are lots of books that have a compilation of the pre-Soctratics, since we only have fragments of many of them.)
  • The Republic
  • Aristotle, the De Anima or Metaphysics. (but you might find you do need a good companion text here.)
  • Maybe touch on the Epicureans and Stoics
  • Plotinus’ Enneads
  • Origen *On First Principles
You’d have a overview of the ancients - by no means complete but a taste of some of the important bits.

And if I can recommend another text An Introduction to Ancient Philosophy by H.A. Armstrong is very good, and short and cheap too.*
 
Eloi said:
I would not recommend diving into Aquinas or Anselm until you get some “experience.” It will be useful to get a book that will define certain terms for you (i.e. efficient cause, final cause, extention and non-extention, etc). After that, I would recommend reading Descartes’ “Discourse on the Method” and “Meditations on First Philosophy;” for centuries, most philosophy was a critique of these two works.
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I would think the first few chapters of the Proslogion was one of my first reads in philosophy after a Critical Thinking class, and I think it might be a bit easier to do than Meditations of First Philosophy (but thats just my opinion :D). Of course, to Descartes credit, Meditations on First Philosophy is a fairly easy read too.
 
Bluegoat said:
Especially with the medievals who use a disalectic form but without making it obvious, and so it sometimes seems like they keep changing their minds.

I
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Just re-read what I wrote here - I didn’t mean to say dyslexic form, I mean dialectic.😊:rolleyes:
 
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